Finnish ski jumper par excellence Janne Ahonen acquired one of the Copart chassis in the Bernstein Racing fire sale at the end of last season for the ART Racing team, and third spot on the ladder after the first session of qualifying was a reasonable effort. Donnie Bender, over helping out the Simo Patoharju led crew, tweaked things up for the first round of eliminations, but a rapid red light handed Mäkelä the win despite Ahonen recording the quickest ET of the event with a 4.1296, the lowly 260.92 mph terminal came as a result of threatening the centre line so there is clearly a lot more to come from this state-of-the-ART combination.

The only member of the final four not to be part of the RFM collective, Anita Mäkelä had her best number in qualifying marred by a dropped intake valve necessitating an engine change for the second session. Any chance at an improvement on sixth spot on the ladder ended about 30 feet out when the blower belt shredded. Anita benefitted from Ahonen’s foul start in the opening round of eliminations so the early click-off after tireshake wasn’t too detrimental although Mäkelä’s description of the semifinal “tire shake, back pedal, lost traction; well, Risto was all gone and I felt like a milkshake” was pretty much on the money. With six Finns on the entry list at the FHRA Nitro Nationals, the domestic battle for home event honours will be very intense at Alastaro.