FIA Scandinavian Internationals, Tierp Arena, Sweden

Words and Photos Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes

The second year of the Scandinavian Internationals, and our second trip to Tierp Arena of this season, was a truly memorable occasion. With air that was comparable to Gainesville in a good year, little to no wind and no fearful glances to the heavens, the racing was simply stunning with world records set on four and two wheels, the best nitro eliminator ever seen in Europe and a finals day that was spent laughing at the numbers that flashed up on the scoreboards and by the end of the meeting ET and TS records had fallen in FIA Top Fuel Dragster, FIA Pro Modified, FIA Pro Stock and FIA Top Methanol Funny Car. It was also a relief that the venue managed to attracted a bumper crowd on Saturday and a sizeable one on Sunday, particularly given the run of bad luck they’ve had with weather (and also unhelpful forecasts) that have impacted the day trippers coming out of Stockholm just over an hour to the south. The best meeting at European championship level? It’s difficult to think of one that tops it.

FIA Top Fuel Dragster

It took a while for Thomas Nataas and the Veidec/Biltema Andersen Racing team to hit their straps; if the truth be told it wasn’t really until the semi-final stage when co-crewchiefs Karsten and Per Andersen figured out what the track was demanding, but when they did, boy did they deliver. Nataas qualified in third spot with a ‘sluggish’ (life being all relative) 4.052/301mph, and getting past Patrik Pers in the first round in a 4.007/304 to a 4.063/297 pairing (the latter being a new PB for Pers). Semi-finals and unaccustomed to not having lane choice, the wick was turned up and a 3.966/310.11 put the Norwegian on both ends of European Top Fuel record and past Stig Neergaard. Having gained lane choice for the final against Anita Mäkelä, the Andersen collective produced a last minute swap and headed into the right hand lane (Tierp’s left hand lane has developed an issue with keeping the rubber on the concrete about 200 feet out, not that it proved to be much of a hindrance on the 3.966) and ripped off a 3.982/306.99 that backed up the earlier ET mark and would stand as the new TS record.

Although she ended up as runner-up, Mäkelä had plenty to be happy about with her low qualifier 3.975/302 being the Finn’s first trip into the twilight zone (an apt description with Bobby Jr and Dom Lagana on hand over the course of the weekend) of 3s and over 300mph over the 1000 foot mark “it’s very difficult to sleep when you have such a big smile on your face”. First round of eliminations and Urs Erbacher’s 4.246 fell to a quicker 3.968/300 that briefly held as the European ET record, and another three, this time a 3.991/303 (remember that threes have been pretty rare on the European tour to this point) flashed up on a semifinal solo. Surprisingly, this led to a loss of lane choice (Anita having concentrated on the right hand side) in the final a situation that wasn’t assisted by a rush to get started after a brief cough the first time the motor was turned over, and ‘slowing’ to a 4.028 (that would have been low ET at all bar one of the preceding rounds this season) prevented the Finn from picking up her second win of the year.