Making for a truly multinational final four, Finland’s Jari Halinen drove Rune Fjeld’s primary entry for 2008 to a creditable sixth spot on the qualifying ladder and then got around his fellow Finn Tommi Haapanen when the latter had a snooze on the line and threw away a tenth of a second performance advantage but the hurry up to get into the staging lanes for the match up with Erbacher didn’t help the team’s chances.
FIA Top Fuel Qualifying and Results
1) Andy Carter 4.0591/294.11mph winner
2) Lex Joon 4.1179/289.05 first round
3) Tommi Haapanen 4.1429/284.86 first round
4) Joran Persaker 4.1891/272.59 semi-finals
5) Stig Neergaard 4.2679/266.24 first round
6) Jari Halinen 4.2680/271.12 semi-finals
7) Urs Erbacher 4.2728/279.71 runner-up
8) Micke Kagered 4.2791/264.44 first round
9) Timo Lehtimaki 4.3452/228.09
10) Risto Poutiainen 4.3571/261.44
11) Monica Oberg 4.4669/264.77
12) Hakan Fallstrom 5.1071/155.12
13) Torstein Risdal 5.4551/133.55
Low ET Andy Carter 4.0492 Top Speed Andy Carter 294.11 mph
FIA Pro Modified
At the sharp end of the quickest Pro Modified eliminator in the FIA ledger, the double Dutch final between Robert Joosten and Marc Meihuizen was also historic in it’s own right as being the first FIA Pro Modified final without Nordic representation. That Joosten and Meihuizen managed to achieve this feat in Sweden, the home of many of the big hitters in the field, is doubly impressive. And deserved it was too, Joosten using consistent 6.2s in the early rounds, whilst Meihuizen ran low ET of eliminations, a 6.180/229, along the way. The final saw Meihuizen leave first, but then shook and shutoff giving Joosten the win in his ex-Oddy Corvette.
Mats Eriksson is always a cheerful presence in the Pro Modified pits, at the Veidec Festival he was positively beaming having shattered his PB to qualify low with a 6.121/237.97, resetting the Euro Pro Mod TS mark and a whisker away from taking the ET record too. The party was abbreviated on Saturday as the ME Racing team had an all night thrash to replace some broken components in the rear suspension caused by vicious tireshake in a subsequent qualifying effort, but they made it through to the semi-finals having run a 6.150/235 in the quarters, but cracks in the replacement parts prevented a full pass.