Top Fuel pilot Anita Mäkelä with crew chief and husband Tommi Haapanen

New cars an new equipment for many teams in the FIA European Top Fuel Championship this season. A good reason to travel to Santa Pod in time for some testing before the start of official qualifying. But the test day was washed away by heavy hail, rain and thunder. And even more problems when the first day of qualifying had to be cancelled too and action was limited to (qualifying) Sunday only. But it was good to see three qualifying sessions were scheduled and, thanks to the perfect weather conditions and hardworking track crew, were finished in time before the new curfew. And with nine entrants and eight places for eliminations it was a real fight.


Chris Andrews with Jari Halinen

But before qualifying could start the race was already over for Chris Andrews. The English local hero fell from the trailer when setting up the pit area of the Lucas Oil team. A very badly dislocated shoulder made it impossible to race for maybe two months, although Andrews is already talking about coming back sooner than expected. As the team runs the Don Schumacher Racing car from the Rune Fjeld Motorsport team, and wanted to see the Lucas Oil colours on track, Fjeld suggested Jari Halinen as a replacement driver. The reliable and experienced Finn got a call and the next day, instead of the planned sabbatical, he was at Santa Pod and in the car.


Jari Halinen


Urs Erbacher


Anita Mäkelä


Thomas Nataas


See the full event coverage at Eurodragster.com 

RESULTS DATA:
- LINK TO FINAL QUALIFICATION LIST

credit to TSI Timers 

Karsten and Per Andersen knows their tuning business . And the cooperation with pilot Thomas Nataas continues to be successful.

Without any testing it was a hard job for the teams and crew chiefs to find a setup for their new cars and new combinations. But they showed their skills. In his first run Thomas Nataas was on a good run when the drive shaft broke. But in the second run the Per and Karsten Andersen tuned new car stormed to a stunning 3.910 seconds and 309 mph, much faster than their existing European record (3.965 seconds). A great run and an indication what to expect from the Andersen Racing/Nataas combination later this season. But Nataas was not the only one, because in the other lane in the same run Anita Mäkelä had an almost perfect run in her new car too. The former Snake Racing and now bright yellow and white car crossed the finish line in 4.011 seconds, and the runner-up in last year’s championship was the number two qualifier. Like Nataas, Mäkelä was very happy with her new car too of course.

A new car also in the number three position, the self-build chassis with Stig Neergaard in the cockpit. With his 4.07 seconds from run two, he was the number three qualifier. Tuned as always by John Smith the Dane had no major problems and is looking forward to another successful season. Urs Erbacher was the number one qualifier after the first round, but the Swiss with the new Victory Motorcycles colours on the car, could not improve his 4.12 second and was down in the number four position.

Duncan Micallef 

Not in the ladder after two runs was Duncan Micallef in the Rune Fjeld Motorsport car. The Maltese suffered a broken blower belt in run one and in run two the throttle stop was left on. But run three was a good 4.16 seconds and although a broken oil line caused a big fire, Micallef was safe in fifth position.


Tethys

In sixth rookie Top Fuel driver Tethys. The Englishman was a late entry in the third Rune Fjeld Motorsport car. Tethys, who raced the Dave Wilson Top Methanol Dragster car last year, made two licence runs the weekend before Round 1with a best of 4.25 seconds! The first qualifying pass was his last licence run and he did a great driving job when the car came close to the wall. Tethys stayed with it just long enough to cross the finish line in 4.17 seconds!

Noah Stutz

Seventh in the ladder 19-year old Swiss Noah Stutz in the second Erbacher Racing car. The young Swiss did a professional and good job on and off the track. His first run was a 4.80 seconds, but a ball of flames did not look good, especially when that happened again in run two when he crossed the finish line in 4.33 seconds. With two broken engines Stutz had to skip the third qualification session and had to wait if 4.33 was enough to qualify for eliminations.

Micke Kågered 

When Micallef jumped into the number five position, it was up to Micke Kågered, also in a new (ex-Morgan Lucas Racing) car and Halinen to decide who would be ninth. The Swede and the Finn had to run side by side and at that moment Kågered was out. But Kågered had a good start and although the engine exploded in a big way, the speed was good enough to cross the line in 4.70 seconds and that was enough to be eight. Because in the other lane Halinen had tyre shake, went up in smoke and could not improve, the Finn was out of competition.

On race day the rain was back and eliminations had to be cancelled. But still, qualification day was great and only a small indication of the great things to come.

See the Championship points standings after the event under a separate headline in this newsletter.