Wednesday - July 27


A rental trailer perhaps? Yes, it's a "2 tonnes" car transport trailer. And it will blend in smoothly behind
Kenneth Feldthusen's giant Northrace bus! I don't have the required "BE" in my drivers license, for
trailer weight above 3.5 tonnes. And our Dodge mini van can only take 1.6 tonnes on the hitch
anyway, so this is a solution that Kenneth kindly offered us!
"B" is for car, "E" for trailer.


Thursday - July 28


"No" said the Highway Patrol Weight Control with their scales rigged in Hol, an hour from Gothenburg.
"This trailer can only take 1960 kg and you are 200 kg too much" they said to Kenneth who never
had been stopped by the police before the Blackout involvement. Trailer was good for 4321 lb and it was
440 lb over. The nice Policemen gave Kenneth a fine of 2000 SEK which of course I took care of.


So we unloaded the SS of all things and possibly this was 200 kg? Spare battery, hardware boxes,
oil, planks, tent walls, jackstands, chairs, gas oil, gas stove...bricks! (tool for loading the SS on ramps).
All this was put in Kenneth's bus, minus the bricks. Kenneth politely looked at the bricks then at me
and said very distinct into my eyes: "Throw away, throw away" and pointed into the wood. So I did.


After this weekend I think that the Police are the bad guys, who every day bother and hassle people and
demand money from us. Not only by this incident where they harassed a dozen well behaving people
and stole our time and money - for a minor thing really!! We also see it around Tierp Arena where they
shamelessly stops cars and motorcycles both outside and inside the arena to hassle and drain money
from the racing families! So I now absolutely think the Police is the mob! They sure behave like that!
Police, please aim your force elsewhere, we are the good guys, your employers!


The small trailer which I had behind our Dodge minivan was going to its normal position behind
Kenneth's race bus. And off they went for Tierp.


Trailer tired. Now Axel and I had to wait for a couple of hours for Plan B to arrive. That was to go back to
Kenneth's place and borrow his work car. Agneta drove Kenneth's mechanic "Gomez" there. He have
an "BE" in his drivers license. I will get an "BE" too or maybe I quit this self-torture before that...?


There were of course other kind people that helped to collect money to the mob.


The Nissan Navara is allowed to haul 3000 kg / 6613 lb but you still need the "BE" in your drivers licens
for a total weight above 3500 kg / 7716 lb no matter in what combination. Legal cruising speed 80 kmh
which is barely 50 mph. The distance to Tierp is 523 kilometer / 325 miles...go figure.


Cool hitch camera. And cool guy who thought the trip was long, which it of course was in 80 kmh.
Why does it always take nine hours for us to go to Tierp from Gothenburg?


Our goal was of course to get inside, unload and in line for scrutineering before it closed at 10 PM
which we managed in a hurry even with an unloaded trailer on its way to Kenneth's pit! This was a
2-day event, one qualification day and one Elimination day so it was important to do the scrutineering
this evening instead of
the next day and lose one of the four qualification rounds.


Fredde Fagerström wanted to swap his Pickup for the Blackout SS but I told him that the SS is a much
newer car so it wouldn't be a fair deal if I didn't get some gold too!


Passed. It's time to clear the window of some of the inspection stickers so it doesn't look to much like
a race car! The Santa Pod Racers Club stickers will always be there! And hopefully I will have more
of those added.


Our 9 x 3 meter tent bought at Rusta is still with us and doing a good work! Kjelle "Ståkkhålm" Ahl and
Agneta are working the straps, as you can see. Our ol' worn Chevrolet racing flag is up and waving, just
like when we were out with the Whiplash Camaro, soon 30 years ago...and back then we had no tent.
That flag was once waving at Holmströms Bilaffär on Tegsborg in Umeå who was the local Chevrolet
dealer. When they closed down their business, Autoshop was offered to buy their stock of parts for a
fair price, and the flag was in there!


Cheers Ståkkhålm! At a race again!



Friday - July 29


Morning glory. The smell of the VP Motorsports 109 octane makes it hard to breathe! It must be really
good as bad as it feels?! Tvi vale! Last drops from the big drum are conveyed to the car's race cell
via this plastic jug. I try to protect the fuel in the metal barrels as long as possible for freshness.


Agneta has attached my proud colors to the driver's jacket, all the good guys in one place! And now I
was dressed and ready to go out and hit a mid-9 - again! Last try was aborted, stopped by a burnt fuse
last time here at Tierp!
Now nothing can stop me! The world's first manufactured lap top is still with me, strapped good as a
co-driver in the passenger seat! It's only for logging but that's important! But why doesn't it start? Hello!
Slam slam! Hit hit! Why doesn't it start?! Hit! Slam! What the hell! ¤#&//$]*}@ THERE! PHEW!


