My son Ruaridh and I travelled to Tierp through Thursday using planes, buses, taxis and trains. If you have never been to Tierp, I must recommend that you make the trip. Stockholm is well connected to the rest of Europe by many budget airlines, and once you arrive, it is pretty easy to get from any of the Stockholm airports up to Tierp on the trains, and also relatively inexpensive.
As we arrived at the track, and walked up to the Pro-Stock pits, I was amazed by the amount of Santa Pod jackets that were in evidence. There were Santa Pod fleeces, Santa Pod raincoats, Santa Pod wind cheaters and Santa Pod body warmers, but no other track jackets can be seen. This made me think that either Alstaro, Tierp and Hockenheim do not sell jackets, OR it can be cold and wet in Santa Pod!
Mats Jacobsson has a new engine that he will use at this event and will hope to qualify and take personal best times. An loose electrical connector has caused them some problems earlier in the year, robbing some rpm on launch, but after much testing and searching, Mats has located and fixed the problem, so launches should be smoother.
Jan Palmqvist tells me he has not touched the car since Hockenheim. “We emptied the fridge and the waste water tank, but we have not touched the car since Germany”
Micke Callin has had a bad month. It is not for me, or for these articles to cover Micke’s life away from the track, and I don’t think he would want me to either. This is more than likely Micke’s last year in Pro-Stock, unless a sponsor comes up with the money for a new engine. I will be sorry and sad to say goodbye to Micke and his crew. The biggest smiles in Pro Stock and over seven years on the European tour, they have provided us with some great moments over the years.
Christian Sagelv was delighted with his personal best times from Hockenheim and wants to maintain that momentum here in Tierp. Christian is a purist Pro-Stock racer and is tuning his engine and chassis combination towards the 6.6 second bracket.
Ulf Wagnhester and the Samantha racing Pro Stock Dodge Avenger are pretty happy with the way their testing and set up is going. Ulf recognises that he will not be taking on Jimmy and Thomas in the horsepower stakes, but sometimes power is not everything, and to qualify, you have to get down the track without shaking or spinning the tyres. The weather looks like it will be so good that the track might prove a little trickier than some people think.
Jan Ericsson’s Pontiac Grand Am has run down into the 6.7’s so we will see if it can go further on what should be an excellent track. Janne and I meet for the first time on Thursday, and he tells me that he will only run Scandinavian events in 2013, but if it looks like he can be competitive, the team will have to look into going to some more rounds in 2014. I hope they can make it; it would be excellent to see more cars on the tour.
Thomas Lindström is getting married in his pit on Friday, but Roffe will not let that distract the team from taking the fight all the way to the end with Jimmy.
Jimmy Ålund is concerned that they may have too much power for the track, and they might struggle to harness it all. “We will have to see, but I think we need to think hard about how we attack this track with the weather as good as this. We might be making too much power for our gearing”. Drag Racers…. Never happy!
Michael Malmgren
Friday Q1
Mats and Christian are the first pair to take a shot on the track. The weather is close to perfect with an almost cloudless sky, very little wind and mid 20’s temperatures. A good close look at the start line shows that the track conditions are excellent. Mats takes a bit of a pounding from shake, but drives through with a small pedal to take the stripe in 7.185. Alongside him, Christian puts in a very respectable 6.79, but the terminal speed looks low at 314 so I think he can definitely improve on that. 6.7 is a very good start though.
Jan Ericsson and Ulf are the second pair. Jan’s car hits shake and hooks hard right, headed for the centre line before Jan gets off the power to register a 17 second run. Things are better though in the right lane for Ulf as he takes a pretty trouble free 6.8
Jan Palmqvist and Magnus are next to try, with Jan making a big wheel standing half pass for an 8.0 time. Strange things happening for Magnus in the other lane, as the car dies just before burnout, then restarts but seems to be struggling for rpm. The car dies on the line again and Magnus does not record a time
Micke and Michael pair up next. Both cars hit shake from the hit, and both drivers get off the power almost as soon as they got on it. 15.8 for Micke, 16.0 for Michael
Thomas and Jimmy both put in big burnouts, which the crowd appreciate with some nice applause. That is all the applause they going to get on this lap though. Thomas’ car jumps out of stage and gets an LB3A so no time, although Thomas does drive it up the track. Jimmy hits shake which causes a big right turn and Jimmy comes out of the throttle and registers a very un Jimmy like 14.8
The crews head off to collect the cars and we will try that again this afternoon.
Q1
Driver ET KMH MPH
Christian Sagelv 6.7999 314.14/195.20
Ulf Wagnhester 6.8426 324.32/201.52
Mats Jacobsson 7.1857 323.74/201.16
Jan Palmqvist 8.0225 179.28/111.40
Jimmy Ålund 14.8582 71.27/44.29
Micke Callin 15.8467 83.67/51.99
Michael Malmgren16.0793 74.59/ 46.35
Jan Ericsson 17.7843 60.64/37.68
Thomas Lindstrom no time no speed Magnus Petersson no time no speed
Friday Q2
The bump spot from this morning is 17.784 seconds (Jan Ericsson) which astonishingly is a full 5 seconds faster than the bump spot was at this time last year.
Magnus and Thomas can only really improve in this round, as neither recorded a time in Q1. Magnus makes a respectable 6.7 pass while Thomas shuts off very early on what appears to be a check out pass to register a 7.0 time but that puts him on the board at least.
Bump spot moves to Micke Callin (15.846)
Michael is paired with Jan Ericsson. Jan’s car bogs down badly at the hit in the right lane and loses all drive before cutting completely before half track. Michael however has a storming run to smash his personal best time (6.73 I believe) with a 6.661 at 335.61 kmh. The crew are delighted, and I can imagine that the normally calm Michael is a very happy driver as he pulls off at the top end.
The Bump spot is now Jimmy Ålund (14.858)
Jimmy and Micke are paired up now, both trying to get out of the bump spot. Jimmy’s car lifts the front end very high and it sounds like the revs climb a long way before Jimmy shuts off and rolls through the line in 11.8 Micke does not fare much better with a huge shake induced right turn towards the guard rail to run through with an 11.3 which sets the new bump spot. Jimmy Ålund is not qualified now.
Bump spot is Micke Callin (11.311)
Ulf and Jan Palmqvist pair up next. Both drivers manage to improve on their times from Q1 with Ulf registering 6.83 and Jan taking a 7.29
Christian and Mats round out the session. Christian’s Ford leaves well, but then hits shake pretty early and Christian gets off the gas to roll through in 15.9. Mats has a much better time in the right lane taking the car into the 6’s
Qualifying positions after Q2
Driver ET KMH/MPH
Michael Malmgren 6.6612 335.61/ 208.54
Magnus Petersson 6.7283 335.61/ 208.5389
Christian Sagelv 6.7999 314.14/195.20
Ulf Wagnhester 6.8301 324.13/201.41
Mats Jacobsson 6.8622 325.89/202.50
Thomas Lindstrom 7.0814 248.05/ 154.1315
Jan Palmqvist 7.2978 231.07/143.58
Micke Callin 11.3115 126.23/78.44
Jimmy Ålund 11.8656 100.22/62.27
Jan Ericsson 17.7843 60.64/37.68
The Pro Stock presentation and parade was a new feature at the Scandinavian Internats
Friday Evening
Thomas Lindström and Nina Norin are married in the Ernyrd cars pit. Lots of support from the other pro stock teams and from other classes.
