Top Fuel Dragster
Surprising Alastaro eliminations cut short by rain
Anita Mäkelä
After an interesting qualifying and surprising first round of eliminations, the Top Fuel semi-finals of the FHRA Nitro Nationals promised to be even more exiting. The reigning champion Micke Kågered was out of competition and the numbers one and two in the championship, Stig Neergaard and Anita Mäkelä, had to face each other for a place in the final. But mother nature had other ideas and a thunderstorm and rain showers brought an early end to the third round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship at Alastaro, Finland. Continue reading
Anita Mäkelä defeats Birgitte Bremnes in first-ever all-female FIA Top Fuel final
Anita Mäkelä raced to victory at the Tierp Internationals in a historic race as it was the first-ever all-female Top Fuel final in the history of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship. Mäkelä defeated Birgitte Bremnes, and as the Finnish racer was the only driver to record 3.9-second runs at Tierp Arena, she deserved the win at the track where Mäkelä already made history last year with her European record runs. Continue reading
Stig Neergaard in command at The Main Event
Stig Neergaard and his winning team
Stig Neergaard has always had the speed, but at this year’s Main Event ‘the real Stig’ surprised with the combination of both speed and consistency at the moment he needed it. The Dane was low qualifier with 4.02 seconds and was the only Top Fuel driver to break the 4-second barrier at the season-opening race of the FIA European Championship at Santa Pod Raceway. So Neergaard deserved the win when he defeated reigning champion Micke Kågered in the final, to be the first leader in the 2016 FIA European Top Fuel Championship. Continue reading
Stefan Gunnarsson sticks to Top Fuel
Sweden’s Stefan Gunnarsson is leaving his injected-nitro Top Methanol Dragster in the workshop for the foreseeable future. Tuner Peter Lantz said that running both a Top Fuel Dragster and a Top Methanol Dragster was a crazy idea and that this season’s goal is to get Stefan’s Top Fueler into the threes – the sooner the better. Continue reading
More races and new PBs for Björn Mårtensson
After licencing in 2014, Björn Mårtensson made his official Top Fuel debut in 2015 with three races in the FIA European Championship. This year, the Top Fuel driver and his Nitrobear team are stepping up their operation, and with five races, including Santa Pod, they want to do an almost full championship tour. “There’s nothing as cool as racing a Top Fueler! We learned so much last year with the tuning but also working together as a team. This season we want to go faster, but also keep the car in one piece,” said Mårtensson, already looking forward to the start of the season. Continue reading
Nitro power for Urs Erbacher and daughter Jndia
Good news for the fans of Urs Erbacher! The multiple FIA European champion will do the full FIA European Top Fuel Championship Tour in 2016! As expected, the very popular Top Fuel driver only has one goal, and that’s to bring back the FIA Championship to Switzerland. At the NitrOlympX Urs will be accompanied by his 21-year old daughter Jndia. She will be driving in the Top Methanol Dragster category with Anthony Dicerio’s Nitro University A/Fuel Dragster which she recently drove in Las Vegas. Continue reading
Jari Halinen surprises, as Micke Kågered retains his title
Jari Halinen and Micke Kågered
Reigning champion Micke Kågered entered the European Finals as the leader in the FIA European Top Fuel Championship. But after a dominant win at Tierp and a strong Euro Finals qualifying, Anita Mäkelä was more and more the favourite to win the title in eliminations. Despite that, Kågered did it again, won the rounds he needed to win, and claimed his second consecutive FIA Top Fuel title. Jari Halinen played an unexpected, but major role in the outcome of the championship and race. The Finn didn’t qualify for eliminations, but could enter the race as alternate, to defeat Mäkelä in the first round and win the final from just crowned champion Kågered. Continue reading
Anita Mäkelä shines with victory and European record at Tierp Arena
Anita Mäkelä
Anita Mäkelä was in a class of her own in Top Fuel at the Scandinavian Internationals at Tierp Arena. In her Dom Lagana, Sami Lehtimäki and Tommi Haapanen tuned car, Mäkelä not only drove to victory, the Finnish fan favourite reset the European elapsed time record to a stunning 3.878 seconds, made six (!) consecutive 3 second passes and closed the gap to championship leader Micke Kågered to eighteen points! But Mäkelä was not the only one in the spot light, as more Top Fuel drivers had their best ever race at Tierp Arena. Continue reading
Micke Kågered Nitro King of the Ring
Micke Kågered
The Hockenheimring must be Micke Kågered’s favourite racetrack. For the second consecutive year Kågered was the winner in Top Fuel, and the way the reigning champion did it was even more impressive: number one qualifier, fastest in all elimination rounds and low ET and top speed of the event! With his victory the Bahco Express driver extended his lead in the championship and took maximum advantage of the first round exit of his closest rivals Anita Mäkelä and Stig Neergaard. Continue reading
Reigning champion Micke Kågered in command again
Micke Kågered
You don’t have to be the fastest to win races. It’s all about being fast enough in the right moment to defeat your opponent. And that’s exactly what Micke Kågered did at the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro. The reigning FIA European Top Fuel champion took a hole shot win against Janne Ahonen, saw Stig Neergaard run into problems with an engine explosion in the semi-finals, to have a bye-run in the final. With his victory the Bahco Express driver is the new leader in the championship after the Finnish round of the 2015 FIA European Drag Racing Championship. Continue reading
