Andres Arnover moves up in the ranking

Andres Arnover started the Summit Racing Equipment Internationals as the number six in the FIA European Pro Modified Championship standing. With a semifinal finish at Tierp Arena the driver from Estonia moved up into third position. But to get there, the Fast Ford Racing Team had some tough days with a lot of work to be ready in time.

Andres Arnover broke his converter in qualifying at The Main Event and had to use a converter he could borrow from another competitor in eliminations for the first round of the FIA European Championship. But this one didn’t work perfectly together with the setup of the Mustang, Arnover hit tyreshake in his quarter final run after two seconds and lost against Mats Eriksson.

At the Bug Jam at Santa Pod, a round for the Motorsport UK Pro Modified Championship and two weeks prior to the Summit Racing Equipment Internationals, Arnover suffered problems again. “We broke a main cap and hurt the engine. Due to all the travelling between England and Sweden, we only had four days to build a spare engine,” said Arnover.

The team made it in time to Tierp Arena, but after the first qualifying run they had to fix a broken floating bearing. Arnover raised some attention as a lot of black smoke came from the exhausts when he started his burnouts. “That smoke was because the spare heads we had to use leaked some oil into the cylinders. But there was no major problem.”

Arnover qualified in fifth position for Sunday eliminations with 5.88 seconds, to take the win in round one over Kim Kristiansen in 5.86 seconds and a win in the quarter finals over Michel Tooren with a 5.94-second ET. In the semifinals Arnover had to face reigning FIA European champion Jere Rantaniemi and that was where his Tierp race ended.

“The reaction time was good, better then Jere, but something happened with the boost curve. It raised at the start very quickly so it started to smoke the tyres after 0.5 seconds, and then it remained at a same, too low level, 33-34psi max,” said Arnover. He recorded a 5.90-second ET and Rantaniemi a winning 5.84 seconds.

Arnover earned enough points at Tierp to gain three positions in the FIA European Pro Modified Championship and is third now, with two rounds in Germany and England to go.

Text and photos: Remco Scheelings