BLACKOUT

Another happy part of my life!

My first streetrace. Ersboda in Umeå 1979. A typical 16-car ladder to decide who will win the much desired t-shirt with the
message: "Stop talking - I'm the fastest in town". In second round Thomas "Fredde" Frediksson takes the start with a two
foot margin and holds it over the finish line 1/8 mile away. "Freddes" 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 with the W30 455 ci
engine had more torque than anybody else, and still 4-speed! Truly a beautiful car that also won the t-shirt this year.
My '67 Camaro's first V8 was a mostly stock all iron 350, with a 4-speed Saginaw. A couple of them, actually...and then
a couple of Muncies as well...and also a street 5-speed Doug Nash. But then the race version of the 5-speed Doug Nash
was the gearbox that finally could take the abuse in Whiplash.

My first sketch of the paint design. 1980.

The first four winners. Streetracers in Umeå still race for the t-shirt today! Lennart "Bagarn"
Bergqvist is now (2006) gone after a short but courageous battle with cancer. Thomas "Fredde"
Fredriksson is an owner/operator of a building demolition company in Stockholm, Inge Hägglund still is
an engineer in Umeå and backs up his winning daughter in Super Comp.
I'm in Gothenburg.

1981. Planning a street race in Vasa, Finland, the neighbor city over the water to Umeå.
In Umeå is where organized street racing with ladders and an official winner at the end of the day
actually began in Sweden in 1978. Yes, I may have had something to do with it. Then we took it
all over Sweden through the awake BILSPORT Magazine, where we put all city winners to an Super
Final in Mora - in the middle of Sweden. Girlfriend Mia in red/white and me in blue in the middle of
everything. Bagarn and Birgitta was also in the middle of it, even if I don't see them in this picture.
BTW, here you can see a piece of the best car I ever have owned - a 1970 Volvo 145. I really used it
like I hated it but it was there for me everyday.

We had a great summer in 1982 with a lot of racing everywhere. Here going back from Pite Dragway. It
was especially fun when Hazze Lindholm, Benke and Lasse from Stockholm joined. And our friend
Linkan from hometown Umeå of course (I guess I had borrowed his Mickey Mouse heads for this race?)
And Kiosk-Ella, a friend of Mia, my girlfriend at the time. Note Bagarn and Birgitta who already
back then were running the Autoshop business and now some 23 years later are named "The King and
Queen of Orlando" by Popular Hot Rodding after their clean sweep at the 2005 Engine Masters
competition! Click picture to get a much bigger one!

From that race at Pite Dragway 1982. Lasse, Bagarn and Hazze Lindholm making Whiplash ready.
Class: G/SA (Street Altered). From Lycksele Åke Morén's black Camaro next to us in the background
with an Bagarn-built Autoshop engine as well (and the Smokey Yunick designed intake!).

First five

I found a funny notice from Bilsport magazine # 25-26 1982 on the "Acc-plock"
dragracing news page, by Editor Stellan Åberg.
"We got a picture to forward to the readers. A Christmas wish and wishes for a faster '83!
From left Bagarn '78, Fredde '79, Inge '80, Bostic '81 and Tore '82. All of them secret winners
once in Umeå's annual streetrace shootout of the t-shirt"

Going home from Seinäjoki, Finland in 1983. (Through the small village of Koskenkorva!)
No trailer queen then either.

Eero Pirtinen is a strong memory from those days when we raced the Finns, well it was only him! He
drove this 440 Challenger 15800 miles (1000 mil) a year and at the strip he managed an 11.43 @ 122
mph as the best in the early 80's! He also came over to Umeå from Vaasa to race us, and to Santa
Pod to race all of us! We also remember that all of these finnish drag racers had the cutest young
ladies in the world, that always fixed the best food and everything for us all the time! We couldn't
believe it! Thanks again! Nowadays Eero lives in the capital of Helsinki and has just bought a
Chrysler 300 with Hemi and 4WD.

I found one of Jan "Putte" Lundmark's shots from Pite Dragway in 1983, or 1984? The Autoshop
Whiplash Camaro just flies towards another low 10-seconds timeslip! You can either click this
one to get a bigger one, or click the banner below to get to the report from our race in Pite last year,
where I now have included this picture, and see how Pite Dragway looks nowadays.

Just another cool picture from my friend, the master image creator Chris Condor. Probably from
a race in Mora with the magazine Power as an organizer. Click picture to get a bigger one!

In my garage in Umeå. I guess 1983? "Kines-Thore" sits in engine bay and "Fjuppe" is leaning. I'm behind the wheel.
Note that front tire! I remember them front tires were old even back then and felt like it was made of stone.

Working on the plastic front. Nice glasses... Thanks for the memories Condor.

Sure... =)

Dale Vaznaian (middle) from NOS came all the way from Cypress, California to Umeå in
the north of Sweden to say Hello to Lennart "Bagar'n" and Birgitta at Autoshop Racing
Engines which was the northernmost NOS dealer speedshop in the world. We showed
him our "elephant leg warmer" - the 12 V heat blanket which we used in my Whiplash
Camaro to heat up our nitrous bottles with. Dale loved the idea and took it back to NOS.
Today it is a standard in the industry.

Hit it!
Just an unbeatable Camaro!