After a far too long winter break the new season is ready to take off. As usual The Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway is the first race (of this season six rounds) for the FIA European Drag Racing Championship. New names, new cars, who can surprise in England and who are the title favourites? One thing is for sure, Urs Erbacher and Fred Hanssen will not defend their 2011 titles, so in at least two classes the fans can welcome new champions.


Top Fuel Dragster Risto Poutiainen - Finland

Top Fuel
Shortfall in funding is the main reason Urs Erbacher will only be at Hockenheim and the August Tierp event. The popular Swiss will be missed and it will be interesting to see who will take over the King of Nitro crown. Will it be one of last year’s frontrunners, a familiar name with a new car or a rookie Top Fuel driver from Malta or Norway. One thing is for sure, it will be an interesting season again and for the first time all races will be run over the 1000-foot.

From runner-up to number one?
Rune Fjeld Motorsport enters the 2012 FIA European Top Fuel Championship with at least three cars. As the 2010 and 2011 runner-up Risto Poutiainen is the top favourite for this year’s championship. The Fin showed great form, had some bad luck and is eager to win the 2012 title. Poutiainen will fly the colours of Multilotto.com and it’s always good to see a new name entering world’s fastest motorsport. Talking about new names. Duncan Micallef will be the first Top Fuel driver from Malta to enter the FIA European Top Fuel Championship. Micallef impressed at the Easter Thunderball and Maltese drivers have a reputation to go full throttle wherever they are. Jari Halinen will be in the third RFM-car again and with a bit more consistency the Finnish driver can be a frontrunner in the championship too.

Favourites
Anita Mäkelä is another title favourite. The popular Finnish driver did not have her best season last year, is ready to strike back and is already looking forward to meet the European fans again. It’s hard to say what Chris Andrews and Janne Ahonen are, favourites or outsiders? Andrews took over the Lucas Oil colours from the retired Andy Carter and has an ex Morgan Lucas (race winning) car from the States. How long will it take the F&A Racing team to find the right set-up for this car and how many runs will Andrews need to feel comfortable again? Will it be in time to go for the title? Ahonen has more Top Fuel runs under his belt and with the ex-Brandon Bernstein car a state of the art racing operation. For the first time Ahonen will run his own, very professional looking, Ahonen Racing Team and it will be interesting to see what the new team can do. As usual Micke Kågered and his Bahco Express Top Fueler are a force to be reckoned with. The Swede had a busy winter again and will start the season very well prepared.

New too
Stig Neergaard has at least three Top Fuelers in his ever growing stable. The Dane will do the whole championship and, as he showed in the past, can surprise with great runs and round wins. A bit more consistency and the Dane might go for his first title. His son Kenni will not do the whole tour. New to the team is Paul Ingar Udtian. After a career in Super Comp and Top Methanol Dragster the man from Norway steps up to Top Fuel and will make his debut at Santa Pod in one of Neergaard’s cars. In the week prior to the race Udtian will try to do his licence runs so he can enter qualifying as a regular contender.

And other drivers not at The Main Event entry list but who will show up later this season are Antti Horto, one of last year’s big surprises, Timo Lehtimäki (until last year’s European Finals in the running for the title), Patrik Pers and Hakan Fallstrom. Last but not least, the Andersen Racing car, Europe’s fastest Top Fueler, is back home again. So far the Danish team doesn’t have a driver, but we still remember last season when they surprised with Tommy Johnson Jr. only a few weeks before the start of the season. If a good driver shows up and Per and Karsten can secure funding, they are the combination to beat and Andersen Racing will go for their seventh European title.


Top Methanol Dragsrer - Timo Habermann

No Hanssen
Business commitments make it impossible for Fred Hanssen to go for his second Top Methanol Dragster title. Let’s hope we will see the fast Norwegian back in the near future. Last year Dave Wilson announced his retirement, but it’s good to see the 2011 runner-up changed his mind and will be at The Main Event. Title favourites will be the German brothers Timo (2010 champion) and Dennis Habermann. Especially in eliminations these youngsters are hard to beat with their fabulous reaction times. From Malta the always spectacular but also fast Monty Bugeja is at The Main Event. A second Maltese driver will enter the championship and can be the 2012 surprise. Christopher Polidano is new to the class but impressed with great numbers at Malta and Santa Pod. Polidano bought Derek Flynn’s proven race winning car and with assistance from the Englishman showed his talent. The traditional Maltese driving style can make him from outsider to championship favourite. Esko Raisvuo will be in England and what’s a TMD championship without Krister Johansson so it’s good to see the Swede back. Regular contender and 2008 champion Peter Schöfer will only be able to do selected races this season. The German will start the season at Tierp Arena in June.

