-    It’s just so damn great that we have taken back the leader position in Europe again, say a busy Jimmy Ålund when we reach him at his office back in Norrköping after a successful weekend at Santa Pod.

We did put up the goal last autumn of course, to beat the youngster in the Dodge this year. Jimmy thinks Santa Pod Raceway was fantastic, as well as the weather and the spectators. Friday started off with some rain but the rest of the weekend had cool and sunny weather, which is just what racers likes.

-    We had a great weekend being the fastest in all qualifying rounds with maximum points. Raceday we took it easy and ran on safety to take the win. We  accomplished a lot this season, except for Sweden Internationals, where we lost due to broken parts.

For the first time since long, at Santa Pod the final was between Michael Malmgren and Jimmy and it was like in the old times.

-    It was very nice to be rid of that blue Dodge in the other lane, smiles Jimmy. It felt really nice to race towards Michael again. Just like the in the good old days.  


Jimmys very good friend and combatant Thomas Lindstroem, gave Jimmy a pig beany. It was probably very handy as the wind was very cold. Or did it have another meaning?
  

The whole Pro Stock gang had a ball in the F1 show case at the pit area. Their host (and class report editor) Ian Hart arranged a private tour around the cars and bikes. Jimmy and teams enjoyed the time of duty very much.

Team member Kalle Hrupa was happy as a child trying out one of the fastest bikes.  

Jimmy Ålund - Champion FIA Pro Stock

On Sunday’s presentation of no 1 qualifying’s Jimmy got a gift from his combatant Thomas Lindstroem, as a reminder that Thomas wasn’t happy this weekend. Jimmy got a pigbeany!

-    Yes, I´m a pig when it comes to dragracing, says Jimmy with a twinkle in the eyes. We have a crude but cordial atmosphere between us. But we gave back after the race. We framed our figure no 2 from the car and gave it formally to Thomas and the team, just to remind him that he´s now number two for rest of next season.

Next season it’s just not Thomas who´s going to chase Jimmy at the track. As we have seen, Magnus Petersson in Jimmys former GTO is doing good times, and this is just his first season.

-    Magnus is doing really great in that car, says Jimmy. And there are more teams that probably will race next year in the class. As far as I know the Finnish teams are planning to race again and hopefully some more Swedes as well. It´s going to be a tough season next year. But that’s good.

Is there any news until next season for the Ålund team and car?

-    No, no more news or changes next year, says Jimmy. We just did our first season with this settings so we´re still learning. But we are going to polish the records a bit and improve a bit more.

It’s pretty cool that we are getting close to US times now. The class is closing to low 6.50 times and we’re just six hundreds of a second and one mile from US records. And our contact over there salutes our win and good runs we made this season. So that feels like a good start of the next season. I wish to give a big thanks to my family and the best team ever in Europe. And a very special thanks to Per “Pippi” Willén and all our sponsors of course. Without all of them this wouldn´t have happened.  
 

Jimmy makes his crew dance at the start line. 


Petter Greborn tries out the pig beany that Thomas Lindström symbolically handed to Ålund at Santa Pod.