Wednesday - September 27
A tough weather challenge - which we all won!
To organize a dragrace in the end of September and beginning of October is something you just don't
do
in Sweden because the autumn is already over us with rain, storms and cold. It'll snow any day!
It has only been done once before, as they wrote on Nitroz.se (below) to market the idea of a "cold race".
However, the weather forecasters promised Indian Summer over this period and 200 teams entered!!!
Translated with Google:
A LOT OF NEW RECORDS TO BE EXPECTED!
"This weekend, the last drag race of the year will be run at new Tierp Arena!"
"Usually at this time of the year, the race cars have already been parked in the garages or shipped
to the U.S. for winter's showdowns, but once before,
26 years ago, there was run in October
that
whetted the appetite.
Then it was called "Bostic's Busrace" and was run on an almost unprepared
Mantorp dragstrip.
Now called the "Night of Fire" and running on one of the best drag strips in the World -
Tierp Arena!
Kjell Pettersson, one of the ablest track preparers, known from Santa Pod, is a guarantee that the
traction is optimal. These dates is more demanding than usual, but at Tierp Arena they are
convinced
that the track will be world class.
In Bostic Busrace were several new records. Virtually all participants drove on new personal
best
despite the slippery Mantorp strip. The cold air appeared to act as a oxygen booster for the
engines,
which gave extra power. The cold October air can be expected even this weekend.
This, combined with a properly prepared concrete strip promises some really nice runs.
Now it is open to anyone who wants to be in. Even for test runs.
It runs 14 different classes, both car and motorcycle.
The organizer, Race Star, is happy about the large starting field that is already pre-registered.
Race Stars spokesman reveals that the Top Doorslammer's field has a record 33 entered teams!
Expect lots of new personal best of Tierp Arena this weekend and good
racing of course...
Be there or be square."
Wednesday - September 28
This time Agneta couldn't follow to the race. She was so busy with her Undermat business since this
time of the year the cabbage is harvested and it's time to set all her products. So to have a Crew Chief
in the team,
we applied for Axel to get free from school two days and it was granted.
However, the
school
always want something in return from the pupil, that he or she learn something
during the free
time and when home again give the rest of the class mates a short education of this.
An agreement said he would write a short story about his Crew Chief work, and this application says:
"Reason for time-off: Drag racing"
"Knowledge during
time-off is obtained through: Experience"
I believe that today, with all the Junior Dragsters around, many of these applications are used.
Thanks Axel's teachers, principal and school!
We will save and frame this paper for the future!
A Go-Pro cam will be used to document if - and how - the fuel pressure regulates to the
blower
pressure.
Yes, I have looking there during the runs but I can't even remember that I did...BLANK!
This time I want to know for sure. Since I still use the FAST V.1 system I can't log the fuel pressure.
I will
change
to the newer FAST XFI where you can log additional values, such as fuel pressure.
Nice to leave the Super Gas identity at home, they didn't fit this car anyway. Now it will be a free dial-in
class called ET Open and all cars from 14.00 to 7.50 are welcome! I set 140 lb/hr as a injector flow rate
just to be on the rich and safe side with my completely new 160 lb/hr injectors, to start with.
More prepared than ever! As always. Let's enter the rental trailer.
Thursday - September 29
Once again we left for Tierp Arena which is 523 kilometers away on the east coast of Sweden.
It
normally
takes all day on this boring Stockholm route E20 which actually is a very narrow road beyond
this short
tunnel in
Jonsered where you are leaving the west coastline for the cross country trip.
Sometimes you just can't believe it's the main highway between the two largest
cities in Sweden.
Mile after mile with "safety wires" in the middle force us to drive behind tractors, trucks
and campers!
You have to drive all the way to Örebro before it looks like a modern wide highway! On
the other hand,
when driving a trailer like ours you aren't allowed to drive faster than the trucks anyway, but still...
Actually, we only drove behind a farmer's tractor once. So it was pretty good this time.
A whole stable with the funniest things in Sweden according to Karl Ellwein. We had to stop and take
this picture of "Hardy Har - Lardy Dar!" for him. We also stopped at McDonald's in Alingsås for
breakfast.
Axel and I just love Egg McMuffin especially on a "men-only" event like this!
Our hero Ingemar "Gomez" Johansson!
He's an
Automotive electrician and a member in his long time friend
Kenneth Feldthusen's Nilfisk ALTO
AB/A Competition Eliminator team. He was even one of the guys who built Feldthusen's altered.
By having the right kind of driver's licens (3.5+ tonne total weight with trailer) he saved us last time when
we went for Tierp Arena and got stopped by the mob. Now he did it one more time,
planned from
the start and it could be done with Kenneth's work Nissan Navara. Thanks both of you!
Old friend Jöran Persåker had a talk with God in the inspection line at Tierp Arena! He said to Jöran:
"Do not attempt to take out Bostic in the Eliminations, he's our guy even if he now believes
that he's
belonging to the other side...!" Not really, I had
to use my finger to mask off the too
strong
sun backlight. It was only 7 PM here, so we were here in good time before the 8 PM closing.
A Cobra SVT Mustang with a handbuilt 4.6 Liter 4V...(4 X 8 that's 32 valves. Blower is a Kenne Bell
Autorotor
that helps put out 670 HP with 21 PSI.
