Jndia Erbacher, Tony Bryntesson, Mats Eriksson and Jimmy Ålund Friday leaders at Hockenheim

Jndia Erbacher raced to the provisional number one qualifying position in Top Fuel at the first day of qualifying for the NitrOlympX, the third round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship at the Rico Anthes Quartermile of the HockenheimRing, Germany. In Top Methanol Tony Bryntesson is the leader after two runs, while Mats Eriksson is the leader in Pro Modified. In Pro Stock it is once again Jimmy Ålund in the number one qualifying spot.

It was a difficult first day of qualifying for the teams, crew chiefs and drivers at the HockenheimRing. There were not so many good runs and ETs, thus there is much room for improvements on Saturday. The final qualifying order might therefore be totally different at the end of Saturday, as all classes have another two runs. It will be an interesting day with again a lot of spectators in the grandstands.

In Top Fuel Jndia Erbacher recorded 4.24 seconds on her second run of the day. The Swiss driver is now the provisional number one qualifier at her ‘home track’. Liam Jones is the number two qualifier with the 5.34 seconds the RF Motorsport driver recorded on his second run, after his was hit with problems when he wanted to fire up his engine on run one.

Susanne Callin, the number one in the championship, recorded the third ET with 5.56 seconds.

In Top Methanol Tony Bryntesson stormed to a great 5.38 seconds to claim the provisional number one qualifying position, with A-Fuel Team Sweden team mate Jonny Lagg in second position with 5.47 seconds.

The dragsters did a better job on Friday as Silvio Strauch recorded the third quickest ET with 5.60 seconds. Funny car drivers Jürgen Nagel and Sandro Bellio are the numbers four and five.

In Pro Modified Mats Eriksson is the leader after day one. The Swede recorded a great 5.926 seconds on his second run of the day.

David Vegter, the number one qualifier after the first run with 5.95 seconds, improved to 5.929 seconds and is in second position, only 0.003 seconds short of Eriksson.

The difference between the number three and four qualifiers is also marginal with a 6.011 seconds for Michel Tooren and 6.013 seconds for reigning champion Jere Rantaniemi. Marck Harteveld, the number two in the championship, is in fifth position with 6.04 seconds, with Bruno Bader sixth. Andres Arnover is only in seventh position and will definitely want to improve his position on Saturday.

In Pro Stock it was once again Jimmy Ålund who claimed the provisional number one qualifying position with a great 6.69 seconds.

Michael Malmgren recorded 6.81 seconds on his first run to claim the number two position. Henry Riehl surprised with the number three spot, but his ET, 7.03 seconds, will not be enough to keep Simon Ekengren, Stefan Ernryd and Robin Norén behind after Saturday qualifying.

Qualifying for the NitrOlympX, round three of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship continues on the Saturday.

For all qualifying results:
https://www.tw-sportsoft.de/NitrolympX_2025_403250/TW_ON_Virtueller_Aushang.php?AUSWAHL_AUSHANG_ART_ID=6

For the photo gallery (will be updated later tonight):
https://www.dragracingeurope.eu/fiaedc/29-31-aug-hockenheimring/

Text and photo: Remco Scheelings