Adam Flamholc from Sweden - Euro Finals winner and new European ET record holder!


The Pro Mod class is sponsored by BILSPORT, Scandinavia´s leading motorsport magazine!

UK based Pro Mod expert Robin Jackson starts his report by paying a tribute to US based  team R2B2 including popular driver Melanie Troxel, who has been part of the FIA European Championship 2010:

- So farewell, then, Melanie Troxel. You didn’t quite manage to win a race (though you were handed the Hockenheim trophy, after dominating from start to finish, when rain axed your final round).


Melanie Troxel

Nor does your name illuminate our record books (though you did run Europe’s quickest, fastest pass on your debut here, only for your car to go quicker and faster still in the hands of another). Yet 2010 will go down in European drag racing history as Troxel’s Year. Your presence redefined the landscape in Pro Mod and your great good grace in all that you did, not to mention your spectacularly adroit driving, made a lasting impact among all those lucky enough to have seen you in action.


Melanie Troxel´s ride - the stunning R2B2 Camaro  

Hurry back, Ms. Troxel, if Mr. Burgess and a promised full 2011 NHRA Funny Car
schedule will allow.


Micke Gullqvist - historic

Meanwhile, let us not forget that it was Michael Gullqvist and his historic NHRA victory
at Atlanta in May that precipitated this remarkable season’s transatlantic activity.
Gullqvist arrived at the European Finals tied on points with Johan Lindberg for the FIA
championship. The young Lindberg had started the season in sensational winning form but had lost momentum later on. Gullqvist, aided by his alliance with Roger Burgess’s
mighty R2B2 Racing team, had come on strongly in the meantime and entered the
Finals as clear favourite to carry off the title. Whichever of the two racers survived longer in Sunday’s eliminations would go home as European champion.

Then, while all eyes were focused on Troxel and the Gullqvist-Lindberg shootout,
another Swede, Adam Flamholc, burst out of the Pro Mod pack to score a record-setting victory at the race.


Norbert Kuno qualified 10th



Bader ALL the way to the final..what en end to the season.. well done Bruno & crew!


A family affair - Champ Johan Lindberg and brother Jonnie´s mum Ritha and dad Lars-Erik are also members of the crew.
 

Champion! team Rockstar  driver Johan Lindberg celebrated the championship win after the race. Well done Lindberg Bros & crew!

Though qualified only 14th, at 6.396 seconds, Lindberg chose the perfect moment to regain the six-second-flat form that had won him the season-opening race. A pair of 6.0sec elapsed times at over 230mph carried him past two strong opponents (Mats Eriksson, Roger Johansson) and into the semi-final.


Gullqvist vs. Lindberg

Gullqvist, however, came surprisingly unstuck in that second round. A smokeless
burnout and a cooked clutch left him stumbling in the wake of Swiss opponent Bruno
Bader with his championship hopes dashed. Ironically, new champion Lindberg’s race
ended meekly one round later when he lost reverse gear after his burnout. Even so,
their lame finish cannot disguise the Rockstar/New Generation team’s outstanding
achievement in taking the title in their first full year on the FIA trail.

Melanie Troxel also ended her European campaign disappointingly. Having qualified in pole position (6.027sec at the event’s top speed, 241.22mph) and whipped past Robert Joosten and Andy Robinson in the first two rounds, Troxel was shut off with a leaking oil fitting after her semi-final burnout. If nothing else, it at least reassures the rest that even the topmost teams can fall foul of the proverbial ten-cent part failure.


Flamholc joined the 5-sec club!

And so to the winner of the race: Adam Flamholc’s claim to fame this season was his
first-round defeat of Troxel at May’s Main Event, before Troxel’s crew chief had fully
mastered European track conditions. Since then, the Camaro that Flamholc had raced in the States before importing it early this year had performed without the distinction expected of it. All that changed this weekend.


Ellis had a new ride for the European Finals

Whatever had ailed the car, the team had plainly cured. The ex-Pro Stock racer clocked
fresh personal-best elapsed times on each of his three qualifying shots, finishing
second behind Troxel at 6.042. Then he unloaded a pair of 5.9sec runs on his first two
elimination opponents, including a European record 5.967, before cruising back into the sixes to win the semi-final and final. Another new star is born to this vibrant class.
Flamholc joins new FIA champion Lindberg among the 2010 season’s major headline
makers.


Andy Robinson lost in the quarter finals to Troxel.

Of the seven British drivers among the 25 entries, only Andy Robinson made the tough
cut for Sunday’s 16-car eliminations field, although Graham Ellis finished as first
alternate in his first outing in a Plymouth Barracuda delivered only days earlier from America. Ellis and “Fast Freddy” Fagerström ran a private match race later on Sunday afternoon. Ellis managed an encouraging 6.41/213 while Fagerström’s 6.156 ET fell just short of his 6.147 personal best but his 233.80mph/376.26kph speed in his amazing “hurtling brick” blew his official 228mph PB out of sight.


ex-champion Mats Eriksson

2009 FIA champion Mats Eriksson ended a disappointing season in defence of his crown
with a first-round loss to Johan Lindberg. Eriksson had dipped sporadically into the 6.0’s
but without the rampant, title-winning consistency of a year ago. No one, though, will
bet against him returning to form next season. Bruno Bader, a perennially tough
contender on a slender budget who gets less attention than he perhaps deserves,
wound up in the final and looks set to win one of these races one of these days.


