The European Finals  hosted by UK´s Santa Pod Raceway September 4-7th marks the end of the 2014 FIA European Drag Racing Championship.

The entry list can be found under a separate headline in this newsletter. Please note late changes may occur. 

FIA Championship Classes briefing

FIA Top Methanol Dragster:

In championship points lead: Chris Polidano (Malta)

Entries: Seven teams entered.

Notes: For the third time this season the Habermann brothers are on the entry list to an FIA event and they both had something great going when the rain interrupted the race at Santa Pod during FIA round #1 in May. Since then the two Maltese drivers Monty Bugeja and Chris Polidano have teken turns in winning and leading the championship. Entering the European Finals it´s an open matter who the prestigious FIA trophy will belong to this time. One mere point (!!) divide championship leader Polidano from second placed Bugeja. The third place in the championship ranking is up for grabs by both Swedish drivers Jonny Lagg and Stefan Gunnarsson with Lagg having the advantage of close to one elimination round. The qualification points are going to be essential and all teams are going to be aiming at running all four qualification sessions (two on friday and two on saturday). Timo and Dennis Habermann both have theoretical chances of ending in third place and both have shown capacity that can be enough to win the event.

Anyone can mess up the scenario for any other driver during Sunday when the eliminations are on. And it can all come down to the final run of the season before we have a new European champion in Top Methanol Dragster. Thrilling for the audience and potentially nerve wrecking for the drivers and teams!

FIA Top Methanol Funny Car:

In championship points lead: Johan Lindberg (SWE)

Entries: Six teams entered.

Notes: The Championship win the season 2014 is Johan Lindberg´s. With a 133 points lead, second placed Leif Andreasson (who also missed the first two events of the season) can´t catch up. The Lindberg Bros. and team Andreasson have been presenting the crowd with great numbers this season. Johan set a new personal best at 5.44 sec at Tierp Arena in august during qualifications while Andreasson´s best number was 5.58 sec and he also won the event.

The event win at Santa Pod is up for grabs for any of the competitors. And it´s not as usual that one may think that the #1 qualifier wins the event. Currently in third place in the championship is Johnny Oksa Finland, who is not entered at Santa Pod (although I know he would have wanted to be there). But fact is fact and the third place ranking will be an affair between the veterans Danny Bellio, Belgium and Jürgen Nagel, Germany, with Bellio having a slight points advantage (3 points) before the event begins.

FIA Top Fuel Dragster:

In championship points lead: Thomas Nataas (NOR)

Entries: Seven teams entered for an 8 car elimination ladder. Competition distance: 1000 foot

Notes: Entering the European Finals Thomas is in the lead with 69 points over Neergaard, who is still in second. Four points short of the Dane is Kågered and Mäkelä fourth, five point behind the Swede.

In this week’s European Finals at Santa Pod Nataas can win his second consecutive FIA European Top Fuel title. He only has to take care of what Neergaard and Kågered will do. Short after the Tierp race, Mäkelä announced she will skip the Santa Pod race, as new projects at the chicken farm take all her attention and the championship is out of reach. But who can be spoiler in the party of the top three? Andrews will do everything he can to repeat his 2013 win at his first FIA home race of the year. Erbacher will try to end his season on a high, and that can only be with a win. Micallef will try to match the successes of his countryman in Top Methanol Dragster and give the many Maltese fans in England even more to cheer for. Back in the Rune Fjeld car is Tethys, who impressed at his Top Fuel debut at Round 1 qualifying. As eliminations were cancelled due to rain, Tethys will now try to go rounds in eliminations at his home track. As the weather forecast is great, it looks like the Euro Finals will be the perfect end of the season.

LINK:
Top Fuel Dragster Report by Remco Scheelings from the Turtle Wax Internationals (Tierp Arena Aug 21-24th)

FIA Pro Modified:

In championship points lead: Mattias Wulcan (SWE)

Entries: 19 teams entered for a 16 car elimination ladder.

Notes: Half of the field has their base in the UK and run at their home track, which can prove to be of some extra value.

