FIA/UEM European Drag Racing Championship at Santa Pod
The Main Event, Round One
If you read the report from the 2007 Main Event you will remember that a single day of Pro qualifying was as far as it went last year. This year things went better, just, with a single round of Pro Modified eliminations completed (but not placed in the ledger due to the requirement for a re-run) and the first pair in Top Fuel Dragster managed to burnout before the rain terminated the meeting. Not at great start to the championship, and a desperate shame after the potential shown in Saturday’s two qualifying sessions. If only the weather had held off for an extra two days (the UK having basked in sunshine since the rainout we reported on at the beginning of May) we’d have been talking about more European records than the three that were set in Pro Modified and Pro Stock Car (the latter was already the quickest field seen in Europe after just two sessions).
On a brighter note, it was confirmed just prior to the meeting that the Nitrolympx at Hockenheim would return to the FIA tour and, after some doubt, the UEM round at Gardermoen in Norway has been finalised. These add to Finnish and Swedish rounds prior to the European Finals back at Santa Pod at the beginning of September and provide the European title chasers with much needed track time.
FIA Top Fuel Dragster
After resetting the European record at the 2007 Euro Finals (a 4.703 backed up by a quicker 4.645), the Lucas Oil team, with Andy Carter in the hot seat and Per and Karsten Andersen bringing their considerable tuning abilities to bear, were always going to be there or thereabouts in qualifying. A 4.815/305 was just a taste of things to come and put the Anglo SweDane team on pole and in the points lead at the start of the season.
The appearance of Stig Neergaard’s name in second spot with a 4.893/299 possibly raised a few eyebrows, but had former car owner Donnie Holbrook looking on in admiration. We’ve been touting Neergaard as a dark horse in European Top Fuel for a year and a runner-up finish to Urs Erbacher at the European Finals, coupled with this performance at the Main Event, suggests the Dane is emerging from the shadows in 2008.
After a quick dash around the NHRA tour at the back end of 2007 and early 2008, Urs Erbacher returned to Europe to defend his title and has acquired an impressive armoury of kit and experience along the way. Crew chief Wayne Dupuy started out with a soft setup on the Saturday, yielding a second session best of 4.894/311. Dupuy was looking forward to putting a big tune-up in the following sessions, but the rain prevented the Santa Pod faithful from seeing how far the Swiss team would be able to apply their NHRA knowledge to the quickest all asphalt track in the world.
After a couple of seasons in the doldrums, plagued by a ride that seemed to be happier blowing up than going fast, Micke Kagered produced a nice and easy 5.01 at only 254 mph, demonstrating that hooking up with Lance Larsen for tuning advice is going to pay dividends this season. With new backing from Peugeot, the Bacho Tools Express is looking set fair to challenge for the title again.