Marco Maurischat - happy but not lucky at Santa Pod

Marc Meihuizen came within a thousandth of a second and 1mph of his official personal bests to qualify sixth, a welcome end to a year which had landed him with wretched
mechanical luck.

As 2010 ends, anticipation is already soaring for 2011. There are only eight and a half
months till it all kicks off again.

Eight and a half months … !


the New Generation - the hood of the Lindberg Bros ride..

Check the final FIA & UEM Championship points standings under separate headings in this newsletter.

FIA PRO MODIFIED

Winner: Adam Flamholc  (SWE)
 
 

	QUALIFYING:		ET	MPH	KPH
1	Melanie Troxel	USA	6.027	241.22	388.21
2	Adam Flamholc	SWE	6.042	236.10	379.97
3	Mats Eriksson	SWE	6.055	234.07	376.70
4	Michael Gullqvist	SWE	6.087	233.76	376.20
5	Bruno Bader	SUI	6.145	230.12	370.34
6	Marc Meihuizen	NED	6.181	231.54	372.63
7	Mikael Lindahl	SWE	6.218	(229.32) 225.91	363.57
8	Andy Robinson	GBR	6.264	230.49	370.94
9	Urban Johansson	SWE	6.285	234.88	378.00
10	Norbert Kuno	GER	6.285	226.63	364.73
11	Roger Johansson	SWE	6.286	(223.56) 223.25	359.29
12	Fredrik Fagerström	SWE	6.341	(223.66) 185.83	299.06
13	Marco Maurischat	GER	6.356	221.46	356.41
14	Johan Lindberg	SWE	6.396	224.46	361.23
15	Henri Joosten	NED	6.424	(212.79) 211.92	341.05
16	Robert Joosten	NED	6.505	207.97	334.70
	Alternates:
17	Graham Ellis	GBR	6.510	216.99	349.21
18	Rolf Ammann	SUI	6.522	(217.21) 214.09	344.54
19	Jean Dulamon	FRA	6.605	218.14	351.06
20	Roger Moore	GBR	6.828	205.33	330.45
21	Philip ‘Bert’ Englefield	GBR	6.859	212.08	341.31
22	Wayne Nicholson	GBR	6.925	202.42	325.76
23	Ray White	GBR	7.115	185.12	297.92
24	Kevin Slyfield	GBR	7.159	203.49	327.49
25	Jöran Persåker	SWE	13.766	125.10	201.33

Withdrawn entries: Patrik Wikström SWE

ELIMINATIONS:
Round 1:
Andy Robinson 6.272sec / 228.92mph def. Urban Johansson 16.504 / 49.90 DQ R/L
Mikael Lindahl 6.208 / 231.53 def. Norbert Kuno 14.460 / 81.99 DQ R/L
Roger Johansson 6.269 / 223.39 def. Marc Meihuizen 13.581 / 57.32
Bruno Bader 6.116 / 229.03 def. Fredrik Fagerström 6.899 / 223.63
Michael Gullqvist 6.082 / 235.01 def. Marco Maurischat 15.761 / 57.83
Johan Lindberg 6.096 / 230.13 def. Mats Eriksson 6.239 / 229.32
Adam Flamholc 5.967 / 238.61 def. Henri Joosten 16.630 / 45.62
Melanie Troxel 6.120 / 241.11 def. Robert Joosten 13.249 / 72.74 DQ R/L

Quarter Finals:
Johan Lindberg 6.024 / 233.80 def. Roger Johansson 6.230 / 225.77
Melanie Troxel 6.056 / 241.11 def. Andy Robinson broke
Bruno Bader 7.877 / 214.10 def. Michael Gullqvist 12.581 / 66.77
Adam Flamholc 5.984 / 238.61 def. Mikael Lindahl 6.196 / 231.66

Semi-finals:
Bruno Bader 7.515 / 123.73 def. Melanie Troxel broke
Adam Flamholc 6.627 / 161.33 def. Johan Lindberg broke

Final:
Adam Flamholc 6.070 / 233.80 def. Bruno Bader 7.413 / 215.11


Low Elapsed Time of the Event: 5.967sec. (European record) – Adam Flamholc
Top Speed of the Event: 241.22mph – Melanie Troxel


Career-best performances set during event:
Jean Dulamon: 6.605 sec 218.14 mph/351.06 kph
Adam Flamholc: 5.967 sec 238.61 mph/384.01 kph
Henri Joosten: 6.424 sec
Roger Moore: 205.33 mph/330.45 kph
Ray White: 7.115 sec