First time I met Gideon Liljegren from Linköping was on our trip to The Street Finals at Santa Pod in
1985 and he looked exactly the same then! And his 1966 Chevelle was exactly the same with the exact
same paint which he once put on himself! But it's faster today as he competes in 9.90 Super Gas!


OMPH!! A terrific launch which made me happy instantly. My first reflection was: "It" was back!
The 60 foot time is back to the performance of the 9's at Santa Pod in 2006!


But it was just a 6.42 seconds run according to the log (further below), before I let off the throttle when
the acceleration just ended! (Input shaft in the 4L80E transmission snapped, we've learned
afterwards!)
I could only steer into the side as much as possible just in case some oil was coming
out? And you also looks anxiously in the rear view mirror for oil smoke, but this time was OK.
Of course I was angry and sad but the launch compensated for it, so I couldn't cry.
I just saw the light - like behind a small ajar door in the great black emptiness...
Now I want to go inside that illuminated room. Soon!


I didn't even roll to the far end, I made an early exit and Axel came on his bike faster than the SS
and asked me about everything. He is so disappointed every time I have a failure of some sort. Well,
that's at every race for some time now! Axel is one of the persons I want to follow me behind that
ajar door, into that illuminated room! I want him to be proud of our racing. Again.
Ståkkhålm came and towed me in his Volvo.


Safety staff Mikael "Dykarn" (The Diver) Bengtsson from Gothenburg thought my outing was so-so.
Well, the 60 foot was the ONLY good note on this start. The Safetygroup heroes is not dressed for
their comfort in the scorching sun, rather for diving into fires to get drivers out. That feels good!


The FAST log shows our next problem. At 6400 RPM (in a not asked for bump in the middle of 1st gear)
the injectors were working overtime at 109.9 %, the correction was on at max 24.2 % (set 25).
Target Air/Fuel mix was set at 11.5 but was at too lean 14.38 OUCH!!!!
Blower delivered 25 psi as it should at that RPM so it's time for larger injectors, these 96 lb are not
enough! Yellow Chinese tjing-tjong battery is super and readings don't go below 12.7 V Hurray!
The intake air is still too hot though, going at close to 100° Celsius at the end in a full run,
losing power big time! A lot to do here! External nitrogen cooling of IC during the run...?


Kenneth Feldthusen was really looking forward to test at concrete, and now it was also one of the races
for the Swedish Championship for Competition Eliminator! He got a personal best second time out -
6.53 @ 332 kmh / 206 mph and was No 1 qualifyer on his 7.34 index! We just had to drive into the
Tierp village to get a special cake and when we came to the Nilfisk ALTO team, Kenneth just
shook his head and waved his hands and said "No no, we will go quicker!"
OK, if so, we can change the figures, put the cake into the fridge!


The concrete was also one of the reasons we saw Dave Wilson here from UK in his injected nitro
Top Alcohol Dragster! Just testing, because his class wasn't even competing here! Dave set the new
FIA European record in the class here at the Sweden Internationals with a 5.298! Since Dave have
announced that this is his last year racing I believe he wanted to feel the concrete once again.
No new ET records this time but a strong 5.3033 and an even stronger 438.31 kmh / 272.35 mph
which had been a new European speed record if it had been on a FIA race and backed up!
Thanks Dave for all these good racing years!


Speaking of Sweden Internationals, on that event - in the middle of the day - we had a sudden cyclone
going diagonally through the pit, thowing up tents and things and left chaos in its path! We sat under
Robert Karström's giant 2-car tent that was connected to his bus and the tent went up and down and
slapped like the quickest you can do with the lid to the lavatory! It was dangerous with all these
aluminium legs that hit up and down quickly like giant fangs! The tent had been in Stockholm if it
hadn't been attached to the bus! It was over in five seconds.
Now it happened again!! As you see people was trying to fix their tent in above picture!
I have an own theory that these giant stands force the wind to create an air vortex...?


So we tied down our tent in everything heavy we could find. Think about it before going here with your
tent! Axel is still away from our own pit for the most of the time and when Albin Frank isn't here with his
Super Comp dragster, Axel is often with other friends like Tony and Anita Åberg from Kramfors and he
loves to sit in their Super Street Corvette! Is Kramfors overcrowded of Super Street Corvettes?!
Tomas Hägg is also from Kramfors!


