FIA
Top Methanol Dragster produced arguably the best pass of the
meeting when Krister Johansson shook up the class with a stunning
5.537/244.73 pass to secure the third spot in the field. The
pass was far from perfect, with a shake and a pedal at half-track
but demonstrated that Johansson's A/Fueler has definitely made
the jump from 'interesting experiment' to an honest to goodness
contender for the rest of the tour.
Once again the ACI team of Dave Wilson flexed their muscles at
Santa Pod, and were able to produce yet another European ET record
with a 5.422/248.83 second pass (with the chutes out a tad early)
in the final round win over fellow Brit Rob Turner's 5.60/249.
The team will break the 5.3-second barrier in Europe in the very
near future and continue their impressive run of the first European
team into the 5.5s and the 5.4s.
Another
reigning champ to open his account in impressive fashion was
Urs Erbacher in Top Methanol Funny Car. Despite the slight distraction
of getting a new fuel Harley setup over the weekend, the Swiss
team produced a 5.789/248.55 pass straight off the trailer to head
early qualifying and then improved to a 5.696/249.95 to secure
top spot. Erbacher didn't quite have it all his own way as Dan
Larsen stepped up to produce a side by side 5.7 second final round
which saw Erbacherjust getting to the stripe first with a 5.725/252.37,
the TS setting a new European record.
TMFC
runner-up Dan Larsen's immaculately prepared Avenger was involved
in a series of oh-so close races through eliminations, the closest
being a MOV of 3.6 inches over Jorgen Johnsson in the first round
with Larsen's 5.909 being barely enough to get around Johnsson's
holeshot 5.945.
