Tami Brander just squeezed into the 16 car eliminator on the bump with a 7.123 whilst shaking down the new blown Cobalt from his own Brander Race Cars shop. The Finnish racer and fabricator has a reputation for building and racing some of the more unusual entries in Pro Mod (his last car being a phenomenal blown Mondeo station wagon), the choice of a Cobalt body is entirely in keeping, but he’ll need to lop off half a second off his ET to be sure of qualifying in the rounds to come.
After a few seasons running in the NDRS Competition Eliminator ranks with a Ford Thunderbird, Hans “Lake Snake” Knuters debuted this superbly turned out blown Willys in FIA competition. Following on from a Top Doorslammer victory at the Deep Forest Nationals in Sweden, the veteran racer qualified well in the Alastaro field with a 6.691 and will soon be one of the most photographed entries on the European tour.
FIA Top Methanol Dragster
If it wasn’t for the rain, Dave Wilson would probably be within touching distance of his fifth FIA title in a row. Finland saw another qualifying effort (5.509/257) over a tenth ahead of the rest of the competition, and Arto Hoyla’s holeshot and best ET of the event was simply no match for Wilson’s 5.529/248 in the first round of eliminations for the six car field.
Arto Hoyla, the sole Finnish entry in Methanol Dragster seemed to be playing a high risk game in qualifying at the Nitro Nationals. Only appearing for the final session after sitting in the pits on the Friday, and very nearly being shut-off by the starter whilst his crew frantically worked to fix a fuel leak, a seven second short pass secured his place in the field, but meant a daunting first round match up with Dave Wilson. Hoyla is a wily competitor on his home patch and produced a big holeshot over Wilson and a 5.99 put him a bit closer at the finish line than many pundits would have expected.