Hey! Tony was Number 1 qualifier with a nearly perfect 10.9072! Besides that he had the highest speed
in Super Street at 208.33 kmh / 129.45 mph during qualification and even got a 210.5 kmh when losing
to the eventual winner young Simon Gustafsson in the quarter. Simon 10.97 vs. Tony 10.91!
You must win the tree also in Super Street!


WOW! Niclas Andersson 6.02 in Ol' 51 Chevy Business coupe! This is a team that have merged over to
Pro Mod from Top Doorslammer "almost unnoticed", a bit quicker and faster every year. We see them
race in both classes on different events.
This time Q13 with a "stealth" 6.75, then in first round 6.026 with lots of cheering from the stands!
Then 6.039 @ 376.8 kmh / 234.1 mph to put away Micke Lindahl, then lost to Johan Lindberg in the
Semi. Can't lower your guard to this team no more, especially since Niclas is known to be a quick
and constant driver! Their home: www.old51.com


I think Mercedes 300 SL is one of the most beautiful cars ever made on this planet! Luckily this 1956
Gullwing is not one of the 1400 originally made, it's a copy in fiberglass and lexan! But it's built by
Love during three years by Stefan Winter from Switzerland. In Competition Eliminator he was Q18
with a 8.16 on a 8.32 index and a trap speed of 259,49 kmh /161.24 mph. Engine is something 422
that ace builder Jari Konola is involved in? Winter family also had two junior dragsters with them!


Kenneth Feldthusen and Team Nilfisk ALTO did what they promised - lowered to a new Swedish and
European Record for AB/A with 6.4799 and a speed of 331,29 kmh / 205.85 mph! Congratulations!


A bit cloggy but finally I got it right! Kenneth was Q1 until last round when he was put down to 2nd by
Mattias Stenström's Volvo C90 going 6.80 (on a 7.70 index). All of them was so cheerful anyway.
Kenneth said "The track is fantastic, it responds to your changes and you can just feed it more"


Back at our camp. Starting to slowly unscrew the things around the transmission. Earlier Ståkkhålm
ran into the converter man Tony Jönsson from Danielssons Bil, he reworked my Vigilante too.
He was here just to watch racing from the stands and we asked him if we could leave the 4L80E
and the converter with him to take it to his work so they could check and repair. - Sure, said Tony.



Weekend Warrior - Tage Avander, Skellefteå (She-Left-You). He was standing here and grinding his
clutch with a wet emery cloth, slowly but surely, while the neighbours were having party and bbq.
It was a beautiful and warm Friday evening in Sweden.


I wish I had a construction like Tage's, a crane to hook up into the rollcage and then just swing the
transmission out of the car!!! And a Liberty trans had of course been nice to own. Well, these are
possible dreams for race cars, not for 4444 lb street legal Impalas. Tage also remembers the days
when we had "Bagarn" to talk to and have a laugh. This sticker is actually made by "Bagarn's"
son Austin and is distributed by Birgitta at Autohop.




Saturday - July 30



Saturday was the day to take out the 4L80E transmission, reluctantly. But better here and now than
in the wardrobe garage at home. All the tools are here, Ståkkhålm can give a hand, but it had to be
done between rounds and coffee breaks, so it took all day.


Eliminations in this 32-car ladder (25 cars) was rather easy this time for Kenneth and the Nilfisk ALTO
team. After the first round they had two bye runs and could save material after the 60 foot.


The Nilfisk-ALTO dressed team of Gomez, Joakim and Pelle seemed to jump like kids to the timeslip
machine after every run Kenneth Feldthusen made! Totte's blown Fiat Topolino had the coolest idle
and you could hear it across the pit! His girlfriend Jenny Ålund had bought a new plastic carpet for their
kitchen but Totte thought it was perfect for the pit! Click picture to se a big picture of that plastic carpet.


Agneta always serves us so fine! Now Bullens pilsnerkorv when it was only time for a quick break.


Childish expressions are everywhere at a dragrace! Isn't it wonderful how drag racing allows you to be a
kid as long as you want? Build funny things and do funny things! A small shadow play? Or going around
in a mini F100! Everybody loves it! Kids too! And Axel was driving his own dragster in his own
fantasy races. Drag racing is a wonderful and free world for all our sences.



Finland's Antti Kivinummi in a 1948 Anglia in Super Gas calms down a little at the top end.
It's a good quiet place for some relaxing and breathing, you may want to just stay for a minute to cool
yourself and your vehicle. Thinking it over...what really happened during the run? What will be my next
move? It can be smart to let the boiling adrenalin disappear a little before going back to the busy pit.
Antti lost to our Mats "Masken" Karlsson in the quarterfinal.