Methanol Funny Car - Rob Turner UK

Close fight
No Scandinavians in Top Methanol Funny Car at The Main Event. Rob Turner, winner of last year’s European Finals, Danny Bellio, number four in the 2011 FIA European Championship or Stephanie Milam will lead the 2012 championship after race one. Bellio and Turner showed great form at the end of last year and if they can run the full European tour, they can go for the title. Reigning champion Ulf Leanders will start the season with a backlog, but with five more races to go and the numbers he ran last year, the Swede is still the title favourite. Arvid Grødem, the 2011 runner-up, will start the season at Tierp and is eager to go for his first number one plate. Another favourite is returnee Leif Andreasson. The former European champion bought the ex-Steve Harker Chevy Monte Carlo and will do everything he can to give his new sponsor Disab-Tella their first title. Great to see such a high rated company join drag racing. Jürgen Nagel, Jonas Staflund and Dezsoe Krivan will do selected races and can surprise like they did last few years, but it’s almost impossible for them to go for the title. New to the class is Jonnie Lindberg, crewchief and brother of Pro Mod racer Johan Lindberg. The Lindberg Bros team bought the ex-Freddy Fagerström Pontiac and will be racing later this season. Sad news was to hear that Jarmo Kuutniemi has to skip this season after the Finn was diagnosed with a serious illness. The doctor’s prognoses are good and Kuutniemi and his OK Racing Team hope to be back next season. We wish Jarmo a very rapid recovery.


Pro Stock - Thomas Lindström

New car, same driver, next title?
With seven FIA European Pro Stock titles at his credit Jimmy Alund is still hungry for more. The reigning champion will start his title defence in a brand new car, a Jerry Haas build 2012 Camaro. For the first time in history a car, just introduced in the NHRA series will race in Europe too! Alund is in the States at the moment to pick up the car, will race in Topeka (round eight of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series) and airfreight the car to Sweden to have it in time to race at The Main Event. Great to see such a state of the art Pro Stock car in Europe. Thomas Lindström was last year’s biggest surprise and will do the full European tour this season. The Swedish Dodge will be a force to be reckoned with. Other favourites? As they proved last two seasons many Pro Stock drivers can win races. Michael Malmgren of course, Richard Sundblom, Sampsa Palos, Michael Callin, Jan Palmqvist, Jonas Dantanus, but except Callin all these drivers opted to start the season at Tierp. If Alund can find the right set-up in America and scores in England, it will be difficult for the others to catch up with the champ. Conrad Stanley will be at The Main Event and it’s good to see the return of Harald Sturhan with his unique German build Mercedes CLK. New to the class is former Competition Eliminator racer Christian Sagelv with a Ford Probe and Ford power. The beautiful car will fly the famous blue and orange Gulf Oil colours.


Pro Modified - Graham Ellis

Ten potential winners?
Pro Modified is probably the most difficult class to predict a Main Event of 2012 title winner. Like in TMFC the Scandinavian drivers will start their European campaign in race number two at Tierp Arena. From last year’s top ten Bruno Bader, Marc Meihuizen and Robert Joosten will be at Santa Pod and do the full European tour. So with those extra ‘England points’ they can get a big advantage over their Scandinavian opponents. Bruno Bader, 2011 runner-up is one of the best and most consistent Pro Mod racers from the last few years. Marc Meihuizen might be one of the big favourites this season. The Dutchman was semi-finalist in the last three races of the 2011 season, ran consistent 6.0 sec and was the number four in the championship. MPM will be Meihuizen’s new sponsor and the design of the Pontiac looks great. Robert Joosten has been struggling with his new Camaro last two seasons but showed the potential of the car at the end of the season. This winter the team checked every detail of the car and with a brand new engine (and a spare engine) wants to be back in the winner’s circle like they were a few years ago when they won the Mantorp Park FIA Pro Mod round. Keep an eye on this team. Other Main Event entrants that can surprise are David Vegter, also completely in MPM colours this year, and Graham Ellis with the turbo Superbird. But maybe one of the local heroes can take the trophy and championship points.

Long list
The list of teams not in England but still favourites for the FIA European Championship is almost too long to list. First of all of course reigning champion Micke Gullqvist. But 2010 champion Johan Lindberg already showed great form at Tierp as did Mattias Wulcan with his new car. Other favourites are Mats Eriksson and Urban Johansson. But so many others like Roger Johansson, Mikael Lindahl, Fredrik Fagerström and turbo wizard Martin Lundkvist might not do all races but can surprise.

Only a few weeks to go and we will know.