Autoart at The Main Event
Dennis Nilsson crossed the finish line on all of his four qualifying runs at The Main Event. De driver of the Autoart Top Fuel dragster was the leader after the first day of qualifying at Santa Pod and finished qualifying in third position. The opening round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship finished for Nilsson in the semi-finals when he was defeated by home favourite Liam Jones. But even more important than the race result, was the fact that the Autoart team learned a lot. Co-crew chief Freddy Wendt tells the inside story of the team’s race weekend in England.
“It was a weekend that was as much as a test as a race for us. For this season we updated the car with an All-In-One-Valve. The All-In-One is a modern fuel management valve that replaces the traditional Slide Valve & BDK Valve. To manage this valve with air and timers, as well as the clutch cannon and safety systems, we also put an Electrimotion Top Fuel Command module on the car. We also were the first Top Fuel team in Europe to replace the traditional MSD Retard ignition box to the NHRA standard MSD 8771 Top Fuel Power Grid for ignition management,” said Freddy Wendt about some of the adjustments to the car. “So we had a lot of new stuff to try out. There were some failures, but we learned a lot from it. We even ended up running personal best ETs on the 60 feet, 330 feet and 1/8 mile, even with 30 MPH down on speed through the 1/8 mile marker.”
All this is a great team effort and a great cooperation between three crew chiefs, Johnny Nilsson, Freddy Wendt and Teddy Larsson. Everyone has their own speciality. “Johnny is the old school guy with tons of mechanical experience on these cars. He builds the engine blocks, does the machining work. He puts magnetos, triggers, fix all mechanical issues, looks at the parts after runs and makes tuning calls that way etc. I do the in lounge tuning work with management systems, computers, read all the data loggs from the runs, do all the excel math sheets with blower, compression, ignition, clutch calculations etc. Teddy is Johnny’s youngest son and he makes sure all the tuning calls happen, he mixes nitro, takes care of tyre circumference, tyre pressure, wheelie bar settings etc. Teddy is one of the smartest young kids I’ve ever met. He starts to become a real track-whisperer. He keeps up with track temps, grip numbers, track conditions and applies that to the tuning of tyres, clutch application etc.. He was really the key to our 60-330 feet success this weekend, only 20 years old!”
“So it is really a crew chief trio that works close together with great mechanics on clutch, bottom end, cylinder heads, blowers etc. And all that team work has really made us step up for this year in my eyes. We need to sort out some gremlins, address some issues and then we will be able to keep up with the other cars, even though we still don’t run modern setback intakes, we still run cast blowers like the early 00’s.”
“As I said, we learned a lot at The Main Event. We are looking forward to Mantorp, to continue testing while racing, before we head back on the FIA European Drag Racing Championship schedule.”
Text: Freddy Wendt, Remco Scheelings
Photos: Remco Scheelings
