Rain brings early end to The Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway
Rain brought an early end to the eliminations of The Main Event, round one of the 2025 FIA European Drag Racing Championship at Santa Pod Raceway. Top Methanol had completed their semi-finals and Pro Stock and Top Fuel were in the staging lanes for their semi-finals and final respectively, when it started to rain. After two hours waiting, it was still drizzling and with the forecast of rain in the next hour, the race director was left no other choice than to cancel the event. At that moment Pro Modified had completed two elimination rounds.
The weather was not with the racers and spectators on the Monday, eliminations day of The Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway, round one of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship. What started as a bright day with no clouds in the sky and no rain in the forecast, changed during the day. At 4.30 pm it started to rain, the eliminations couldn’t be completed and The Main Event 2025 finished without winners. Until that moment the spectators has seen great racing.
In Top Fuel Liam Jones (4.14 seconds) defeated Dennis Nilsson, who suffered mechanical problems half way through his run. In the other semi-final number one qualifier Susanne Callin and Jndia Erbacher both ran into problems, but the reigning FIA European champion from Switzerland crossed the finish line first to advance to the final.
With home favourite Jones and Erbacher in the staging lanes for their final, it started to rain and the first round of the FIA European Top Fuel Championship finished without a winner.
In Top Methanol reigning FIA European champion Jonny Lagg defeated Silvio Strauch in the first round. In the semi-finals the driver from Sweden had to face the number one qualifier Sandro Bellio. In a close run Lagg recorded a great 5.36 seconds to defeat Bellio and advanced to the final.
In the final Lagg would have met Tina Høst Nedregård. The driver of the Jedborn Motorsport A-Fueler had a bye run in the first round as Tony Bryntesson had problems to fire up his car. In the semi-final Høst Nedregård had another bye run to advance to the first final of her short career.
The eliminations in Pro Modified were exciting with almost all elimination round winners recording 5.8 or 5.9-second ETs. In the first round of eliminations there were no major surprises as the top eight qualifiers all won their run. In the quarter finals number one qualifier Marck Harteveld defeated John Tebenham in a great 5.89 seconds, after the Voodoo Hemi Racing driver had recorded a personal best in the first round with 5.85 seconds.
In the semi-finals Harteveld would have met Mats Eriksson. The driver from Sweden surprised Andres Arnover in the quarter finals when the driver from Estonia ran into problems.
David Vegter, the number two qualifier, was once again the quickest driver in eliminations. After a great 5.80 seconds in the first round, the Dutchman recorded an almost identical 5.81 seconds in the quarter finals to defeat reigning FIA European champion Jere Rantaniemi from Finland.
In could have been an all Dutch semi-final, as in the last quarter final Michel Tooren, the number three qualifier from The Netherlands, had to face Andy Robinson. But Tooren pulled a red light, handing the win to Robinson. The four semi-finalists were in the staging lanes when it started to rain, so we will never know if it would have been an all Dutch final between the numbers one and two qualifiers, Harteveld and Vegter.
In Pro Stock there were no major surprises in the first round of eliminations. Number one qualifier Robin Norén had a bye run in the first round and would have met Lasse Britsmar in the semi-finals.
Britsmar defeated Michael Malmgren in the first round as the Swede had a fuel leak at the start line.
Jimmy Ålund recorded a great 6.59 seconds in the first round, the quickest ET of the weekend, to defeat Henry Riehl. In the semifinal it would have been a great race against Stefan Ernryd, who defeated Simon Ekengren in the first round. But with the semi-finalists on the start line, it started to rain.
The FIA European Drag Racing Championship continues in August at Tierp Arena, Sweden.
For all Main Event results:https://santapodresults.com/2025/Main%20Event/
Text and photos: Remco Scheelings
