FIA Top Fuel Dragster

Top Fuel Dragster low qualifier and eventual winner Andy Carter loves the Alastaro round “the loose track really suits my driving style, and this is my 4th win in 8 races here”. The Lucas Oil team underlined their status as title favourites with a low qualifying effort of 4.127, despite being down to just a single motor for the weekend, and defeated local heroes Timo Lehtimaki and Risto Poutiainen in the quarters and semis with low ETs of both rounds (4.152 and 4.210 respectively) before a rematch of the Main Event Top Fuel final against Stig Neergaard. Carter got the jump at the lights with a .088 RT to Neergaard’s .113 RT and managed to hold on for the win by about five feet as the Dane tried to drive around with a low ET of the meet 4.109/459.37 km/h to Carter’s 4.122/457.05.

Stig Neergaard is a win waiting to happen, and it wouldn’t be a great surprise to see the Dane lifting an event trophy before the end of this season as his only stumbling block on race day has been the reigning champion Carter. Neergaard was busy trying to get Tommy Rostgaard licensed during qualifying, which would prove to be an effort stymied by the loss of two sessions for the fuel cars, and, like Carter, turned back two of the burgeoning Finnish fuel car contingent with Jari Halinen and Anita Makela falling in the first and second rounds to Neergaard’s 4.185 and 4.271 second blasts.