Who would have thought it was possible for the Habermann brothers to repeat the achievement from Santa Pod and keep the methanol dragster final a family matter? The truth is.. not even themselves. When being interviewed after the win Timo Habermann was most eager to put focus not on his own win but the achievement his brother Dennis pulled off at Alastaro. Dennis´ car is the one team Habermann is experimenting with to get the tuning right and he found himself on the bump spot after final qualifications, but at least in the field for the elimination.



Dave Wilson looked good during qualifications and was quickest of all with 5.39 sec. Then in the quarter finals the unbelievable happened when Dennis Habermann hit a holeshot and outran Wilson by 39 cm (!) or 0.0032 sec. Even Wilson´s ET of 5.38 compared to Habermann´s 5.51 did not do the job this time and Wilson out of competition way earlier than hoped for.

Other drivers that started well was Peter Schöfer and Derek Flynn. Both made it to the semi-finals but there hit problems in their respective run towards the Habermann´s.
 


In the final Dennis Habermann knew he had to go for another holeshot to outrun brother Timo, was too quick and red-lighted, however put on a good show for the audience all the way to the finish line and ended the weekend at Alastaro in style in good company with brother Timo.

All in all the methanol dragster class, which was doomed with too few contestants just a few years ago is very much alive again. Great and consistent performance level, close racing and as we have seen more than once the driver´s skills gets to shine and astonish the audience in harmony with the already crowd pleasing class that the methanol dragsters have once again become.



Full field at Alastaro and the entry list for the next event at Mantorp show 10 cars competing for 8 spots. It can be anyone´s call really, being swedish I dare take the chance and hope for some sucess for my fellow countryman Krister Johansson, who together with Dave Wilson are the true veterans in the class. Will either of them be the king of methanol dragster at Mantorp?   

FIA TOP METHANOL DRAGSTER
Winner:   Timo Habermann  (GER)

	QUALIFYING:		ET	MPH	KPH
1	Dave Wilson	GBR	5.3976	264.07	424.98
2	Timo Habermann	GER	5.4044	259.05	416.90
3	Peter Schöfer	GER	5.4203	260.55	419.31
4	Derek Flynn	GBR	5.4265	265.27	426.91
5	Fred Hanssen	NOR	5.4393	247.66	398.57
6	Paul Ingar Udtian	NOR	5.5061	254.70	409.90
7	Krister Johansson	SWE	5.5099	253.82	408.48
8	Dennis Habermann	GER	5.5274	253.69	412.96
	Alternates:
9	Arto Höylä	SF	5.7746	256.69	408.27

ELIMINATIONS:

Round 1:
Dennis Habermann 5.519/412.29 def. Dave Wilson 5.384/440.01
Derek Flynn 7.642/289.85 def. Fred Hanssen 5.784/312.89 (redlight)
Timo Habermann 5.378/419.09 def.Krister Johansson  5.590/386.03
Peter Schöfer 5.467/419.46 def. Paul Ingar Udtian 5.664/411.12

Round 2:
Dennis Habermann 5.745/402.89 def. Derek Flynn (broke)
 
Timo Habermann 6.066/245.20 def. Peter Schöfer 8.086/176.42

Final
Timo Habermann 5.534/409.38 def. Dennis Habermann 5.577/407.42 (redlight)


Low Elapsed Time of the Meet: 5.378 seconds – Dave Wilson
Top Speed of the Meet: 274.02 mph / 440.91 kph – Dave Wilson