New European record for Timo Habermann, but Dennis Habermann wins at Tierp Arena

Published 2015-08-29 | By Remco Scheelings

Timo and Dennis Habermann

As at Hockenheim two weeks earlier, it was another all Habermann party in Top Methanol Dragster at the Scandinavian Internationals, and again it was Dennis Habermann who defeated his brother Timo in the final, to take his second consecutive win and extend his lead in the FIA European Championship. But still, Timo Habermann also had his moment of glory, as the young German reset his own European elapsed time record to a stunning 5.210 seconds!

The Scandinavian Internationals at Tierp Arena was the fifth and penultimate round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship. Helped by the perfect weather and track conditions at the state-of-the-art drag race facility, a record crowd of 37,000 spectators were offered an action packed and exciting race weekend, with Top Methanol Dragster providing both personal bests and a European record.

Timo Habermann

Qualifying

As expected qualifying was a race between Timo and Dennis Habermann. Timo was the first one to take the lead with 5.29 seconds, but in the second qualifying Dennis bounced back with 5.280 seconds, a new personal best for the young German. In Saturday qualifying it was Timo’s turn again to improve, and with 5.26 seconds he regained the lead. As Dennis couldn’t improve on his Friday performance, Timo stayed in the number one qualifying position, with Dennis second.

Stefan Gunnarsson

Stefan Gunnarsson improved to 5.94 seconds on Saturday and was third, while Jonny Lagg had severe traction problems, went ‘up-in-smoke’ at the start line in almost every run, and was fourth and last qualifier.

Jonny Lagg

Eliminations

Semi-final

As the number one qualifier, Timo Habermann had to face Lagg in the semi-finals, while Gunnarsson had to prevent a second consecutive all Habermann final in his run against Dennis. With a better reaction time Gunnarsson had a slight advantage at the tree, but in the run Dennis Habermann was quicker, although the Swede was not that far behind with 5.58 to 5.78 seconds.

Timo Habermann

But most attention went out to the other semi-final. While Lagg went up-in-smoke again, Timo Habermann stormed to a stunning 5.210 seconds, a new European ET record (the previous record was 5.221 seconds).

The final

Final

As at Hockenheim, it was an all Habermann final, and although Timo was the favourite again, the result was the same as at their home track. The only difference was, that the race was already decided at the start line, as Timo tried a bit too much and went up-in-smoke. In the other lane Dennis Habermann had no problems at all, and with 5.288 seconds he won his second consecutive race.

Dennis and Timo Habermann

Championship

With his victory, Dennis Habermann extended his lead in the championship to 45 points over brother Timo Habermann. Lagg is third, but too far behind to have a fair chance to win the title.