FIA/UEM European Drag Racing Championships, FHRA Nitro Nationals, Alastaro, Finland

Words and pictures Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes

The trip to Finland on the European tour is usually a relaxed affair, with the long daylight hours and friendly welcome from the FHRA providing an enjoyable backdrop to the most northerly stop of the FIA/UEM championship season. This year a combination of the weather (seriously hot and humid conditions building up into violent thunderstorms with electrical discharges placing some of the local populace in hospital and wiping out power in the area for periods of time) and oildowns (there appeared to be more than usual as tuners struggled to dial into the slick track surface) greatly restricted qualifying, especially for the FIA classes with many only receiving two shots to make the field. The delays continued into eliminations after an unfortunate situation developed with the timing system (triggered by the electrical storms) that pushed back the start of eliminations to well into the afternoon.

In the on-track action, the pattern of qualifying will have a dramatic impact on the championship chase in a number of classes, and eliminations threw a few more spanners in the work; dropping points at this stage in the season could well prove critical as the series moves into it’s final stages over the next month and a half.

FIA Top Fuel Dragster

Shocks of the metaphorical (rather than meteorological) kind came aplenty in Top Fuel Dragster with the most dramatic being the bumping of Risto Poutiainen from the field in what would prove to be the final (of two) sessions on the Saturday afternoon that will prove to be a major blow to the Finn’s shot at the 2011 title. You’d have probably received long odds on guessing the composition of the semi-finalists in eliminations with one obvious exception.

Tommy Johnson Jr and the Sunoco/Veidec/Landmeco team headed by Karsten and Per Andersen struggled in qualifying with a comparatively lowly 3rd spot with a 4.344 (a pointer towards how much of a struggle it was to get down track on Friday and Saturday). The first round match-up with local heroine Anita Mäkelä had many of TJ Jr’s opponents hoping she’d take him out to open up the points, but a red light thanks to a -0.010s RT ended Mäkelä’s day whilst Johnson produced low ET of the event thus far with a 4.209. Semi-final time and Timo Lehtimäki succumbed to another four twenty from the blue and white fueler and a second trophy on his European tour was handed to the visiting American when Antti Horti double stepped before the tree was activated although a 4.185 from the Andersen Racing speedster would have been tough to get around. “It just works!” being Johnson’s comment before trying to dodge the traditional Nitro Nationals winner’s soaking at the trophy presentation.