Top Fuel at the Scandinavian Internationals had everything drag racing has to offer. Great numbers, close racing in qualifying and eliminations, major upsets and the number two in the championship closing the gap to the leader to 26 points with only one race to go. The only downside was the rain out of the final. For Jari Halinen it was his second consecutive final at the great facility of Tierp Arena and for Antti Horto it was his second consecutive rained out final.

For all Top Fuel drivers and teams it was great to be back at the fantastic track and facilities of Tierp Arena. Ten teams had to fight for the eight available spots in Sunday’s eliminations. Star of qualifying was without any questions Janne Ahonen. It’s clear ‘Finnish Dynamite’ feels more and more comfortable in his Ahonen Racing Team Donnie Bender and Simo Patoharju tuned fueler. In his second run Friday afternoon Ahonen recorded a stunning 4.04sec., almost equalling the numbers set by Tommy Johnson jr. in the Andersen Racing car last year. But what to think about his other qualifying runs: 4,15; 4.08 and 4.10sec.! A great series and from the first until the last run, Ahonen was in the number one position.


Anita Mäkelä

But a great and close fight was going on for the number two qualifying position. After the first day Anita Mäkelä was the number two with 4.150sec., Risto Poutiainen third with 4.155sec. and Antti Horto fourth with 4.168sec. But in Saturday’s qualifying all three went quicker and closed in on the leader. In his third run Poutiainen improved to 4.093sec. and took the number two position, while Mäkelä went to 4.099sec. and was third. With her 4.09 and two times 4.15 the Finnish lady had more than one reason for a big smile and to be happy. Horto in the Eagle Racing dragster improved to 4.124sec. but stayed in the number four position. After he had to skip his second Friday run due to a problem with a not right connected spark plug cable, Urs Erbacher stormed to a 4.145sec. in the third run and jumped from seventh to fifth in the Glenn Mikres tuned Midland Oil backed car. Patrik Pers was a ‘dnq’ on Friday, but with a 4.229sec. on Saturday morning, the Swede was in the field, while his 4.174sec. in the fourth run gave the Alan Jackson tuned car the number six qualifying position. With a solid 4.198sec.


Jari Halinen, runner-up in the championship behind leader Poutiainen, was fifth after day one, but as the Rune Fjeld Motorsport-driver could not improve Saturday, the Finn was seventh at the end of qualifying. Last one to qualify was local hero Micke Kågered with the Bahco-car, who had many sponsor-guests at Tierp again. First non-qualifier was a very unlucky Chris Andrews. In his second run Andrews broke the supercharger and with no spare available, he had to skip Saturday qualifying. Eight (4.99sec.) on Friday, Andrews was passed by Pers and was ninth after four runs. Håkan Fallström made four runs, blew an engine in his third pass when he stepped on the gas after losing traction, but the 5.16sec from that run left him in tenth position.


Urs Erbacher did his second event of the season at Tierp

Risto Poutiainen leads the championship

First round of eliminations was one to go into the history books. First upset was the run Horto Erbacher. Not the fact the Finn won, as he was quicker in qualifying too, but the fact that after a few meters the reigning champions chutes deployed and Erbacher was unable to chase behind a struggling Horto who passed the finnishline in 5.07sec. Next upset was the run Ahonen Kågered, the number one and consistent 4.0sec. runner against the number eight. With a great 0.08sec. reaction time the Bahco-driver was away first and with 4.36 against 4.37sec. for Ahonen, the number one qualifier was out. The 4.37sec was far from the numbers the ART-dragster ran during qualifying and was caused by an injector that came loose. But the major upset was still to come.

Poutiainen and Halinen, the numbers one and two in the championship had to face each other and with a win Poutiainen could prematurely decide the title race at Tierp Arena. But drama for Poutiainen, as when the team fired up the car, the chutes fell out and the leader’s race was over. Halinen had a bye and depending on how far he would come in eliminations, he could make up ground to the leader. Another bye run was for Mäkelä, as Pers had to shut off after the burn out.


Chris Andrews did not qualify at Tierp

In the semi-finals Horto had to race Kågered and a close race it was. Horto had to peddle a few times, but the Swede had to lift after the eight mile and in 4.25 against 4.31sec. Horto went on to the final. In the next pair Halinen could make up even more points to Poutiainen when beating Mäkelä. And Halinen took the chance. Mäkelä had to peddle and lift and in 4.23sec. the win was for Halinen. With a win in the final Halinen could close the gap to leader and Rune Fjeld Motorsport teammate Poutiainen to six points. But due to a heavy shower there was no final and the two Finns will start the last race with a 26 points difference. And for Horto, after Alastaro it was for the second consecutive time his final and chance to win a race, rained out!   

Don´t miss to check out the separate article about Jari Halinen in this edition!


Janne Ahonen - low qualifier but lost in round one - below Janne in an interview