Champion and European Finals winner Erbacher
Urs Erbacher took his second FIA European Top Fuel title in great style by winning the
European Finals. The fight for the championship was decided in the quarter-finals when
the Swiss fan favourite defeated Jari Halinen and the number two in the championship,
Risto Poutiainen, lost to Anita Mäkelä. Outgoing champion Andy Carter made history in
qualifying with his 4.572sec run, Europe’s first 4.5sec elapsed time and a new European
record.
Anita Mäkelä defeated in the semi-final against Urs
Rain interruptions made it impossible to run the second qualifying session on Friday
but, despite the bad weather forecast, on Saturday the sun came out and two qualifying
passes could be made by the nine Top Fuel entrants. With only 18 points between him and runner-up Risto Poutiainen, qualifying was already important for Urs Erbacher to increase his lead to at least 20 points and thus put himself a clear round ahead in eliminations.
But on Friday, on his first qualifying run, Poutiainen and his Rune Fjeld-tuned dragster made it difficult for Erbacher by running a 4.768sec. Erbacher clocked 4.97sec on his first run, showed consistency on his second run (4.91sec) and improved on his last attempt to 4.84sec. With these times the pair ended qualifying in second and third spots.
The gap was now 17 points and, if both survived the first round of eliminations, the title would be decided in a direct semi-final confrontation between the two title favourites.
Carter set a new European Record during the qualifications
But the star of qualifying was Andy Carter. With a stunning, off-the-trailer 4.61sec, the
Lucas driver recorded Europe’s quickest-ever Top Fuel elapsed time. The ET was even more impressive as Carter lifted early (speed 298mph). But better still was the third run of the Per and Karsten Andersen-tuned Lucas dragster. On an almost perfect run, 4.572sec and 320.19mph/515.30kph were the incredible numbers. The 4.61 served as the back-up to make 4.572sec the new European record and 320.19mph was the fastest speed ever seen in Europe. Of course that handed Carter the number one qualifying position. But if either Erbacher or Poutiainen could advance to the semi-final, the chance of winning a fifth title would be reduced to zero for the current number four in the championship.
Risto Putainen
There were problems in qualifying for Anita Mäkelä, the championship number three.
The low qualifier from Mantorp and Hockenheim was on a strong run when the car moved out of the groove and hit the timing reflectors at the finish line. The 4.74sec ET would have handed her the number two qualifying position but was now disqualified. With only one run to go, Mäkelä was number nine and still not qualified. In that last run, with the spare nose wing on the car, the dragster lifted the front wheels at half track and Mäkelä had to shut off early. But her 5.33sec was good enough for the seventh qualifying position.
The number four spot went to Stig Neergaard but the Dane had a scary moment on his second qualifying run (4.85sec, 268mph/431kph) when a rear tyre exploded at the finish line. Neergaard managed to bring the car to a halt without major damage. The same could not be said for his team-mate, Jöran Persåker. On his first run, the Swede suffered an engine explosion and on his second run he lifted the blower. Persåker ended qualifying in ninth position and was the only one not to qualify.
