FIA Pro Modified

Marc Meihuizen has often been a strong hitter during qualifying, but has always stumbled on raceday. Until now. The Firebird didn’t qualify particularly well with a 6.209 putting him into a fourth v fifth match-up with MPM-Oil team-mate David Vegter that ended with a 6.4 to 6.9 win for Meihuizen. Semi-final time and a strong 0.039 RT put him well ahead of the point where Michael Gullqvist (low qualifier with a 5.947) crossed the centerline after breaking traction at 30 feet out, but a 6.082/240 would have been tough to get around in any case. The Dutchman delivered his low ET of the weekend in the final with a fine 6.034/242 to best opponent Mats Eriksson’s 6.179/234.

For the third year in a row, Eriksson was more than a little surprised to find himself in the Nitro Nationals final. This time around shake and a clutch failure put the Green Goblin in seventh (only nine entries meaning an eight car field) and a tricky match-up with a resurgent Roger Johansson whose nitrous mega motored Mustang’s 6.143 was over three tenths ahead of Eriksson’s best. However, Johansson broke traction and got out of the groove whilst some distance ahead of the Crown Victoria and a 7.1 meant a semi-final spot against Robert Joosten who had a considerable performance advantage following his 6.2 opening round victory but the streak of luck continued with Eriksson’s shake and smoke at 60 foot rendered irrelevant as Joosten had lit a huge cherry on the tree.