{"id":1920,"date":"2015-05-28T13:31:40","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T13:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fiaedc.edrspro.com\/?p=1920"},"modified":"2015-05-28T13:31:40","modified_gmt":"2015-05-28T13:31:40","slug":"anita-makela-rules-at-santa-pod-main-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/2015\/05\/28\/anita-makela-rules-at-santa-pod-main-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Class Review FIA Main Event – Top Fuel Dragster"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4<\/p><\/div>\n

Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4 rules at Santa Pod FIA Main Event<\/strong><\/p>\n

Game, set and match in Top Fuel for Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4 at the Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway, the opening round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship. From the number one qualifying position M\u00e4kel\u00e4 reset the European ET record to 3.912 seconds in the first round of eliminations to claim victory with a string of 3-second runs. Although the rest of the Top Fuel field was close together, the Finnish crowd favourite was in a class of her own as she was the only one to run into the 3 seconds and break the 300 mph barrier.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cool air and perfect track conditions at Santa Pod Raceway in qualifying and during eliminations for the Main Event made it possible for the teams to show what they were capable of.<\/p>\n

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Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4<\/p><\/div>\n

Qualification<\/strong><\/p>\n

Qualifying was already an indication of what was to come from the Sami Lehtim\u00e4ki and Dom Lagana tuned Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4 Top Fueler. In a stunning 3.96 seconds, the Finnish crowd favourite took the number one qualifying position and was the only one to break the 4-second barrier. As expected, Stig Neergaard came close and his 4.04-second pass was good enough to jump into second qualifying position. A good qualifying too for Duncan Micallef, as in third position (4.09 seconds) the Maltese driver was the first of four Rune Fjeld Motorsport drivers.<\/p>\n

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

The two rookie Top Fuel drivers Liam Jones and Birgitte Bremnes had to do their last license pass in qualifying. Both impressed with solid runs. Jones\u2019 4.11 seconds handed the RFM driver position four. The 23-year-old Bremnes was only 0.12 seconds behind, but as the field was very close, she ended qualifying behind Jari Halinen and Micke K\u00e5gered in seventh position. In the Erbacher Racing car, Tethys had to deal with some mechanical problems and was eighth.<\/p>\n

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Birgitte Bremnes<\/p><\/div>\n

Eliminations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quarter finals<\/p>\n

In the first round of eliminations M\u00e4kel\u00e4 stormed to a stunning 3.912 seconds, reset the European Top Fuel record and was too fast for local hero Tethys. Jones was defeated by RFM teammate Halinen and so both British drivers were out of the race. The first round of eliminations also made an early end to the Top Fuel debut of Bremnes, as the Norwegian racer was defeated by Neergaard. A major improvement for K\u00e5gered as the reigning champion reset his personal best to 4.02 seconds to defeat Micallef. In his run the Maltese driver had some serious traction problems and even touched the wall with his right rear tyre.<\/p>\n

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Semi-final Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4 and Jari Halinen<\/p><\/div>\n

Semi-finals<\/p>\n

In the all Finnish semi-final another 3.9 second run for M\u00e4kel\u00e4 (3.922), a back-up for the European record, proved too fast for Halinen in the Sisu dragster. And as impressive as the time, was the 305.86 mph speed of the Lagana tuned dragster. In the other semi-final K\u00e5gered couldn\u2019t improve on his first round performance and saw Neergaard cross the finish line first.<\/p>\n

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Stig Neergaard<\/p><\/div>\n

Final<\/p>\n

After such a great and record setting weekend the Main Event deserved a great final. But alas, the final was decided before the light turned green as Neergaard was stopped by a fuel leak when he came back from the burn out. But that was no reason for M\u00e4kel\u00e4 to cruise to victory. In 3.98 seconds the Finnish chicken farmer stormed to the third 3-second pass of the day. A well-deserved win for the Finnish team that was fastest all weekend.<\/p>\n

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Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4 and Stig Neergaard<\/p><\/div>\n

Next round<\/strong><\/p>\n

The FIA European Drag Racing Championship will continue at Tierp Arena in Sweden June 5-7. M\u00e4kel\u00e4 will do everything she can to defend her lead, but will have to do that without Dom Lagana, as the American tuner has other commitments. With nine entrants one\u00a0competitors will already see their race end after qualifying. Multiple champion Urs Erbacher will start his season at Tierp. Another racer who will have his first race of the season is Swede\u00a0Bj\u00f6rn M\u00e5rtensson. For Stefan Gunnarsson, Tierp will be his first ever Top Fuel race as the Top Methanol Dragster racer will debut a dragster he bought from England. With driving duties in two classes, the Swede (and his team) will have a busy weekend. Tethys and Bremnes will not race at Tierp.<\/p>\n

Main Event statistics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Low ET: Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4 3.912 seconds
\nTop speed: Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4 305.86 mph
\nNew European ET record:\u00a0 Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4 3.912 seconds<\/p>\n

Link to timing system results <\/strong>\u2013 Top Fuel Dragster:
\n<\/strong>Qual_TF<\/a>
\nELIMINATIONS TF<\/a><\/p>\n

Text & Photos: Remco Scheelings remco.scheelings@speedgroup.eu<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>

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

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Jari Halinen<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tethys<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4 rules at Santa Pod FIA Main Event Game, set and match in Top Fuel for Anita M\u00e4kel\u00e4 at the Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway, the opening round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship. From the number one qualifying position M\u00e4kel\u00e4 reset the European ET record to 3.912 seconds in the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920"}],"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=1920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}