Scandinavian Internationals, the key to win the championship
Tierp Arena
With the Scandinavian Internationals, the FIA European Drag Racing Championship enters its most crucial stage of the season. Mistakes or early exits can let point leads disappear and ruin title chances. Micke Kågered, Dennis Habermann, Leif Andreasson, Mats Eriksson and Jimmy Ålund come to the penultimate race of the championship as the leaders in their respective categories. They will all be at Tierp Arena to defend their lead, but competition will be tough with many entries in all classes. And when the weather conditions are good, Tierp Arena can always surprise with new European records.
In June Tierp Arena already proved that records are there to be reset at the state-of-the-art drag racing facility north of Stockholm. Many personal bests were reset and of course Jimmy Ålund ran two new European records. Now that all teams have made more runs and know a lot more about their set-up, they can go even faster and quicker. But still, for many of the competitors, records are not the most important thing in this final stage of the season. Going rounds, gaining points and avoiding any mistakes are all critical, so that they are still in the title race when they travel to the European Finals at Santa Pod, the final round of the championship.
Micke Kågered
Top Fuel
There are no less than eleven entries in Top Fuel for an eight car elimination ladder at Tierp. The race will already start in qualifying as a ‘DNQ’ can ruin title chances. After two consecutive wins and the great form he showed at Hockenheim, Micke Kågered will travel to his home track full of confidence. The reigning champion extended his lead in Germany and is now 66 points ahead of Anita Mäkelä.
Anita Mäkelä
The Finnish fan favourite is out for revenge after her engine explosion first round exit at Hockenheim. Tierp is her chance to close the gap to Kågered and still be in the title race in England. Stig Neergaard is the number three in the championship, and like Mäkelä, the Dane needs a good score to stay in the title race. After his disappointing first round exit at Hockenheim there were some rumors that Neergaard would skip the Tierp race, but so far there is no confirmation about that.
Stig Neergaard
The three regular Rune Fjeld Motorsport entries, Liam Jones, Jari Halinen and Duncan Micallef will of course all be at Tierp too. Top Fuel rookie Jones had a good season so far and his next step will be a final round. And if that happens, his first win is also close. Halinen reset his personal best several times this year, but the Finn was unlucky in eliminations, while Maltese lion Micallef had to deal with some mechanical issues.
Jari Halinen and Antti Horto
So far the regular 2015 FIA EC contenders. But there are more Top Fuelers on the Tierp entry list and all can ruin the title aspirations of the favourites. First of all Antti Horto in the Rune Fjeld Motorsport/Eagle Racing Motorsport car. The Finn was runner-up at Alastaro, has already proved he can win races and is always fast.
Stefan Gunnarsson
Stefan Gunnarsson made some good passes in Alastaro and although the BSG Dragracing team is still working on the set-up, they can surprise. Björn Mårtensson is back after his Tierp Internationals outing and Patrik Pers is also on the entry list again. A new name this season, but well-known in Top Fuel, is Monica Ȍberg. It’s great to see Ȍberg back in action as she is one of the most experienced Top Fuel racers.
Mats Eriksson
Pro Modified
Talking about tough competition and ‘hard to qualify’, what about Pro Modified? No less than 26 cars will start qualifying for a 16-car elimination ladder! So ten combinations will already go home Saturday evening!
Bruno Bader
Mats Eriksson is leading the championship, with Bruno Bader from Switzerland in second position, 51 points behind the Swede. After his Hockenheim win Michael Gullqvist is back in the title race, but still the multiple champion has to close a gap of 60 points!
Michael Gullqvist
So Gullqvist will need another win at Tierp. With Tero Laukkanen, David Vegter, Alastaro winner Anders Nilsson, Roger Johansson, Robert Joosten, Andreas Artursson and Håkan Persson the whole top ten of the FIA European Pro Modified Championship is at Tierp.
Anders Nilsson
From Germany Marco Maurischat is back at Tiep after a 2-year break. Niclas Andersson is not a championship contender, but as he proved at the Tierp Internationals, he is always in the top of the field and can spoil title dreams.
Niclas Andersson
But with Per Granqvist, Fredrik Lundh and Johan Westberg there are more drivers who can surprise. It’s too much to mention them all, but Scandinavia has so many ultra-fast doorslammers, maybe one of the other combinations will cause an upset. With 26 entries Pro Modified has the strongest field so far this year, a good reason to not miss one single qualifying run!
Leif Andreasson
Top Methanol Funny Car
Two months after his crash at the same track Leif Andreasson is back at Tierp, and as the leader in the championship. In only a few weeks’ time Andreasson and his team (re)built a (new) car, scored some points at Alastaro to extended his lead with a win at Hockenheim.
