{"id":12593,"date":"2018-05-27T21:38:12","date_gmt":"2018-05-27T20:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/?p=12593"},"modified":"2018-05-27T21:38:12","modified_gmt":"2018-05-27T20:38:12","slug":"saturday-leaders-antti-horto-dennis-habermann-michael-gullqvist-and-bengt-ljungdahl-also-number-one-qualifiers-after-final-qualifying-for-the-main-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/2018\/05\/27\/saturday-leaders-antti-horto-dennis-habermann-michael-gullqvist-and-bengt-ljungdahl-also-number-one-qualifiers-after-final-qualifying-for-the-main-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday leaders Antti Horto, Dennis Habermann, Michael Gullqvist and Bengt Ljungdahl also number one qualifiers after final qualifying for The Main Event"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Antti Horto<\/p><\/div>\n

Antti Horto (Top Fuel), Dennis Habermann (Top Methanol), Michael Gullqvist (Pro Modified) and Bengt Ljungdahl (Pro Stock) claimed the number one qualifying positions at The Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway and will lead their respective categories into Monday\u2019s eliminations at the opening round of the 2018 FIA European Drag Racing Championship. These four drivers were also the number one qualifiers after the first day of qualifying at Santa Pod Raceway.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although the names of the number one qualifiers remained the same, there was plenty of action at the new, all concrete Santa Pod Raceway track. For the second consecutive day many personal bests were reset, proving that the new track surface is a major improvement for the racers and the numerous fans.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Liam Jones<\/p><\/div>\n

In Top Fuel Antti Horto from Finland couldn\u2019t improve on his Saturday performance, but the 3.904 seconds was enough to claim the number one qualifying position after four runs. There was a major improvement for local hero Liam Jones, as the CBD Asylum supported driver stormed to a stunning 3.905 seconds at 312 mph, only 0.001 second short of his Finnish Rune Fjeld Motorsport team mate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Duncan Micallef<\/p><\/div>\n

With his Friday elapsed time of 3.920 seconds, reigning FIA European champion Duncan Micallef dropped into the third position. Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4 from Finland is the number four qualifier and will face the second female driver in the field, Jndia Erbacher. The young Swiss driver improved to a great 4.10 seconds, but remained in fifth position.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mikael K\u00e5gered<\/p><\/div>\n

There was drama for multiple champion Mikael K\u00e5gered as the Swede first had a severe fire, was than bumped into the ninth spot by Bj\u00f6rn M\u00e5rtensson and will not be in tomorrows eliminations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Michael Gullqvist<\/p><\/div>\n

In Pro Modified Michael Gullqvist\u2019s Saturday elapsed time of 5.86 seconds was again too quick for the rest of the field and the reigning FIA European champion remained in the number one position.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jimmy \u00c5lund<\/p><\/div>\n

Jimmy \u00c5lund improves to 5.912 seconds and remained in second position. Local here Andy Robinson stormed to a great 5.925 seconds to take over the number three spot from David Vegter, who finished qualifying in fourth position.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Andy Robinson<\/p><\/div>\n

Kim Kristiansen reset his personal best once again and with 5.940 seconds the Dane is fifth, followed by Jan Ericsson (6.01 seconds) and Fredrik Fagerstr\u00f6m. As the field is so close together, and with five drivers in the 5-second zone, eliminations will once again be exciting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dennis Habermann<\/p><\/div>\n

In Top Methanol Timo Habermann improved on his Saturday performance with 5.36 seconds, but is was still not enough to take over the lead from his brother and Werner Habermann Racing teammate Dennis Habermann (5.32 seconds).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Timo Habermann<\/p><\/div>\n

With Jonny Lagg and J\u00fcrgen Nagel in third and fourth position, the top four remained as it was after day one.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sandro Bellio<\/p><\/div>\n

There was a major improvement for Sandro Bellio and the Belgian Funny Car driver jumped from seventh into fifth position.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bengt Ljungdahl<\/p><\/div>\n

In Pro Stock there was a major improvement for Stefan Ernryd. The Swedish Dodge driver recorded 6.664 second to take over the second qualifying position from Michael Malmgren. Bengt Ljungdahl couldn\u2019t improve on his earlier performance but his 6.645 seconds was enough to remain in the number one position.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Stefan Ernryd<\/p><\/div>\n

There was also a major improvement and personal best for Robin Nor\u00e9n (6.71 seconds), but still the young Swede remained fourth. With only 0.07 seconds between the number one and four qualifiers, a major surprise is also possible in Pro Stock eliminations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Robin Nor\u00e9n<\/p><\/div>\n

Eliminations for The Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway will start tomorrow morning, bank holiday Monday May 28.<\/p>\n

More photos from The Main Event can be found at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/main-event-santa-pod-may-2018\/<\/a><\/p>\n

For pit notes see eurodragster.com:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.eurodragstereventcoverage.com\/santapod\/live\/2018fiamainevent\/pitnotes\/sunday.asp<\/a><\/p>\n

For all Main Event results:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/results-2018\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Antti Horto (Top Fuel), Dennis Habermann (Top Methanol), Michael Gullqvist (Pro Modified) and Bengt Ljungdahl (Pro Stock) claimed the number one qualifying positions at The Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway and will lead their respective categories into Monday\u2019s eliminations at the opening round of the 2018 FIA European Drag Racing Championship. These four drivers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12593"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12638,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593\/revisions\/12638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}