Jndia Erbacher, David Vegter, Tony Bryntesson and Jimmy Ålund number one qualifiers at The Main Event
Jndia Erbacher (Top Fuel), David Vegter (Pro Modified) and Jimmy Ålund (Pro Stock) remained the number one qualifiers for The Main Event with the elapsed times they recorded on the Saturday. Only in Top Methanol there was a new leader as Tony Bryntesson recorded 5.36 seconds to take over the number one qualifying position. Thus Erbacher, Vegter, Ålund and Bryntesson are the four drivers who will lead their respective categories into Monday’s eliminations at the opening round of the 2024 FIA European Drag Racing Championship at Santa Pod Raceway.
Rain hampered the second day of qualifying for The Main Event, round one of the 2024 FIA European Drag Racing Championship at Santa Pod Raceway. After a long rain delay in the morning, all four FIA classes were able to complete their third qualifying run of the weekend. But when that session was finished, a heavy rain shower brought an early end to the second day of qualifying and the scheduled fourth round had to be cancelled.
The Sunday qualifying run didn’t change Saturday’s qualifying order in Top Fuel, thus Jndia Erbacher remained the number one qualifier with her Saturday elapsed time of 3.86 seconds, with Susanne Callin second and Duncan Micallef third.
In Pro Modified that single Sunday run changed the order in several positions, but once again it was Saturday’s leader David Vegter who recorded the quickest elapsed time of the third session with 5.81 seconds, only 0.01 second short of his number one qualifying run from the Saturday. Home favourite
Andy Robinson was not able to improve on his Saturday performance, but his 5.89 seconds was enough to finish qualifying in second position. There was a major improvement for Andres Arnover, last year’s number three in the FIA European Pro Modified Championship.
After two aborded runs on Saturday, the driver from Estonia stormed to a great 5.90 seconds to jump into the third position. Jere Rantaniemi (Finland) dropped one position and finished qualifying in fourth position, with Buno Bader (Switzerland) fifth en Bobby Wallace (UK) sixth. There was also a major improvement for Stian Rusånes. The driver from Norway improved to a great 6.08 seconds to jump from the eleventh into the seventh position.
In Top Methanol there were two major changes compared to the Saturday results. Tony Bryntesson (Sweden) stormed to a great 5.36 seconds to claim the number one position after three runs. Silvio Strauch (Germany) dropped one position with his Saturday elapsed time of 5.64 seconds.
Due to problems with the oil pressure Sandro Bellio had to skip the qualifying runs on the Saturday. After many hours of hard work the driver from Belgium started in the third qualifying session and although the elapsed time was far from what he expected, it was enough to finish qualifying in third position. Jonny Lagg suffered traction problems again and is the number four qualifier.
In Pro Stock there was one major change in the qualifying order. As expected Jimmy Ålund remained in the number one position (6.56 seconds) with Robin Norén second (6.6536 seconds) and reigning FIA European Pro Stock champion Michael Malmgren third (6,6538 seconds).
Richard Sundblom completed a good run and recorded 6.70 seconds to jump into the number four position, with Saturday’s number four Simon Ekengren fifth.
Eliminations for The Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway will start tomorrow morning, Monday May 27.
More photos from The Main Event can be found at:
https://www.dragracingeurope.eu/fiaedc/round-1-santa-pod-may-24-27-2024/
For all Main Event results:
https://santapodresults.com/2024/Main%20Event/
Text and photos: Remco Scheelings
