Urs is happy to be back. “It’s like back to the roots, the same old team, the same car and the same friends on the racetracks.” The Swiss racer got many positive reactions from European fans about his return. “Yes, but on the other hand there were many fans in the U.S. that were not so happy. They all hope we’ll be coming back for the last two races on the NHRA tour. We are working on that and plan to do eleven races in 2011. The problem was that we couldn’t find the money to race in the USA in 2010. It’s very hard at the moment and the big team owners take away the small sponsors as well. But we had and still have a good relationship with our loyal European sponsors and we are very proud to do the full FIA tour with them.”



Urs will start the European season in his familiar Murf McKinney car. “The newer Hadman car is still in the States but will be sent back in May. When it’s in Switzerland we’ll fix it and, although we still need some parts, we’ll have two complete cars then. At the moment Jens Riehl, the German driver, is the number one choice for the second car. We are working on a sponsor deal for him. We hope he can do one or two races this year.” Everybody who knows Urs and his reputation as a winner will understand runner-up is not enough. “We only go for gold, the championship, win all races and new European speed and ET records. We want to make the sponsors and my fans happy. We go hard and drive fast. Because we raced in the States people will see us as the team to beat. So there is some extra pressure; everybody will be watching us.”



Urs thinks that, in certain ways, the American experience will be an advantage. “In the USA you have to be quick on the tree. I learned that over there. In the US you need to change your set up almost every run. That will help us in Europe as well. And we learned a lot with the drivers we licensed in the USA like Jens Riehl and Scott Weiss. The service time between runs in the USA is 56 minutes. That was good training for our crew. We are fast now in servicing the car.” Running 1000 feet or the ¼-mile is no problem for Urs and his team. “We have the set up for both. Safety and money wise I prefer the 1000 feet, but drag racing is the ¼-mile so we like that even more.”

Running a race team takes a lot of time and, as everybody will know, Urs has his daily business with the Fat Attack Custom Bike shop. “My day has 24 hours: 14 hours in my bike shop, 5 hours in the race shop , 6 hours to sleep, 6 hours with my family and 6 hours at the Fat Inn Bar. So I think that’s more than 24 hours. It’s hard to do it all in one day.” There is also a decision to be made about the crew chief. “We don’t know yet. Maybe Robin and me with some help from the USA. Wayne Dupuy or Glenn Mikres? We really don’t know. It’s a money and sponsor issue too.” Sponsors for 2010 will be Midland Oil, SCS Switzerland, WALO Switzerland and Ralph Marti. The team is still working on some other deals too.



The team will try to do their test runs in Hungary where Lorenz Stäuble, the teams’ Super Twin rider, will start his season in the UEM European Championship. If that’s not possible, the Test and Tune weekend before the Main Event might be a last choice. Urs is sure that the competition in Europe will be even better than before.



“All the teams are quicker now. We go for a 3.90 at the 1000 feet and 4.60 at the ¼-mile.” And his main rivals? “Still the King of Europe. He is lighter than me and we are the only Kings of Nitro. But that will change this year! The Real King is back…….!” Anyway, Urs is happy to see all his fellow racers and fans at the track again.