Twelve cars compete at this event, the six entrants for the Main Event, Jimmy Ålund, Thomas Lindström, Micke Callin, Michael Malmgren, Mats Jacobsson and Magnus Pettersson. 

First outings this season for Jan (Snowball) Palmqvist, who did not make it to the UK for the Main Event, First planned events of the year for Ulf Wagnhester, Tommy Leindahl, Christian Sagelv and Bo Pettersson. A new car and driver to me is Jan Ericsson in a Pontiac Grand Am.


Jan Palmqvist

All entrants are Swedish, with no entry into this event for Richard Sundblom or Sampsa Palos, there are no Finnish entries.  Conrad Stanley (GBR) and Harald Sturhan (GER) are other entrants from 2012 season who have not entered here, so it is easy to predict a Swedish winner!

We saw performance improvements for all teams at the Main Event, and therefore I expect to see these continue at Tierp.  A full qualifying field in the 6’s is likely, and the quality of the field will definitely provide some close races.

Friday Q1
First pair are Tommy Leindahl and Jan Ericsson in the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac Grand Am.  Tommy looked to hook up well and takes the car through in 6.88 to Jan’s shut off 8.76

Next pair is Bo Pettersson against Jan Palmqvist.  Bo with all sorts of problems which seemed to start before the tree ran.  It is difficult to tell on a TV feed, but perhaps the revs would not come up on the car, but it ended up with a slowing 7.7 pass.  Jan fared much better with the fastest pass yet at 6.86


Wagnhester

Third pair is Ulf Wagnhester and Christian Sagelv, neither can put in a quick lap and Ulf dropped the chutes before the stripe.  7.7 and 7.2 are the times

Next up are Magnus Pettersson and Mats Jacobsson.  This seems to be a perennial pairing.  These two cars only raced each other at Santa Pod until eliminations.  This time round, they don’t even get to race as Mats has a problem after burn out and is shut down and pushed back.  Magnus takes number one spot with a pretty trouble free 6.78 pass

Micke Callin and Michael Malmgren are the penultimate pair, and both deliver good clean Pro Stock runs, with Michael moving into number one spot with a straight and solid 6.74 to Micke’s losing but rapid 6.78

Thomas Lindström and Jimmy Ålund are next through the tunnel, but they are shut down and pushed back.  It appears there is rain and so racing goes on hold till it passes and the track is once again dry.

After a quick rain break, the session is rounded out by Thomas Lindström and Jimmy Ålund.  Jimmy takes the win with a storming 6.59 to Thomas 6.71

I later learned from the excellent Eurodragster coverage that Jimmy’s car was found to be under weight and therefore this run was disqualified.  Whatever the mistake was, Jimmy and team will make sure that doesn’t happen again, and it looks like Jimmy has a fast car again on this track.


Ålund

Thomas Lindström (right) winner and Jimmy Ålund runner-up

Friday Q2
Pro Stock rules require cars to be run in alternating lanes, qualifiers come out in “reverse order” but then the order gets confused with lane changes.

First out in the second qualifier are Jimmy and Bo. Delivering a 6.62 and 8.78  Bo shutting off early, but Jimmy was storming again

Mats and Ulf make up the next pair.  Mats’ problem of this morning obviously resolved as he makes a fairly solid and uneventful 7.0 pass to Ulf’s 6.8.  Ulf improves on this morning’s effort, whilst Mats finds a place on the board.

Jan Ericsson and Tommy are paired up next, Jan shutting off after what appeared to be a fairly rapid move towards the guard rail.  In the other Lane, Tommy was going well until half track, when he must have noticed some kind of problem as he slowed rapidly.  Neither improves on this morning’s times.

Christian and Micke face off next.  Christian has a pretty wild wheelie off the line and wisely gets off the gas, failing to move up the ladder.  Micke delivers another solid, straight run for a 6.74 which improves on his earlier time.

Jan Palmqvist and Magnus make up the next pair but neither put in a full pass.  Some mechanical drama for Magnus, but no improvement for either team.

The session ends with Michael and Thomas.  Michael makes a reasonable run but no better than this morning.  Thomas improves on this morning’s time, but cannot take number one spot from Jimmy.

Saturday Q3
Tommy Leindahl must have suffered some serious damage in Q2 yesterday as he has not made the call

It is obvious that the air has improved throughout this session, 10 cars out of the 11 that ran improved on their previous times.  Michael Malmgren all but matched his previous time, so Pro Stock are suited to the conditions on Saturday Morning.


Malmgren

Big jump of 5 places up the ladder for Jan Ericsson and one step up for Ulf are the only Qualification changes though.

The single biggest story though is the final pair of Thomas and Jimmy.  Both giving it all they have got with Thomas hauling through the line in 6.62, which would have been good enough for number one qualifier at almost every race last year.  But this is not last year, and Jimmy just keeps going faster.  For reference, the current NHRA records in Pro Stock are 6.471 and 344.96 (214.35).  Jimmy goes almost 7 hundredths better than he did yesterday, and is now only 3.6 kmh behind a record NHRA speed.  Jimmy now holds the European speed record and the first half of the European ET record


Mats Jacobsson

Saturday Q4
This is the last chance to make it into the 8 car ladder for eliminations on Sunday.  Will we see a whole board of 6’s?  Who can make the moves out of the bottom 4?  Will Jimmy and Thomas go even faster?

Sadly the bottom four cannot find the necessary speed, traction, clutch settings or elusive horsepower to make the required improvements, although Christian does register a six second time.

Micke moves up 2 places, and Magnus moves up one both displacing Michael who is frighteningly consistent around the 6.74/6.73 mark.

The only other mover is Christian who moves up one place, but not enough to qualify.

Drama in the second pair as Bo has a big moment after burnout ending up striking the guard rail head first.  No damage to Bo, but the car looks as though it has taken quite a hit.  I am sure Bo will get it fixed though.


Bo Pettersson