FIA / UEM Round 1:
The Main Event – Santa Pod Raceway, England – 1-4 June

In England, you know, sometimes it rains. Wall-to-wall sunshine blazed down on The Main Event’s usual, end-May weekend. The race, of course, was rescheduled a week later to the Queen’s Jubilee Bank Holiday and, as many no doubt recall, the rains honoured the occasion with their gracious presence.The Pros struggled through Saturday’s two qualifying sessions but Sunday’s were washed out.

Monday’s eliminations threw up a rare surfeit of final-round soloes. Early-season breakages produced uncontested money runs for Risto Poutiainen in Top Fuel Dragster (his first FIA win), Dave Wilson (back after eight months’ retirement) in Top Methanol Dragster, Bruno Bader in Pro Modified, Canadian Supertwin Biker Nate Gagnon and Pro Stock Bike’s Kalle Lyrén.

Actual races saw Danny Bellio winning Top Methanol Funny Car when hometown hero Rob Turner crossed the centre line, Thomas Lindström beating a shaking, shut-off Micke Callin in Pro Stock, backing-up a European record speed (207.95mph/334.66km/h) in the process, and nitro-burner Ian King defeating Funny Biker Rikard Gustafsson in Top Fuel Bike.


photo: Micke Callin set a speed record in Pro Stock at Main Event

FIA / UEM Round 2:
Sweden Internationals – Tierp Arena, Sweden – 14-17 June

It also rains in Sweden. In fact, the outcome was similar to Santa Pod’s, with the second day’s qualifying mostly washed out. Even so, the race produced record runs aplenty. What might have transpired if the weather had stayed dry?

Risto Poutiainen won TF Dragster again, this time over a final-round opponent, fellow Finn Jari Halinen. Maltese rookie Chris Polidano won TM Dragster at only his second FIA attempt, beating Dave Wilson in a rare, all-A-Fuel final and setting a new speed record (272.14mph/437.97km/h) along the way. Both ends of the record fell in TM Funny Car: Leif Andréasson set new marks at 5.558sec and 259.71mph/417.96km/h and beat Danny Bellio in the final. Bellio ended the match upside down in the sand-trap, fortunately unhurt.


photo: Risto Poutiainen - Top Fuel Dragster champion pictured at Santa Pod Raceway

Michael Gullqvist set the ET record in Pro Mod (5.949) and defeated Niclas Andersson for the title. No records were set in Pro Stock but a scintillating final saw Thomas Lindström beat Jimmy Ålund on a holeshot, just .003sec between them at the finish.

Peter Svensson hammered Ian King in the TF Bike final with Europe’s quickest-ever pass, 5.826, which backed-up his earlier 5.923 as a new record. Supertwin Bike’s speed record fell to Per Bengtsson (223.69mph/359.99km/h) before he cruised to victory over a broken Nate Gagnon. Both riders had earlier missed backing up new ET record figures. Ulf Ögge took the Pro Stock Bike final over a redlighting Kalle Lyrén.

FIA / UEM Round 3:
FHRA Nitro Nationals – Alastaro Circuit, Finland – 5-8 July

It rains in Finland as well. This time, though, the downpour waited till Sunday’s final rounds were set before bringing the event to a premature close. Top Fuel would have produced a first-time winner from either of two Finns, Antti Horto or the former world ski-jump champion, Janne Ahonen. In TM Dragster, Germany’s Timo Habermann was lined up to face Malta’s Manty/Monty Bugeja (Manty? Monty? Choose your preferred spelling), with Swedish pair Jonas Staflund and Ulf Leanders slated for the TM Funny Car final. More Swedes, Mats Eriksson and first-time PM finalist “Fast Freddy” Fagerström, were preparing for the Pro Mod decider with yet more, Micke Callin and Jimmy Ålund, readying for Pro Stock.

The Top Fuel Bike final would have pitted Sweden’s Nils Lagerlöf against Finland’s Kai Selkämaa, while Supertwin Bike featured two more Finns, Samu Kemppainen and Petri Mattson. Pro Stock Bike promised another Sweden-Finland pairing, Ulf Ögge against Fredrik Fredlund, after Fredlund had established a fresh ET record at 7.074sec.


photo: Monty Bugeja - the 2012 Top Methanol Dragster champion from the mediterranean island of Malta


photo: Sweden´s Leif Andréasson set European records and took the Top Methanol Funny Car champions title

UEM Top Fuel Bike Champion 2012 - Ian King

FIA / UEM Round 4:
NitrOlympX – HockenheimRing, Germany – 10-12 August

In Germany (hooray!) the sun shone all weekend. Instead, for a change, the track was kaput. Following an FIA safety inspection in the wake of an earlier accident – a circuit racer had crashed heavily in the rain after veering on to the wet dragstrip and skidding out of control – the entire dragstrip had been powerblasted clean of all rubber. The drag racers arrived to find not just destroyed traction, but the track surface itself critically damaged. Three attempted qualifying sessions on Saturday produced wretched performance figures, stormclouds of smoke, perilous handling and all-party acrimony.

