Although DRO has shown Bert Ove Olofsson's bubble top Impala before, we thought it was worthy of another look. Frustratingly a 6.7 best in qualifying wasn't enough to make the quickest field in European history.

Another Pro Mod of aircraft carrier dimensions is Seppo Saapola's 1959 Chrysler 300. The Finnish entry is in the shakedown phase, having just taken delivery of the car from Mats Eriksson's chassis shop, a 6.797 left the Tarpaulin.fi backed team as one of many ruing the loss of the final qualifying session to the dreaded wet stuff.

The mid season Scandinavian swing, with races at Mantorp Park, Sweden and Gardermoen, Norway on consecutive weekends, is usually pivotal in deciding the European championships. However, this year, rain was the main winner, leaving the points standings in most classes too close to call as the FIA classes head for their final round at Santa Pod in September and the UEM bike classes move on to Hockenheim for their penultimate meeting in a couple of weeks time.

FIA TOP FUEL

Swede Tommy Moller was very happy with the progression that the Swedane team have made with the Pennzoil backed car, running consistent 4.8s to top qualify in both Sweden and Norway and also take a winlight in the only round of eliminations completed in the two meets. Moller’s description of the car is somewhat unprintable, but painted a very vivid picture of the power it is now producing.

Lex Joon probably just has the edge over Moller in the European title betting, as a 4.788 at only 299 mph in his first round victory over Andy Carter’s 4.953 (the quickest side by side race in Europe) at Mantorp suggests that there is more to come from the MPM-Oils car once the team return to Santa Pod later in the year. Kim Reymond’s 4.64 Euro best will be threatened by both Joon and Moller at the Euro Finals.