In points lead Mattias Wulcan, with reigning champion Michael Gullqvist within reach of the lead if things goes his way. Michael is 40 points behind which equals two rounds in the eliminations. And althought there are qualification points at stake in each seassion, Mattias Wulcan and the Wulcano Racing crew have the destiny in their own hands. And they have done well at Santa Pod before.

Gullqvist arrives to the UK with a fresh, impressive European ET record of 5.845 sec. from Tierp Arena, where Finnish racer Tero Laukkanen snatched the speed record from Gullqvist and he is also entered. Laukkanen and Gullqvist pleaseed the crowd at Tierp and Online with the quickest side by side race in Pro Modified (so far I might add..) A 5.90 for Gullqvist lost him the final to Laukkanen´s 5.95. A quicker reaction time and setting a speed record just at the right time meant team Laukkanen won. They are in fourth position entering European finals. 

Roger Johansson, who is ranked third 12 points ahead of Laukkanen and 9 points behind Gullqvist will also be at Santa Pod. Johansson´s car is a potential 5 second performer, something the team proved at the last event where Roger managed a fine ET and new personal best of 5.96 sec.

The above are the four drivers that will fight for the three Championship trophies, but they are joined by other potential event winners and consistent performers like Switzerlands Bruno Bader, who also arrives at Santa Pod with a fresh new personal best of 6.002 set at Tierp Arena. 

Norbert Kuno, Germany cut his PB down from 6.22 to 6.10 sec. at Tierp and Dutch trio Marc Meihuizen, Robert Joosten and David Vegter are contenders that can win rounds or the event and can (and probably will) interfere with the championship top ranked drivers. The same goes for the many UK based drivers, where for instance Andy Robinson and Wayne Nicholson might well reach their best level of performance at the European Finals. The drivers skills and reaction time can as we have seen a few times this season weight up a somewhat slower ET.

A late entry and welcome addition to the entry list is Sweden´s "Fast Freddy" Fagerström operating the world´s quickest pick up truck at Santa Pod. A repetition or improvement of his personal best 6.04 ET would, we are sure, make the crowd go even wilder than they normally do when the "King of burnouts" enters the Santa Pod (or any other) track.
 
FIA Pro Stock:

In championship points lead: Michael Malmgren (SWE)

Entries: Five teams entered.

Notes: Coming in to the European finals at Santa Pod for the finale of the 2014 season, we have a championship table that could go in any of several directions.

The finals in 2013 were a formality for Jimmy Ålund.  He left the Tierp event needing only to pass scrutineering and turn a wheel in qualification to secure the championship.  Things are very different in 2014. 

Only 18 points separate the top three. 

Michael Malmgren 228
Magnus Petersson 215
Jimmy Ålund 210

None of them can afford to lose a race all weekend.  Since that is not the way our sport goes, someone is going to be disappointed.

Michael Malmgren is of course in the best position to take the championship.  Winning the event is the only sure way to do it, but it could still happen as runner up if Thomas or Simon make the final alongside him.  Michael is a three time champion; he has been here before and will not be fazed.  We can count on Michael and his team to be on their game all weekend.

Second place man Magnus Petersson is only in his second full season and is looking at the possibility of a championship.  Magnus will also win the trophy if he wins the event or is alongside Thomas or Simon in the final. 

Jimmy pretty much needs to win the event.  There is a mathematical possibility that he could still win if he loses the final, but only if Michael or Magnus are not in the lane beside him.  Jimmy will not be relying on anyone else to make the path clear for him, so we can rely on Jimmy to come out all guns blazing and driving for the win.

4th ranked Thomas Lindström can make life very difficult for the top three.  Thomas was running down into the 6.5’s at Tierp but he can only improve his championship position by one place – and this is only a mathematical possibility.  The likelihood is that Thomas will be PS4 in 2015, so he really has nothing to lose but quite a lot to prove, plus the bragging rights that go with winning the last event of the year.


LINKS (reports provided by Ian Hart):
- Full version FIA Pro Stock preview report for European Finals
- Pro Stock report from the Turtle Wax Internationals (Tierp Arena Aug 21-24th)

Don´t miss to check the full FIA Championship point standings and entry list under separate headlines and follow the event as we proceed through any of the different option of event coverage on offer!
Link to the Eurodragster.com Event coverage index page: Eurodragster.com