Class review FIA Main Event – Pro Modified
Class Review FIA Main Event – Pro Modified
Venue: Santa Pod Raceway, UK
Dates: May 22-25th 2015
Mats Eriksson winner at Santa Pod
A couple of PB´s and consistently good runs for the winner says that the FIA/FIM Main Event was a fantastic weekend for the racers. Right now the Pro Modified teams are back home, updating their cars for the race weekend in Tierp in just a week, after a great start in UK.
Qualifications:
The Santa Pod raceway was in very good condition as were the air conditions, which was showed in the figures that the drivers produced. Mats Eriksson, Sweden was keen on revenge for his accident at this event last year. And he got it. First round out he made a 6.10 sec pass. Next round he improved even more with a PB at 5.956 sec 392.77 km/h which firmly placed the Green Goblin team in number one qualifier position until last round Sunday evening, when Michael Gullqvist finally got the hold of his ride and made his well-known performance count with a 5.88 sec pass that took the Q1 place away from Mats. The track was improving all the time and more than half the field ran quicker than 6.30 sec with many PB’s including Norbert Kuno at 6.09 sec, Rick Garrett at 6.36 sec, Roger Moore 6.41, Kev Slyfield at 6.40, Jean Dulamon at 6,30 sec and Mats Ericsson’s PB from earlier shows just how good the track was.
Roger Johansson had a bit of misfortune, or what we should call it. He missed a 5 sec run with just 7 thousand of a sec. That sucks.
A new car in the field was the German team of Peter Wacker and his turquoise ’57 Chevy built by Andy Robinson Race Cars. It stood out a bit with the bright lovely color and a team in same coloured shirts. Unfortunately they didn’t qualify this time. Peter is back on track after a gap of 10 years.
Summary Eliminations:
First round:
After a long night changing his engine Andy Robinson hadn’t had a chance to test the car, but took Marcus Hilt in first round. Both had tire shake but Andy got out of his first and took the win. Andy Robinson 6.39/368 km/h vs. Marcus Hilt 7.58/217 km/h
Jean Dulamon is a real fighter. He drives all the way from south of France to come to UK and race. Jean has been struggling a lot with the car and engine in the last years, but now he has installed a bigger engine and also got some help from Dick Koster who installed a shift light. David Vegter has rebuilt his car and changed from clutch to converter this year. Jean was fast on the tree in first elimination round but couldn’t hold David back, and it was the Dutch racer that took the win. David Vegter 6.15/370 km/h vs. Jean Dulamon 6.54/355 km/h
Jean Dulamon
Marco Maurischat took Bruno Bader on a holeshot but Bader was eager to take the win and chased Marco, who had some problem at the eighth, so Bader took the win with a 6.08 sec. time.
Bruno Bader 6.0821/368 km/h vs. Marco Maurischat 7.7921/194 km/h
Tero Laukkanen
Tero Laukkanen is a hard nut to crack and he runs very fast once the car get off the start line. This time Rick was way behind him already at the tree. Tero Laukkanen 6.05/402 km/h vs. Rick Garrett 6.37/344 km/h
Norbert Kuno had a good qualifying session this time. But the in first elimination round he was caught with bad tire shake, as did Kev Slyfield in the other lane. But Kuno had to stand back and Kev took the win.
Kev Slyfield 7.08/334 km/h vs. Norbert Kuno 7.11/342 km/h
Roger Johansson
A double Roger-round here. Roger Johansson was as close you can get to a five sec round in qualifying but missed out on it with a very small margin. Unfortunately he didn’t get back on track in the first elimination as he had to shut off early in the run and Roger Moore could bring home the first round.
Roger Moore 6.45/347 km/h vs. Roger Johansson 10.47/120 km/h
Mats Eriksson found the right way this event and he continued to go that way. Mats was very fast on the light and took a big holeshot on Andy Wright who had problems getting off the start line, got big tire-shakes and had to shut off. Mats Eriksson 5.9939/381 km/h vs. Andy Wright 26/40 km/h
Michael Gullqvist
Micke Gullqvist held us on a short string again this weekend. Saturday didn’t work very well for him, but on Sunday he was back again. Ended up at no 1Q and started his session of 5 sec runs.
In the first round he didn’t take a chance and he was long gone before Chris had come off the start line.
Micke Gullqvist 5.90/390 km/h vs. Chris Isaacs 7.74/217 km/h
Quarter-finals:
Andy Robinson tried his hardest to get Michael on the tree but red lit by -0,0120 sec. But Gullqvist didn’t step off the throttle at all. So another 5 sec round was logged.
Micke Gullqvist 5.89/390 km/h vs. Andy Robinson 10.16/149 km/h
Kevin Slyfield
Kev Slyfield left before the light turned on and so Tero Laukkanen could take it easy to the finish line, but did a full run anyway on a good time.
Tero Laukkanen 6.09/384 km/h vs. Kev Slyfield no time
The good old couple at the startline again. Last time in Hockenheim David took Mats in a very tight run. This time it was vice versa. These two guys always give tight and good racing to the spectators and so they did this time. But this race was Mats by small margins.
Mats Eriksson 6.09/379 km/h vs. David Vegter 6.15/371 km/h
Bruno Bader didn´t want to lose this round so he headed for the finish line and Roger Moore didn’t have chance.
Bruno Bader 6.12/363 km/h vs. Roger Moore 6.42/347 km/h
Semi Final:
Bruno Bader
Last year when Bruno Bader and Mats Ericsson met at this event was not good for Mats as he hit the walls. But now was another year. Mats was away a tiny bit before Bruno and then Bruno had to back off due to some shake and that was the chance for Mats to go straight ahead. Another 5 sec. run for the Green Goblin.
Mats Eriksson 5.98/384 km/h vs. Bruno Bader 6.60/344 km/h
Tero turned on the stage light but then backed out again so Micke might got tricked by that as it is auto start and when the light is on it is on. But Micke chased Tero as hard as he could but the win was Tero’s this time.
Tero Laukkanen 6.04/379 km/h def. Micke Gullqvist 6.08/378 km/h
Final:
For some reason that nobody could explain the Pro Mods weren’t run together with the other FIA classes. Instead the Fuel Funny Cars were run in between the last two FIA classes, which caused some delay as there was a massive cleanup after Kevin Kent won the race but lost the engine. Then the presentation of all other FIA classes was done during the cleanup and the Pro Mods still hadn’t come out onto the track. A very strange decision to let them wait that long, as the engines started to get cold and the spectators were going home.
Well, the Finals was expected to be a tight and fast run between Mats and Tero, but Tero had clutch problems in the burnout and so he backed off and Mats could take the win right at start. But he put the pedal to the metal and took another 5 sec. winning round.
Conclusions and looking ahead towards next event
Mats Ericsson and his team made a good start to the season with consistent runs. Many of the other racers also showed that they can run fast, so this season is going to be exiting. The ET is getting lower and lower in the class and so it is detailed data, good knowledge and the best gear selection that counts now. Right now everyone is busy in their workshops getting the cars in order for next round at Tierp Arena. It’s tight between the races now and many hardly get time to come home before it’s time to leave again. That can make a big difference for the ones that have a long way to travel. At this moment there are 24 teams signed up for the event at Tierp Arena. That means it´s going to take talent to just get in to the ladder. Well anything can happen and we will be there to report.
Link to full results:
QUAL_PM
Author & photos: Lena Perés lena.peres@speedgroup.eu edited by Ian Hart
Mats Eriksson and Kevin Kent