"Here lives Super Gas 4. Leave mail and messages at Super Street 2"
This is where "Masken" is living at the races, in Thomas Hägg's Corvette trailer! A cosy, roomy place.


A new trend seems to be to bring your old trophies to the races? Here "Maskens" mechanic Nicke
Nordgren showed the runner-up trophy from Borlänge Street Open last weekend.


Ol' friend from Umeå PA Lindström carries around an old trophy too, in his race car! He said what it was
for, but I forgot to listen because I was so distracted of how his helmet changed the form of his head!
PA is really good at this, even if he qualified 15th in this 32-car ladder with a 10.619 on his 11.00 index
and 185.19 kmh / 115 mph in speed and redlighted in the quarter final he ended up 3rd in the Swedish
Championship which indicates skills over season! Congratulations! Your helmet is OK!


Finally! 4L80E transmission was out! It must be half the weight of the car! I asked Ståkkhålm what he
thought of it compared to other transmissions and he said: "I've never worked with such things"
(Aha...I thought he was an expert on all things since he both is from Stockholm and is on all races!
Well, now he's at least an expert on demounting 4L80E in Impala SS!) Agneta was sealing the
holes in the parts with towels before we could take it away.


Tony Jönsson said to us to leave the things in his bus at the camping which we did, Ståkkhålm and I.
But he didn't say that his bus and my bus had exactly the same colors! Dodge Cherry Red Metallic!
Tony told us that he's building a Chevy '55 Gasser which he will transport between nostalgic races
in this bus. I can take that bus otherwise... Thanks Tony for your help!


"Totte" is getting more and more out of that little Fiat Topolino with the big blown engine. He came from
carburation so blower and mapping injectors takes a little time. And now he had to sandbag to not
breakout at Super Comp index 8.90 and managed to qualify 6th with 8.941 and a
both-feets-on-the-brake-if-it-was-possible-slow 175 kmh / 108 mph! Unfortuneately he had a 8.88
breakout in first round, but Jenny did all her things right.


Kenneth in semi final and his clutch was slipping too much, performing a 6.82 and you can't have that
when going up against a man like 4th qualifyer Mika Eloranta from Finland in his 4-banger Toyota Celica
going 7.14 (index 7.70)! This is a shot from the Teams Stand No 11 when they had reached 1000 foot.


The problem. Axel was controlling the winch but the SS was still too heavy for an easy loading.


Then I shouted "Anyone who wants to know what it feels like to push a real Impala SS please come
forward!!" and I succeded to gather some Super Gas hotshot.


Per Fagerström knows how to be successful with pushings!


Per became The Swedish Champion in Stock/Super Stock and I'm not surprised with that back up!


Not recommended...


Not recommended either...


Tage Avander's "Weekend Warrior" is not just another nice Camaro. It's a killer Camaro and for being
old school it's deadly in Competition Eliminator among turbos and blowers and what have you!
Running 7.46 on 8.09 index. And 298.51 kmh / 298.51 mph. All the way to The Final! Heja heja!


But there he redlighted to Eloranta's fantastic 4-banger Toyota Celica! The Fin qualified 4th with 7.00
(7.70 index). It's 2011 and you must be prepared for sometimes seeing your favourite american cars
get
smacked by smaller, quicker things from Asia... Yes, it hurts all the way into the bone marrow.
But you still like to cheer quick times and high speeds no matter what kind of vehicle! It's the
awesome engineering we like! Onnea Eloranta!


Cool building! How is it going with my hotel room, booked for ten years at the time?


We haven't seen much of Bertans's own car in a while. I guess he has been so busy building race cars
for others. Now he came out in a free run and hit a 60 at 1.00, 1/8 at 4.00 @ 292.84 kmh / 182 mph
and a slowing 6.51 @ 263 kmh / 163 mph! Hm? Bert-Ove Olofsson's Impala can hit!


I told you! This Twin Turbo Camaro with Martin Lundqvist is a rocket! 6.1459 @ 385.44 kmh / 239.5 mph
in a free run shows where it's going! Martin said "We now know some about the last 1/8 mile so we'll
only race at Malmö the rest of the season to tune in to be quicker at the first 1/8 mile". The 60 was
1.050 and the first 1/8 was 4.0703 @ 301 kmh / 187 mph. Looking forward to see the development!


Top Final of the race, Swedish Championship in Pro Mod. Everyone was excited and was sitting
on the stands, also my wife Agneta!


It was down to these guys Micke "Gullan" Gullqvist in the red '68 Camaro and Johan Lindberg in the
black '68 Firebird. 1968 must have been an extraordinary year!