The UEM bikers elected to race on Sunday, yielding off-pace wins for Ian King (TFB), Christian Jäger (Supertwin) and Fredrik Fredlund (PSB). The TM Dragster guys also raced (at least, some did) and Dennis Habermann took the trophy. The other FIA classes did not compete; qualifying points were awarded for Saturday’s efforts but could as well have been apportioned by lottery.
                                           
FIA / UEM Round 5:
Scandinavian Internationals – Tierp Arena, Sweden – 23-26 August

It also rains in Sweden (part 2). This time, of course the track was in perfect nick, and produced a slew of records and personal bests between the event’s rain-delayed teatime start on Thursday and the washed-out finals on Sunday. The big sensation came in Top Fuel Bike, with the world’s quickest-ever pass (5.709!) by Peter Svensson in qualifying which served as back-up for a subsequent European record (5.860) during eliminations. Svensson was set to face Rikard Gustafsson in the final when the rain intervened. In Pro Mod, Martin Lundkvist broke Europe’s 250mph barrier (402.34km/h) en route to his first final against Michael Gullqvist. Fifteen Pro Mod drivers set 41 new personal-best marks between them. In Pro Stock, Micke Callin set a new speed record (208.02mph/334.78km/h) but Thomas Lindström and Jimmy Ålund would have met in the final. TM Dragster would have paired Manty/Monty Bugeja with Peter Schöfer and, in TM Funny Car, Leif Andréasson was slated to face Arvid Grødem. Top Fuel provided a second rained-off final for Antti Horto, this time against Jari Halinen.

ET records also fell in both other bike classes. Svein-Olaf Rolfstad clocked 6.409sec in Supertwin Bike on the way to face Nate Gagnon in the final. Ulf Ögge was set to be Fredrik Fredlund’s opponent in Pro Stock Bike after Fredlund had set the new mark at 7.025.



photo: the new European record holder in Super Twin bike - Svein Olav Rolfstad from Norway

                                           
FIA / UEM Round 6:
European Finals – Santa Pod Raceway, England – 6-9 September

So here we are again at Santa Pod, with a functioning track and gorgeous weather guaranteeing a cracking championship-decider race… What?? Gorgeous weather? At Santa Pod? Yessiree! Now and then, the sun does shine all weekend, and this was one of those weekends.

The FIA Top Fuel championship had become an all-Finnish affair, with Risto Poutiainen and Jari Halinen battling for the crown and fellow Finns occupying the next three points places. A one-off 2012 appearance by Denmark’s redoubtable Team Andersen, with Norwegian Thomas Nataas driving, threatened to throw a spanner in the works with a 4.018/301.95mph/485.94km/h low qualifier. Poutiainen became champion in the first round when Halinen was beaten, then holeshot Nataas out of the show in the second before being shut off in the final. Anita Mäkelä soloed for a celebratory race win.

Sweden’s Michael Gullqvist made hard work of winning his record seventh Pro Mod race and record third FIA PM championship. Gullqvist struggled to qualify just 13th but then battled through eliminations to beat first-time finalist, Dutchman David Vegter, for the event trophy. Jimmy Ålund set the weekend’s only FIA record during Pro Stock qualifying (208.09mph/334.90km/h) and beat fellow Swede Thomas Lindström in a close-run final, but not before Lindström had annexed the FIA championship crown.

In TM Funny Car, Sweden’s Leif Andréasson had to rebound and rebuild after a body-damaging tyre explosion in qualifying to secure the FIA title and win the race, defeating Britain’s Rob Turner in the final. In TM Dragster it was joy all round for Malta: Manty/Monty Bugeja secured the island’s first FIA championship crown and beat countryman Chris Polidano in the final. In the opening two rounds, Polidano had ushered two of Europe’s all-time greats into retirement. First it was British multi-champion Dave Wilson (though Dave had also retired a year ago; this time, he insists, it’s for good). Round two bade farewell to Sweden’s Krister Johansson, a TMD figurehead ever since breaking barriers and dominating the class in the 1970s.

The world’s quickest Top Fuel Bike produced another smashing ET, 5.725, plus some wild-handling heroics, as Peter Svensson qualified low but could not back up the mark for a new European record. Svensson redlit in the final against the newly-crowned UEM champion, Britain’s Ian King. The Supertwin Bike championship headed off across the Atlantic in the hands of Canadian Nate Gagnon, while Germany’s Christian Jäger won the race. Pro Stock Bike reached the best kind of climax, a winner-takes-the-crown final between Fredrik Fredlund and Ulf Ögge. Finland’s Fredlund won the race to join Suomi countryman Poutianinen on 2012’s roster of European champions.

Weatherwatch: had The Main Event been held on its usual May weekend, Santa Pod’s two FIA races would have enjoyed eight consecutive days of unbroken sunshine. Now there’s a point to ponder as 2013 hoves into view.