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Although
some top contenders from last year was missing at Santa Pod (Leanders,
Andreasson and Jonnie Lindberg), the ones on site made a good show and
for one of them, it was even what must be considered a career
highlight. Stephanie Milam
What
warmed my heart the most during the Methanol Funny Car qualifications
was when the "She Devil" Stephanie Milam set a new personal best
ET and joined the 5 second club. The teams have been in the class for
10 or so years and always been a popular entry at the UK rounds of the
FIA Championship. After an initial 6.61 sec run, in session #2 (after
some adjustments), there it was.. 5.989 sec, which was followed by a
6.0 flat in the last session to confirm the performance was no
coincidence.
 Steph Milam
 Newcomer Gareth Ellis, who ran a personal best of 5.78 at Santa Pod in April, qualified 3rd quickest with 5.91 sec at 246 mph.
See the Championship points standings after the event under a separate headline in this newsletter.
See the full event coverage at Eurodragster.com
RESULTS DATA:
- LINK TO FINAL QUALIFICATION LIST
credit to TSI Timers
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 Johan Lindberg
Johan
Lindberg opened up with a 5.85 sec run as his first this season after
the chassis has been rebuilt over the winter to more resemble Europe´s
quickest car belongning to brother Jonnie Lindberg. A decision which
seems to have turned out well. In round #2 Johan managed 5.75 sec
and it was improved further in the last qualification session. 5.72 sec
at 247 mph was good for the no. 1 position.
Danny Bellio
Finding
Danny Bellio last in the rankings and with and ET of 6.38 is not what
we are used to, but Bellio had only one countable round (and two
foul runs with center line violations).
Jürgen Nagel
Nagel
made two appearances on track while at Santa Pod. The initial run
resulted in 5.89 which was followed up by a 5.84 sec in the next
session, which was second quickest after Lindberg.
Traction
seemed to be an issue for the short wheel based funny cars to start,
but the track came around and over all I think the performance was as
good as can be expected during the season´s first championship event
and with the weather circumstances interfering big time.
For
the next round in Finland, the two Finnish drivers Ari Pietilä and
Johnny Oksa will join the Championship. However some of the drivers
entered at Santa Pod will not travel to Finland.
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