FIA/UEM European Drag Racing Championships, NitrOlympX, Hockenheimring, Germany

Words and pictures Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes

The second event in a row on the European championship chase and the second to fail to come to a conclusion thanks to the appearance of the wet stuff (and the local difficulties particular to the Hockenheimring where curfews are strict and somewhat idiosyncratic). Despite the premature finish, this year’s running of the NitrOlympX delivered a whole pile of stories on and off track, many of which served to tighten up the championship chases as the tour moves on to its closing event at Santa Pod next month.

FIA Top Fuel Dragster

With Tommy Johnson Jr indisposed until his FIA appeal hearing at the end of the month, Norwegian Thomas Nataas returned to the wheel of the Andersen Racing rail that he last shoed on the NHRA circuit in early 2010. Despite the change of driver, the Sunoco/Veidec/Landmeco/Biltema team barely skipped a beat; Nataas securing the low qualifying spot with a 4.839, taking the top speed mark with a 305.84 mph terminal on the same pass, and then defeating Andy Carter (with a 4.929/299.80) and Timo Lehtimäki (with a 4.854/304.94) for low ET of each of the completed eliminations rounds and a place in the un-run final. Not a bad return for a stand-in driver, and how good would it be to see the Andersens with a two-car team in either NHRA or European competition next season? Surely they must find their funding sugar daddy soon.