A capacity crowd turned up again to see the first round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship and the second round of the UEM Drag Bike Series. And they did not go home disappointed. The event produced excellent close racing, personal bests and stunning performances by old and new heroes, and even rain on Saturday could not stop the perfect show the racers presented on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. Santa Pod Raceway’s staff, the marshals and track crew showed again that the English track is the home of European Drag Racing and the best strip in Europe.



Owing to the bad weather conditions on Saturday, qualifying had to be rescheduled to two runs on Sunday. Coming so early in the season with few, if any, test runs on the computer, this put extra pressure on the teams. In Top Fuel, Urs Erbacher achieved a perfect comeback by taking the number one qualifying position and winning the race. A string of 4.7-second runs and a new European speed record of 314.87mph/506.73kph made this win even more glorious.



Top Methanol Dragster met its high expectations. The final featured the two Habermann brothers, with Dennis taking an upset holeshot win over reigning European champion Timo.



There was a holeshot win also in Pro Stock when Michael Callin saved his best run for the final to beat the weekend’s fastest man, Michael Malmgren.


Santa Pod Raceway website...
www.santapod.com

And there was a first-time winner in Top Methanol Funny Car too. To his own surprise, Jürgen Nagel took the win when the German saw all his rivals run into technical problems.



Pro Modified was the star of the show with a 5.93-second exhibition pass by Melanie Troxel, Europe’s quickest-ever Pro Mod run, and the dominating win by new kid on the block Johan Lindberg. With his 21-year-old brother Jonnie as the crew chief, the team never put a foot wrong.



6.08 seconds in the first qualifying session was their worst time of the weekend! All their other runs were 6.04 or 6.01 seconds and they hit 236mph/380kph speeds in all four elimination rounds! Having started as an outsider, the 27-year-old Swede is a title favourite right now.



In Super Twin Bike, Lorenz Stäuble made it a perfect Main Event for Team Erbacher by beating Job Heezen in the final and taking the win with an impressive 6.608sec run.



Pro Stock Bike also met its high expectations with fast numbers and tight win margins. Gert-Jan Laseur was a surprising finalist after holeshot wins in the quarter- and semi-finals but was beaten by reigning champion Ulf Ögge in the final.



Top Fuel Bike saw a home win for Steve Woollatt but runner-up Kai Selkämaa took important points for the championship. In the Funny Bike Cup, Rikard Gustafsson ran a stunning 6.46sec in the first round of eliminations but ran into problems in the semi-final. As in Hungary, Christian Jäger took the win and the points for the Cup.



Eurodragster is the source of direct information on site from the races. Round to round comments and timing results, completed with pit notes and photo galleries at the end of the day.


Eurodragster website....
www.eurodragster.com