Johan Lindberg
But at Tierp, Andreasson will get some tough competition. Reigning champion Johan Lindberg skipped the German race, is now 95 points behind, but will only go for a race win at Tierp. From Finland comes Johnny Oksa, the number three in the championship and runner-up at Alastaro. Oksa was already fast, but is getting more and more consistent now too and with that combination he can win races.
Johnny Oksa
Also from Finland is Ari Pietilä. So far the Panox driver is a bit too inconsistent to reach the final. Maybe the biggest surprise is Mikael Larsson. After his crash with Andreasson at the Tierp Internationals it almost seemed impossible for the local hero from Gävle to come back this season. But with the help from his sponsors and a lot of hard work, Larsson will also be at Tierp.
Dennis and Timo Habermann
Top Methanol Dragster
It looked like Top Methanol Dragster would only have two entries at the Scandinavian Internationals. But after the all Habermann final at Hockenheim, brothers Dennis and Timo are also back in the championship race and late entries for Tierp. After Hockenheim Dennis Habermann is the new leader, with brother Timo 26 points behind in second position.
Stefan Gunnarsson
Jonny Lagg is third in the championship and also at Tierp. A double program for Stefan Gunnarsson as the BSG-driver will race in Top Fuel and Top Methanol Dragster. Dave Wilson, the number four in the championship, is not at Tierp and so four combinations will qualify for the eliminations.
Jimmy Ålund
Pro Stock
Pro Stock Car did not race at the NitrOlympX. Tierp is therefore their fourth race of the European championships. Jimmy Ålund leads the championship from Thomas Lindström by just 14 points. With 10 cars attending Tierp, there are a maximum of 110 points up for grabs for a team that can monopolise the number one qualifier spot and go on to win the race. With several cars in the mix capable of laying down number one qualifier numbers, we hope to see a repeat and perhaps a rewriting of the record set at Tierp in 2013 for the quickest and fastest 8 cars to qualify. Back then, the number one spot was taken by Jimmy Ålund with a 6.53. The bump spot was 6.8. This year, Jimmy has already run 6.49 and 215mph (346kmh), and has done it at both Tierp and Santa Pod. A bump spot of 6.75 may well be the case if all the factors line up, and this will of course include weather.
Thomas Lindström
Thomas Lindström has made some big steps forwards this year with car set up. The team understand much more about their suspensions and chassis tuning than they ever have before. They will be working tirelessly to put the Ernryd cars sponsored Dodge into the number one spot, and to take the race win. With only a 14 point gap to Jimmy, Thomas and team are capable of taking the points lead away before the Pro Stock finals at Santa pod in September.
Magnus Petersson
Magnus Petersson has moved up into third place after an excellent performance in Alastaro which saw him run to a final on a track that provided a number of challenges to all the teams. The PB racing team is quick to capitalize on changing conditions and deliver results where other teams struggle. Magnus won this event last year and so is more than capable of delivering.
Michael Malmgren
Michael Malmgren sits in fourth place after three rounds. Michael was the semi-finalist at this event last year and has been lowering his ET progressively over the last races. Malmgren is the highest points scorer in European drag race history, having won the FIA European Pro Stock championships three times and has never finished outside the top four. His statistics prove that he is a championship contender. Michael will not want to stay in fourth place and will mount a strong challenge all the way to the end.
Richard Sundblom
In fifth place is Richard Sundblom from Finland. Fifth place is all the more creditable since Richard has only attended one race so far this year. “Nixxon” picked up his entire points tally in the Alastaro race where he all but dominated qualifying and took the event win. A similar performance in Tierp would see him move into the top three, which for just two events would be a special achievement indeed. Simon Gustafsson occupies sixth spot. The youngest driver in the Pro Stock championship, Simon is delivering mature performances and with the support and deep knowledge of the Samantha racing team, is capable of qualifying and taking a round win or two. Getting on to the ladder must be objective one, and then make up for the power differential to some of the other teams with a great light. Jan Ericsson ran PBs and took out Jimmy Ålund at Alastaro, which must improve the confidence that he and his team are feeling. They will also make the trip to England for the Finals, and so we can assume that they are aiming for a low number to put on the car for next year. A certain contender for a qualification position, and a team that have shown they are capable of winning rounds.
Sampsa Palos, Christian Sagelv and Bengt Ljungdahl will all be hoping to make the cut, all three have cars and set ups which are capable of doing so, and therefore we expect to see a tightly matched and closely fought qualification series which will give us eight cars to fight down to the wire for the event.
The outcomes of this event are too close to call, but we would not be surprised to see championship positions swapped and a situation develop that leads to a nail biting final at Santa Pod in September.
Scandinavian Internationals, Tierp Arena, August 20-23, entry list:
