A tribute to Dave Wilson and his team Silverline, who broke the 5.30 second barrier during qualifications and set a new European ET record of 5.298 sec. It has been bound to happen for a long time and a few teams have been so close. Fun to see it was Wilson who got to do it, during what has been said to be his final year as a driver.
Fred Hanssen was not far behind in performance level. 3rd quickest during qualifications performing in the mid 5.30´s and he was to end the event in grand style by setting a new personal best of 5.305 sec in the final against Wilson, which makes him second quickest in Europe. With the event win and championship points lead in the luggage on the way back to Norway, we gather Hanssen could live with that one mere detail missing of breaking the 5.30 sec barrier. We are sure he will another day.
Norwegian Paul Ingar Udtian we gather did not enjoy the best race of his life. While Wilson had traction problems in the quarter finals facing Udtian and would possibly have been beatable at that time, Udtian red-lighted, which put him out of further competition.
Swede Krister Johansson qualified 6th but had to withdraw from competition which meant Esko Raisvuo Finland stepped in as an alternate. Raisvuo lasted one round in this killing competition as did Derek Flynn, who we would normally consider a strong event win candidate. The 5.34 sec that got Flynn qualified as 2nd quickest was not repeated and Flynn lost to Schöfer in the quarter finals.
What about the Habermann Bros then? Well, as qualified no 4 and 5, they got to face each other already in the quarter finals. The closest possible race where difference was only 42 thousands of a second (!) over the finish line and where it was Timo who passed it first. The performance level for Timo in the following round against Dave Wilson did was not enough to stay in competition. 5.34 sec. win for Wilson against Habermann´s 5.41
The points standings after the Sweden Internationals shows Fred Hanssen in the lead 132 points with Dave Wilson 14 points behind (less than one won round). 2010 champion Timo Habermann is still well in the game at 98 points and Derek Flynn definitely has top three potential, while currently staying 4th with 74 points
Check the complete points standings under a separate headline and make sure to follow the continued battle for records and points as the season progresses!
