The facts and figures bear out the question. Pro Mod became an FIA class in 2006. Of 35 races conducted since then, Gullqvist has won seven and runner-upped at five.Urban Johansson has the next-best winning record at three. The only rival to have bettered Gullqvist is Rain Out, with 11 triumphs to its credit.


Bader

Bruno Bader pushed Gullqvist close last year, boosted by a dominating win at The Main Event’s Round 1, which Gullqvist did not attend. Bader was the last to have entered this year’s Main Event and can be expected to be no less determined.


Eriksson in the Green Goblin Crown Vicky

2009’s FIA champion Mats Eriksson also promises to contend once more. Eriksson did not attend either of Santa Pod’s 2012 races but is on the list for The Main Event this year. Two more Swedish drivers less familiar to British eyes have also entered: Mats Wicktor and Mattias Wulcan. Others may be planning to start the title chase when Round 2 takes place at Tierp. Bert-Ove Olofsson impressed the Santa Pod crowds last year but has not entered this time around and the likes of Urban Johansson, Roger Johansson and Fredrik Fagerström can never be discounted if they contest enough races. Turbo racer Martin Lundkvist, the European speed record-holder, could be an interesting contender and Niclas Andersson could do some real damage if he set his heart on a championship campaign.

2010 champion Johan Lindberg is Pro Mod’s loss and Top Methanol Funny Car’s gain.

When Gullqvist won last September’s European Finals to secure the crown, it was Dutch racer David Vegter whom he beat in the final. Vegter looks well capable of visiting further final rounds. His compatriots Marc Meihuizen and Robert Joosten have been there before and could well go there again, especially if Joosten’s recent trip to America has managed to iron out his Camaro’s occasional difficulties.


Meihuizen


Crowd pleasing one of a kind profile "Fast Freddy" Fagerström, Sweden is loved by Pro Mod fans all over Europe.


New in the Pro Mod 2012 (but skilled as a driver in Pro Street). Another Swede.. Anders Nilsson runs part of the championship (the Tierp events) in the stunning ex Ellis Cuda and with champion Micke Gullqvist as mentor. Will be interesting to follow the teams progress this season!    

BILSPORT Magazine is class sponsor for the Pro Modified class.


Kuno

From Germany comes an intriguing new team, “Die Zwei Norberten” – veteran Pro Mod racer Norbert Kuno paired with class newcomer Norbert Schneider, an experienced Sportsman racer, at the wheels of Kuno’s two Lucas Oil Dodge Avengers. Both Germans and the three Dutch racers are entered for The Main Event, and very welcome too.

The new season promises great things. Following re-surfacing work at Santa Pod and Hockenheim, Tierp Arena in Sweden is now only the third-newest track in Europe. If the British and German tracks can bed-in sufficiently quickly, Tierp’s recent ascendancy as a record-setting location could be challenged.

Santa Pod’s new surface certainly showed potential at Easter. The Festival Of Power was conceivably the coldest major drag race ever held in Europe. The freezing weather, allied to the virgin condition of the track, threatened a debacle, yet the surface held most everything the racers could throw at it. The nitro Top Fuelers and Funny Cars failed to get a grip but most other classes handled the conditions impressively. Several new Personal Bests were set. Above all, the Pro Mods, with their sprung chassis which had seemed to suffer especially over Santa Pod’s celebrated bumps, now looked very comfortable on the smooth new veneer.

The key Pro Mod moment at Easter was the appearance of Andy Robinson and his brand new ’69 Camaro. Nitrous racer Rick Garrett was the event’s unexpected winner, competing in only his second Pro Mod outing. Garrett, a graduate from Super Pro ET, intends to continue learning the Pro Mod ropes and would be as surprised as anyone if he repeated his achievement at The Main Event (but hey! This is drag racing. Anything can happen.).

Andy Robinson finished as runner-up to Garrett. Robinson’s very first trip in the new machine, on a frigid track with a temperature barely above freezing, netted a 7.70sec timeslip, and his second a 6.90 at 217mph/350km/h. In more normal conditions, the Camaro looks set to fly.

Robinson, a busy racing car constructor by profession, has no fewer than five more of his creations in The Main Event field besides his own. Graham Ellis’s turbocharged Plymouth Superbird exudes power and promises to tear up the record books, if only he can bump it consistently into stage. Kevin Slyfield’s ’41 Willys testfies to the strength of Robinson’s construction techniques. Slyfield bounced off both walls on his opening pass at Easter and seemed likely to miss the rest of the season as a result, but the damage proved unexpectedly repairable and he has entered for The Main Event.

Even newer than Robinson’s Camaro will be the ’55 Chevy he has built for Steve Hall, as yet unseen in public. When the FIA chase crosses to the European mainland, it may be Hall rather than Robinson who is the regular British representative. Robinson’s other two products are the Dutch machines of Meihuizen and Vegter.

The Main Event’s other British entrants are Wayne Nicholson and Andy Frost, driving the world’s only street-legal Pro Mod, plus Jean Dulamon, an honorary Brit who just happens to motor up from south-west France every time Santa Pod holds a race. Marcus Hilt will join the show from Switzerland.