As all FIA European Top Fuel Championship rounds will be contested over the 1000 feet, for the first time this new distance at Santa Pod Raceway. Risto Poutiainen, runner-up in the 2011 championship, started qualifying with a great 4.17sec, good for the number one position after the first round Saturday afternoon. But after a check-out pass in the first round, Stig Neergaard had so much confidence in his new car, the Dane made a full pass Saturday evening and took over the number one position with a stunning 4.11sec. Only a few minutes later Poutiainen was back on top as the Rune Fjeld Motorsport Top Fueler bounced back with a great 4.101sec. Because Sunday qualifying rained out, Poutiainen stayed the number one qualifier with Neergaard only 0.01sec behind in the number two spot.

Duncan Micallef, Malta’s first ever Top Fuel-driver, already impressed at the Easter Thunderball and did it again in qualifying for the Main Event. A great first pass was a 4.22sec and gave the Rune Fjeld Motorsport Telephone Box car the number three spot in the Maltese rookie first ever FIA-race.

Title favourite Anita Mäkelä was not so lucky and with the 4.41sec from the first round the popular Finnish driver was fourth. In fifth Jari Halinen with 5.18sec after his second run ended in tyreshake. Bad luck for Micke Kågered as his second run ended in a big oildown so he could not improve the 6.73sec from the first round. In seventh Chris Andrews in the Lucas Oil F&A Racing Top Fueler. Without any testing at all, the English driver had to abort his first familiarisation pass when the car over-staged and had to be shut off. The second run, a 60 feet launch looked great, but Andrews tempered all the expectations for race-day as the team wanted to stay with their plan to do a 300 feet pass next, even in winning position. Without any data the team wanted to check all systems first and take no risks at all. 

Paul-Ingar Udtian and the Neergaard team did everything they could to make the final licence pass so the Norwegian Top Fuel rookie could take part in eliminations. After a fuel leak in testing and an up in smoke in the first round, it had to happen in the second qualifying pass. But the 4.42sec was a fraction too slow for licencing so Udtian was out of competition. During eliminations on Monday, the Norwegian tried again and a 4.40sec was enough to upgrade his licence, so Udtian can start at Tierp Arena.

With seven qualifiers Poutiainen had a bye run in the first round of eliminations. The Finn wanted to keep lane choice, but with a broken blower belt he had to accept a 4.44sec. His next opponent would be the winner of the Finnish battle, Mäkelä/Halinen. Both had their traction problems, but Mäkelä even more (broken blower belt) so Halinen could take the win. In the semi-final with Poutiainen/Halinen the next all Finnish and an all Rune Fjeld Motorsport confrontation. Only a few meters after the start both went up-in-smoke, pedalled, Poutiainen went sideways, but realised Halinen was in trouble too, got on the throttle again and took the win.

On the other side of the ladder Neergaard had to race Andrews in the first round. Both cars were side by side after 300 feet, but the Lucas Oil-driver did what his team ordered him and lifted the throttle so Neergaard took the win in a great 4.15sec. In the next run Micalled gave the many Maltese fans something to cheer about by taking the first ever Maltese Top Fuel round win (4.30sec.) against a by far trouble-free Kågered. So all three Rune Fjeld Motorsport cars in the semi-finals! In that second semi-final Micallef almost surprised again as the Maltese’s 4.25sec would have been good enough to send Neergaard (4.26sec) home, but Micallef pulled a 0.004sec (!) red light and was out and Neergaard (with tuner John Smith back from the States on Monday) in the final.

But problems for Neergaard. Severe engine damage was the reason the Dane could not be back in time for the final, so Poutiainen was on a bye-run. But the Finn wanted to take his first ever FIA Top Fuel win in style and went for a full pass. In 4.21sec Poutiainen went through the 1000 feet finish line and gave the Multilotto.com people a great win and himself the jackpot for the championship race.      

Link to Qualification list
Link to Elimination ladder