With Jarmo Kuutniemi testing his new Charger in Finland, Ulf Leanders’ car still in the States, Chris Farrugia and his ex-Leif Andreasson car not ready, Top Methanol Funny Car had five entries. But Arvid Grødem’s new Mustang and Rob Turner’s new Monte Carlo brought good news for the class. In qualifying, Dan Larsen took the number one spot in 5.79 seconds.



In his first outing with the new car Grødem made it to 6.25 seconds, good for the number two position, with Jürgen Nagel not far behind at 6.30 seconds. In fourth place was Danny Bellio, but after one run the Belgian’s Main Event was over. For the third time this season the team suffered serious engine damage and had to give up.

In the first round of eliminations, Grødem had no problem beating Stephanie Milam and advanced to the semi-final to meet Nagel, who had a bye run in round one because of the absence of Bellio. After the burnout the always smiling Norwegian had no reason to laugh, being forced to shut off owing to a fluid leak. That gave Nagel his second bye run of the day and a spot in the final. On the other side of the ladder Turner pulled a red light that gave Larsen a free ride into the semi-final. But the Dane has his own problems.



An engine explosion and fire under the car indicated serious damage. Larsen managed to come back for his bye run in the semi-final but faced problems again when the burst plate blew out. This time the team did not manage to come back and had to miss the final. That gave Nagel his third bye run of eliminations. In 6.28 seconds the German made it to his first ever FIA European Championship race win.

FIA TOP METHANOL FUNNY CAR
Winner:   Jurgen Nagel  (GER)

	QUALIFYING:		ET	MPH	KPH
1	Dan Larsen	DEN	6.1180	192.87	310.39
2	Arvid Grodem	NOR	6.2542	226.48	364.81
3	Jürgen Nagel	GER	6.3078	165.48	266.31
4	Danny Bellio	BEL	7.2581	130.91	210.68
5	Rob Turner	GBR	7.4842	175.07	281.75
6	Stephanie Milam	GBR	7.5061	198.84	320.00

ELIMINATIONS:

Round 1:
Dan Larsen 6.8301/136.94 def. Rob Turner 9.8531/78.27 DQ
Arvid Grødem 6.3366/190.44 def. Steph Milam 6.5921/213.08
Jürgen Nagel 12.9869/76.06 bye, Danny Bellio no show

Round 2:
Dan Larsen 29.3577/no speed bye
Jürgen Nagel 8.4206/133.23 bye, Arvid Grødem shut off

Final
Jürgen Nagel 6.2853/227.77 bye, Dan Larsen no show

Low Elapsed Time of the Meet:   5.7965 seconds – Dan Larsen
Top Speed of the Meet:   248.13 mph / 399.33 kph – Dan Larsen