Bjoern is one of four members and founders in the organization Safety Group Sweden. Together with Jörgen Hult, Micke Schriever och Thomas Andersson he travels around Sweden and northern Europe to help keep all who works and race in dragracing safe. They four founders are assisted by a number of coworkers to run all this and they all do it very good.

It was by Swedish Auto Sports Federation (SBF) Björn got the offer to go on a trip to other side of the Atlantic Ocean to see how things work in the safety part over there.
-    A great opportunity for me to learn and watch, says Bjoern. I´m not the first one that got this chance, Sussy and Nettan Heleander went some years ago and practiced in the start- and spotters area.
The third of July Bjoern went to Norwalk, Ohio to meet up with Graham Light (Second-man in NHRA) and the rest of the guys in the team.
-    I got straight in to the team, say Bjoern. Wednesday, the second day for me, was a full race day. Four days of hard work began with unpacking all gears for the upcoming race. Thursday started with heavy rain for a couple of hours, then we started to drain the track. After that it was just sunshine and some immense heat and humidity all weekend. I didn’t have a clue where I should go or be but that was soon solved by safety coordinator Randy Robbins.  As soon as they got to know my skills I could choose the area I wanted to have a closer look at. So I started off at truck no 1. Then I was placed at different positions in the safety area, from Start Line to behind the Finnish Line.
On Thursday evening chief starter Mark Lyle came with an offer for Bjoern.  He wanted him at the start line, right in the middle of the action.
-    Yes, that was really cool. The cars launch much harder over there and it feels really hard in the body when you stand down there. When the first pair of cars took off I was actually scared! But I got used to it after a couple of rounds. At the fourth day the team had understood that this wasn’t any rookie who had come for a visit. He became one of the gang and was trusted to do what anyone else did at any position.
-    It´s very similar to what we do at home when it comes to classes and how we run things , but it’s much bigger, faster, louder and just more of everything and more professional, smiles Bjoern.  This track in Norwalk is short and it ends with a sandtrap and after that it’s a ditch and a cornfield. There was one accident that ended up in the cornfield. It was the Pro Stock bike driver Angie Smith that lost her breaks, passed through the sandtrap and just before the ditch she bailed off the bike. She was ok but it could have ended very badly.

After Norwalk the Safety Safari packed all gears and started the 1300 miles to Denver, with four semitrailers and three pickups with trailer, where next race was on two weeks later.

-    The town is special as it placed one mile high up in the mountains. That’s why the race is called “1 Mile High Race”. That track setting is a real beautiful, says Bjoern.  It´s built on the side of the mountain and the Pro pit is on the upper side of the track and it ends in an uphill area. As the race was a week away, when Bjoern arrived, he got a week off and could be a tourist in Denver.
-    It was nice to relax a few days after an intensive start with many new friends made and lots of new impressions to take in.
The track in Denver is owned by the Bandimere family, that’s why it’s named Bandimere Speedway and it is operated by Larry Crispe and sons. Larry is the guy who invented the convenient tire machine that do the rubbing of the track.
-    The sons are probably the best guys in the world on preparing a track properly, say Bjoern. They’re called the “Traction Twins”. They’re hired all over the world to do tracks.


Thumbs up at the Marketings trailer at Bandimere Speedway in Denver.

Three days racing in Denver and more happenings for Bjoern, who this time ended up at a sponsor race Thursday night prior to the main race to hand out time slips.
-    Yes, I got the opportunity to hand the time slip over to the racers in the sponsor race, witch mean I got to meet a lot of celebrities. One of them was Allan Jonson. There were eight brand new Challengers putted up for sponsors to make races. Cool.
There weren’t many bad crashes during Bjoers trip, luckily, but one could have been really bad. That was Paul Pittman in Pro Stock who rolled the car at the finish line and then swinging between the walls as the car was on fire and split in pieces.
-    The Safety Safari was right on the car before it stopped to extinguish the fire and see that Paul was ok, and he got out of the car safely, tells Bjoern. Too bad this was Pauls first race in the Pro Stock class in a brand new car built by himself. I also have to tell that I got company from Sweden at this race. Tomas Pettersson who is the Asst. Clerk of the Course at Tierp Arena came for a visit. He also got the opportunity to get down to the start line. Was he happy? Oh Yes! Oh, I forgot to tell. The first two days at Denver I was headhunted to the marketing group. Two guys were handling all the sponsor gears like balloons, banners, speakers and all the advertising you can see behind the TV-productions. It was a huge job to get everything exactly where the sponsors wanted to be seen, at the right time and angle. It was a carefully planned with cameras and ads.
After the tree days in the mountains it was time to get back down to "ground level" again and the team headed to San Francisco and Sonoma Raceway. A two day trip through cowboy land along the I 80 highway.
-    We did pass the sign to Bonneville but didn’t have time to go there. We, my new travel mate and I, headed straight to California and the track which is a huge motor park right in the middle of nowhere. This time I joined the track preparation team. It was so good, as I could just choose what group I liked to be in and when. So this was my choice at the beginning of the week and I learned a lot. Then I went to the scrutineering for one day and on Friday I got in to Race control.


photo: Car no2 at Sonoma Raceway together with Randy Clickner.

-    There was one incident at that track that was bit scary. One of the Safety Safari guys got hit in the head by some debris from a Top Fuel dragster that exploded just when it passed him. It looked very bad in the beginning, but he came back two days later when he was released from the hospital, just to show he was up on he’s feet again. But the boss sends him home for a couple of races for rest and recovery. I really hope he´s fully recovered by now as he was the guy I was traveling with from Denver to Sonoma. At this time everyone wanted Bjoern in their group so he almost had problem to decide where to be.
-    It was just amazing, everyone was exceptionally nice and friendly and I was accepted as one of the guys.
Monday it was time to pack all gears again, same procedure as always. That was one more of all 23 events during the year, comparing to our six Championship races per season.
-    Well, there is a few more compared to the number of people involved in Safety Group, tells Bjoern. But we do have lots of good crew members that we take in and changes between, as we’re not professionals and have other things to do for a living. Safety Safari have a small group of people that do this full time then they do like us, pick crew from the local clubs or other groups that do all from two to all races. Then Bjoern had one more day to go after that race. So he took a day of in beautiful San Francisco before he flew home.
-    I got to do all the “have to do” in the town and just enjoy the surroundings. Then my 30 days trip was over and I really didn’t want to go home. Really not! This was the best ever trip in my life, so far. Everything worked out just perfect. No troubles at all. I now got a permanent invitation to Safety Safari to come and work with them at any time and any track. And sure I will, just have to save up some money again so I can go back. And all I learned during this trip has to be preserved and used in some ways. I got new perspectives at the rescue part in drag racing, for sure, ends Bjoern.