Tomas Sundström

The chairman is Tomas Sundström who’s driving 1968 Mustang. He and his friends work hard to explore the class.
-    Right now we’re planning to get series to work as well as it just can, so we can get to race in more counties, say Tomas. It´s not easy to get all together as every country  have their own rules and want to race at their own permissions, but we slowly coming together so we can make a spectacular and serious series for Stock/StuperStock drivers, organizers and off course the spectators.  We wish to do our performance at good track, where there’s good traction and a well working organization. Then we can develop our class with more members and drivers and most important, more and serious sponsors. What we want today is the new generation to explore this class. We want the junior dragster drivers to discover our class as they do the Super Comp for example.
Class sponsors are a big deal in all classes and SSST has a good start with a few. One of them is Roger Gustafsson at Rogers Däck in Tierp. He just tumbled in to the drag racing because Tierp Arena was build and placed in his hometown Tierp.

-    I was visiting the arena at the first European Championship and was very impressed and very well received by Åsa Kinnemar, coordinator of Speedgroup. The reception was professional and the people I had with me got very good information. We had a tour with Speedgroup´s Carl-Erik Kihlman as host where he explained how the sport work and how much effort the teams are putting in the drag racing and the proudness over what they’re doing. That made me wants to be a part of the sport, in some way. Interest for motorsport has been there since I was a child but I never been to drag racing before. So I decided to be a class sponsor and as I do like old cars and special muscle cars I choose to back up the Stock/Super Stock class. Since my first time here I been taking people to show them the arena and the sport. And it´s so much value in to be welcome and taken care of as we have been here. I feel that we have our own place to go to, as we’re kind of members in the SSST pit area. It’s great that the pit area is open for everyone. That makes the visitors feel more than welcome, you can talk to the drivers and get a close look of the racecars as well.
-    That’s some of the value I get back from my sponsorship, continues Roger. I might get some more tires out on the market by doing this, but that’s not the primary. It’s the friendship and new contacts that gives me and the company the most.

Roger Gustafsson

Roger started his company ROGERS DÄCK in Uppsala 1995 after been working in another tire shop in the town (neighbor town) since 1985. But before that he started as a young lad at the enrich company HÄGERSTRÖMS VULK in Tierp. A business that has been around since 1950th. The owner wanted to retired and the company was for sale. And as Roger was in the business and had started his carrier there, he thought it was a good opportunity to bring that under his wings. So last January he took over the company.
-    There was a lots of questions flying around, smiles Roger. Who is taking over, is it going to move or still stay in the town, and so on. No one knew that it was me, until I opened the gates. So now I´m really busy. But I have fun and I like this. A specially now when I got in to drag racing.
Another value in the sponsorship and to the sport is to be seen in different media.

For example one of the members, Erik Wallin, got a big story in HSB own magazine Uppsala Boservice (a renants magazine). A bit unusual media for drag racing, but that kind of media all drag racers should be seen in as it goes out to average people, not the ones that already addicted.  Here he was telling about his drag racing career and that his also is a grain farmer, just an ordinary guy that loves to go fast on a racetrack with his Chevrolet Camaro 427, -69 A/SA Index 11.30. Here he also got a good opportunity to show the sponsors, off course.

The Stock/SuperStock association started in 1986 by Magnus Tannfelt. He also was the first to build a proper SuperStock car in Sweden, a 1971 Hemi Cuda, after successfully been racing in Stock with a ’70 Hemi Challenger for many years.
- I think that car is still racing in Sweden but with another engine, tell Magnus who´s now living in St Louis, USA. I can see that the SSSA logo is still the same since I introduced it for about 15 years ago, that’s cool. The reason why the association started was to straighten up the rules so it would be easier to compete between different countries. At those days the rules was a bit “homemade”. At the same time the sport started to be more and more advanced and the rules from the late 60’s weren’t made for serious racing. It had to be updated for more and tighter competition and therefore get more interesting for sponsors and spectators.

The Stock/SuperStock association was also a first step to introduce NHRAs classes in Sweden and Europe in long terms, so the sport would be more international and to make it easier to sell and by racecars, engines and parts between Europe and US.
- I also saw an opportunity to improve the status of Stock and SuperStock as the association could be the negotiation part towards organizer’s and Swedish Automobile Federation. And the last but never the less I did have a great passion for these classes and still have. Tight racing and high wheels is what spectators and sponsors like very much.
It wasn’t easy at the start and Magnus had to go hard towards Swedish Automobile Federation, for example, that couldn’t see the good with having same rules and that it would be easier to get more money in to the sport with a strong S/SS regulation based the NHRA rules. But Magnus is a stubborn person and finally he succeeded. And that is the base and the start for Stock/Superstock association that now goes on with new members and visions.

If you want to be a sponsor to The Stock/SuperStock Association just contact the chairman Tomas Sundström or anyone else in the club. You find contact info at www.sssa.se. Or maybe you want to start racing the class or want to be a supporting member you’re more than welcome to join in the fellowship.!