MICHAEL MALMGREN - Pro Stock, who is in the lead of the championship points standings (76 points ahead of Michael Callin).
SG: - How are you preparing for the European Finals?
MM: By testing some last weekend at Meca raceway, so we have a good set up for Finals as usually the track at Santa Pod is good, we also like to try some new stuff with hope of improvements.
SG: - What do you hope for performancewise at the European Finals?
MM: I hope we can run our first 6.6 run with speed over 330km, we know we have the power to do it, ist just a matter of how well we can take care of the good power.
SG: - Any major changes done to the car/bike since the last race?
MM: As Hockenheim had a very bad starting line it did require a different set up than Santa Pod, so we are changing quite a lot on our Bickel GTO
SG: - Which drivers in your class do you consider the strongest competitors to win the event at Santa Pod ?
MM: - Anybody, as all are running fast, there is no “slow” cars anymore in Pro stock, but if I have too pick the most likely of course Jimmy Ålund that I know will give everything to make up for his semi final loss at Hockenheim, but also Micke Callin can upset
SG: - And commenting some on the championship outcome;
MM: - Why go testing when we only need to make a good qualifying run at Finals and by that gain enough points to be out of reach and take the title? Well, we want to go to Santa Pod and be fast, and show we are worth a top spot or even better the title of the Championship. Some say it’s a done deal, but it´s not, anything can happen, but we hope to have closed the door Friday night after the first day of qualifying. By testing there is always a small risk something can happen, but I feel confident with my car and team and even if we didn’t go testing we still had some sponsor obligations to handle with Passenger runs on wednesday sept 1st for Lahega.
So we will work very hard to the very end as we have the whole season and it has paid off with very good numbers and consistent runs at every race, something we didn’t have last year. Records don’t win Championship, but consistent runs do, but of course it’s the ice on the cake to also have the record that right now is held by Jimmy Ålund and that is stout, hard to beat!
MICHAEL GULLQVIST- Pro Mod, who is in the lead of the championship (329 points, which is the exact same points as Johan Lindberg but Gullqvist with two internal wins over Lindberg gets the highest rank of the two).
MG: - We had a great event at Hockenheim, sorting the -57 Chevy out and getting it up to speed. After qualifying in second place with a 6.10 after R2B2 teammate Mel Troxel, we cut through the field in eliminations taking out Kuno in first round on Saturday with a 6.11 and the Lindberg Bros, a very important race for championship points, with a 6.12. In the semi we had Mats E, who ran a fine 6.09 in the quarter finals. We knew that anything less than a 6.0 was not going to get the job done, so we just had to step it up.
Mats cut a great light, but I felt the Chevy pulling harder than ever when it started to get out of shape and I was pretty much sideways for a while. I saw Mats on my right side and for a split second I was thinking of get out of it, but then it started to straighten and I was able to pass him just before the finish line running a 6.04 to his 6.08. That was one of the most exciting races in a long time for me.
We are preparing for the finals by just going over things and checking the equipment. As it looks, we will race the Lindberg Bros for the championship at the European Finals, but anything can happen of course. Meanwhile check out our R2B2 team mates, Melanie Troxel, Ray Commisso and Roger Burgess who are racing at the Indy US Nationals this weekend.
ARVID GRÖDEM - Top Methanol Funny Car, currently 3rd in the championship rankings
SG: - How are you preparing for the European Finals ?
AG: We are not doing any special preparations for the European Finals as such other than the usual things we normally do prior to a FIA round. Saying that we plan to change back to our primary set of cylinder heads when we get to Santa Pod as one cylinder head was damaged at Hockenheim and was sent for repair with the Lindahl twins. We have experienced a lot of valve train problems this year culminating with two valve adjustment screws that broke straight off at the Hockenheim race causing severe damage to the body (again...third time this year..) and to the engine.
The Sunoco/Westside Racing crew did a tremendous job to get everything back together in order to be ready for Sundays eliminations. Hopefully, we have sorted the mechanical problems now and then it is just down to the pilot to put some great numbers on the scoreboards at Santa Pod :-)
SG: - What do you hope for performancewise at the European Finals?
AG: Performancewise we know that we can put on far better ET's & speed than what we have been able to show so far this season. When (hopefully at the European Finals..) we can get the Sunoco Express Mustang to go the entire 1320' under full power, we should be able to better our PB which is 5,80 /397km/hr.. The ultimate goal is always to win!
SG: - Any major changes done to the car since the last race?
AG: No major changes are done to the car other than changing what was damaged at Hockenheim.
SG: - Which drivers in your class do you consider the strongest competitors to win the event at Santa Pod ?
AG: I would say that our good friend Dan Larsen must be first in line when the favourites shall be listed. However, strange things have happened at the Finals before so the win is up for grabs by most of the drivers in the class.
In the Championship Dan Larsen and Jurgen Nagel is in front of me so I guess the chance to be the overall Champion is more of a theoretical exercise. Saying that, I can repeat what I said above, strange things have happened at the Finals before :-)
PETER SCHÖFER - Top Methanol Dragster, currently 4th in the points standings but with chance to have a go at the 3rd place trophy. Wolfgang Schöfer answered the questions on behalf of Peter.
SG: - How are you preparing for the European Finals?
WS: We are working on our car to prepare for the Finals as good as possible and work for customers. We do our best to prepare the car, but there is no fuel check, blower overdrive check and so on ... on the race track. We would welcome more rigorous checks to ensure all cars are ok according to all rules.
SG: - What do you hope for performancewise at the European Finals
WS: We want to get as many points as possible and as little damage as possible on our car.
SG: - Any major changes done to the car/bike since the last race?
WS: It´s hard to do major changes with a tight budget
SG: -Which drivers/riders in your class do you consider the strongest competitors to win the event at Santa Pod?
WS: All..
