{"id":5837,"date":"2016-06-09T20:35:44","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T19:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/?p=5837"},"modified":"2016-06-09T20:35:46","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T19:35:46","slug":"jonny-lagg-in-personal-best-to-main-event-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/2016\/06\/09\/jonny-lagg-in-personal-best-to-main-event-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonny Lagg in personal best to Main Event victory"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"lagg.110\"<\/a>

Jonny Lagg<\/p><\/div>\n

Jonny Lagg reset his personal best in the final to take the Main Event win in Top Methanol Dragster. Lagg started the final as the underdog against 2014 FIA European champion Chris Polidano, as the Maltese driver recorded a stunning 5.29 seconds in the semi-final. But when the moment arrived, Polidano\u2019s motor caused problems and so Lagg had a bye run to the podium.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The FIA European Drag Racing Championship kicked off with the traditional Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. With four entrants, Top Methanol Dragster was not the most competitive class this time, and reigning champion and runner-up Dennis and Timo Habermann were sadly missed. But also some good news as Rod Harrison stepped up from Super Pro ET to the FIA category and made his debut at The Main Event.<\/p>\n

\"polidano.130\"<\/a>

Chris Polidano<\/p><\/div>\n

Qualifying<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dave Wilson was the leader after qualifying one with 5.48 seconds, but in the second session it was Chris Polidano, the 2014 FIA European Top Methanol Dragster champion, who took over the number one qualifying position with 5.38 seconds. Jonnie Lagg, last year\u2019s number three in the FIA championship, was third after day one, with Harrison in fourth.<\/p>\n

\"harrison.321\"<\/a>

Rod Harrison<\/p><\/div>\n

As nobody could improve on their Saturday performance, the qualifying order stayed as it was. Despite his number one qualifying position, Polidano was far from sure about his chances on race day, as the Maltese driver, who made his comeback after a one year break, had traction problems in both Sunday qualifying attempts and also suffered mechanical problems at the test day.<\/p>\n

\"polidano.330\"<\/a>

Chris Polidano<\/p><\/div>\n

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

Semi-finals<\/strong><\/p>\n

All Maltese problems seemed to be gone in the semi-finals when Polidano stormed to a stunning 5.29 seconds at 263 mph, to beat Harrison in his first elimination appearance. But the British crew also had something to cheer about as the rookie\u2019s elapsed time was 5.79 seconds, by far his best run of the weekend and a new personal best.<\/p>\n

\"wilson.350\"<\/a>

Dave Wilson, semi-final<\/p><\/div>\n

The second semi-final between Wilson and Lagg was a close one. Lagg was away first and although Wilson was never far behind, Lagg pulled away to take the win in 5.48 seconds, beating Wilson\u2019s 5.55 seconds time.<\/p>\n

\"lagg.361f\"<\/a>

Jonny Lagg, bye run in the final<\/p><\/div>\n

Final<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thus Polidano had to face Lagg in the final, with the Maltese driver being the favourite to win the Main Event title. But when the crew fired up the engine, it immediately stopped again and couldn\u2019t be restarted. Lagg\u2019s win was sure, but he didn\u2019t take it the easy way and stormed to 5.42 seconds, a new personal best for the Swede.<\/p>\n

\"lagg.320\"<\/a>

Jonny Lagg<\/p><\/div>\n

Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n

It won\u2019t be a surprise that Lagg is the championship leader after The Main Event, with Polidano in the runner-up position.<\/p>\n

\"polidano.070\"<\/a>

Chris Polidano<\/p><\/div>\n

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

Low ET: Chris Polidano, 5.292 seconds<\/p>\n

Top speed: Chris Polidano, 263.66 mph<\/p>\n

Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

Link to final qualifying list:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/05\/QUAL_TMD.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Link to elimination ladder<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/05\/LADDER_TMD.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Link to championship points standing after The Main Event<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/points-standings\/<\/a><\/p>\n

For more photos see:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/photo-galleries\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Text: Remco Scheelings<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos: Remco Scheelings<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonny Lagg reset his personal best in the final to take the Main Event win in Top Methanol Dragster. Lagg started the final as the underdog against 2014 FIA European champion Chris Polidano, as the Maltese driver recorded a stunning 5.29 seconds in the semi-final. But when the moment arrived, Polidano\u2019s motor caused problems and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5837"}],"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=5837"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5877,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5837\/revisions\/5877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dragracingeurope.eu\/fiaedc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}