Quickest ever Final and side-by-side by Pro Mod in Europe! "Gullan" was first and became the 2011
Swedish Champ by a "nothing" at the finishline! It was a real adrenaline kicker!! Congrats "Gullan"!
And Congrats Johan Lindberg too who with this 5.94 backed up his No1 qualification run of 5.9223
to an official Swedish ET Record! It's an European best too but the stupid rules (who is responsible
for those anyway?) says that you can't make an European record on a non-FIA race!!


It's always fun when people can come down and get stuck on the starting area preparation, like now
when they had the price giving ceremony which Axel covered for Blackout.nu.


Winner in Super Gas!!! "Masken" Karlsson! Hey hey! Runner up Bosse Hall! Hey! (only one "hey" for
runner ups! Congratulations! Then "Masken" had a lewd easy loading! 1-2-3 Done!


Lars-Göran in the "Green Goblin" Pro Mod team is carrying in some original Impala SS parts to bring
it to Dalarna for me, even if he first suggested that I should go to the dump with it!!! I sold these fine
SS parts to Bengt in Mora before the race, but he couldn't come to Tierp so "Green Goblin" could
take it to their headquarters in neighbouring Borlänge for Bengt to pick up. Thanks team!


Last night in the big pit. SS is loaded and the tent is secured to the trailer. When packing it all down
we will get the rest of the ratchet tied downs to secure the SS on the trailer. Hotel? Yes, the Dodge
Plaza for our family and Ståkkhålm had booked the Volvo Inn.


BBQ is always good!


Super Street racer Ulf Skytte and team from Umeå came visiting. There where more racers here from
Norrland's largest city Umeå, than from Sweden's second city Gothenburg, that was represented only
by Kenneth Feldthusen and myself. And Kenneth is really from Landvetter outside Gothenburg so it
was me from Gothenburg, and I'm from Umeå, too, so...
Ulf called another Umeåbo who hadn't been here all season, the one and only Linkan who is driving
Ulf's altered with his own engine. Linkan was fully occupied sorting his giant stock of historic engine
parts that he have got from an engine machining and renovation company! Tons of pistons, piston rings,
bearings etc. make a Treasure!! Ulf's Plymouth Roadrunner was Q3 in Super Street with 10.9216.
In the second round / quarter finals he got beaten even though a 10.91 run!


Sunday - July 31


All Sunday was "Run What You Brung" with 10.00 seconds as the lowest bracket. This was the last
thing we saw on our way home, multi-FIA European Pro Stock Champion Jimmy Ålund (grey hat)
stopped at a guy with a Volvo PV with V8 and had a starter motor discussion.


Hours later. It was a little bit melancholic to pass Mantorp Park on my way home. All good memories
came back and painted a nice picture of the legendary racetrack. When you were little you longed
to go here and all strong memories and drag racing milestones are from Mantorp's history.
But all bad memories also came back. But hey Mantorp...nobody want you to die, just learn a little from
Tierp Arena which is what you had become if things had been right. Instead you stayed in the 70's
and was pleased with that, while the people wasn't. Now, we hope you'll come back ASAP and
present to us a track in constant evolution, worthy a big audience and FIA races and make a run for
the money with Tierp Arena. The people want both Mantorp Park and Tierp Arena. I know.


Before you click! Here's a tricky riddle for you, from when we came home.
How did we get that heavy SS up on this upslope?
It was only Kenneth and me!
No transmission in car. No winch. No pushing help from the neighbours?
Hm...?



Thanks to Patrik Jacobsson www.racebilder.nu for lending me your pictures!

All qualification data and ladders at this super nice site:
Nitroz_TimeTree_Results_NatsII




The list is growing! These are just a few examples of what has been made
since the 9's in 2006 to make the Blackout SS a much better car!
And to make it easier for it to go much quicker than those 9.84 seconds!

V .Renovation of fuel pump (broken during 9.84!)
V .Anti Roll bar
V .New CK Super Comp racing drum and sprag
V .Transbrake
V .New 2" headers, new ceramic spark plug hats
V .ProCharger repair (had manufacturing flaw in all these years!)
V .Further stabilization of ProCharger

V .100 amp battery
V .Relocation of lambda sond
V
.And now I have even put in a new fuse and connected the ground cable...
V .Change of injectors from 96's to 160's.

V .Change to race prepared TH400 and Cheetah shifter


So please can I have back my 9's now?

I need to see what's behind that little ajar door!




First ever race held at Tierp Arena here!

First ever Blackout SS race at Tierp Arena here!



Thanks for reading! ;-)