I can tell you that God took out Jöran in first run
after only a few feet with a broken drive shaft... Sorry! It's for sale for 350.000 SEK.
Time to build the tent and pit area before it gets cold and the dew comes. Sometimes it's just
tiresome
to start building the tent...
...but when it's done, you thank yourself for it. It's a must.
A small beer round is also a must, here we met - - -
We had booked a room at Dodge Plaza and Ståkhålmskjelle sponsored us with that electric radiator
(oil inside) and he had one himself at his Volvo Inn. Was it warm? Hell no, Axel and me almost didn't
sleep all
night under that single blanket! Next nights we started the radiator long before bedtime
and used
sacks and then it worked. The radiator worked just perfectly. Thanks Kjelle!
Friday - September 30
It looks like the weather gurus were right. Not a cloud on the sky and already a warm sun. Yes!
- Good morning! Clerk of the course Rejje Irén welcomed the 200 teams every morning at 8 AM.
Hm...it looks more like 40 people...and 10 out of these are officials...
We forgot to paint our dial-in ET's on our windows. Very professional.
Kent in the far lane 10.92 and 10.36 by Blackout which actually was its best ET since 2007. Since the
low index for the ET Open class was 14.00 we were put last on the list! :-) Thrown away run, competiton
vise, but for me it was still a BIG hit, since the larger injectors just seemed to work perfectly inside my
FAST set up!
And that was my largest worry before the race, but other strange things came up...
It was surely fun to have a pit again, and also to see Ståkkhålmskjelle. This time he brought high class
hot dogs from Johanneshov that he has talked about all summer and he didn't lie, they were top notch!
You can almost see the traction in this picture! Kenneth tactics is to slip the slicks instead of the
clutch. He set new European records
last
time he was here but now he killed No 1 cylinder
by
leanng it too
much!
Like last time at the Kjula dragstrip...
ET Open - 2nd round: Kent Edin dial-in was 10.00 and stopped at 10.12 @ 219 kmh / 136 mph.
Thereby he was probably inside the 16-car ladder.
Blackout SS had the same 10.00 dial-in. A new PB 1.4573 60 foot promised something (ok had 1.41 at
Santa Pod in 2006). Came in at slowing 11.32 after the engine stopped at 1000 foot! Why? Why not?
Click to check onboard Go Pro file to see how well the fuel pressure
follows
the blower pressure, but also how it shut off...
Theory: first the front crank seal came off (because of high pressure in crank case - leakage through
piston rings).
Then oil came out
on the
alternator belt which got slippery and jumped off. That resulted
in the alternator not delivering any power
to
the injectors who only fed by the Big Chinese
Yellow
battery, and then the 30 Amp fuse of the new
fuel pump burned, and that was a good night for
all
fuel to engine which of course stopped. Or? Anyway - that extra oil tray came in good use!! Phew!
The front crank seal hasn't loosened since the Blackrace in August 21 in 2009 (check NEWS from
that year). I cleaned it thoroughly, glued it back with Loctite and also put a plastic cable tie tight on
the
outside of the
seal just to make it a bit
more difficult to pop off.
Now I used as many
cable
ties
as I could fit on the crank, and thought:
"Try to get away now you
"#(/&¤%/*!"
The cleaning, putting back the front crank seal and changing of alternator belt and all that jazz took
the rest of the day for me so I didn't get any more qualification runs! With the lousy 11.32 on my 10.00
dial-in I was on 22
Qualification place, and couldn't better it. I was not in! For the first time in my life!
Bloody Kent was in on # 14 with his 10.12 on the 10.00 dial-in. Mikael Hernwall drove all the way from
Gothenburg to watch The Battle Between the B-bodies, since he has a 1994 Buick Roadmaster himself
with a LT1 396 stroker built by Golen Engines and it now has the same heads as Kent's "King
of
Spades" engine. So I guess they had a lot to talk about while I was rotating in oil underneath my car.
(more about Mikaels Roadmaster on the NEWS page - May 11, 2010)
Kenneth Feldthusen killed a Hemi again, carried it out and put another in. Why did it die?
"Same thing that happened at Kjula, too lean on #1 cylinder, so I read the jet sizes and put bigger
jets in after that. But problem was that it was the same size! Again! I must see an optician" explained
Kenneth in his blackish humour kind of way.
Beside my troubles this time, one thing still really made me glad and that was the thing which was my
biggest
worry before the race - the new big 160 injectors - they worked just fine straight off in my set up!
Rumors said that eliminiated drivers should get free Test'n'tune runs tomorrow! I put my hopes on that.
Kent said "Now Anders, it will all work so fine for you".
I answered: "No, now something new will surely happen, it always do"
Kent: "Nah, not this time...now it will work!"
Cheers!
Saturday - October 1
I hope this will be a tradition. Drag racing audience in October! A rare sight in Sweden.
Usually only
Santa Claus is seen outside
at this time of the year, beginning the sprint training of the reindeers.
"Ubbe's" happy break-out in first round of Top Doorslammer which eliminated him. TD is a heads up
class,
yet ruled under
Advanced
ET
with a safety break
out of 6.00
seconds!
Among the record big entry list of 33 cars there were nine Pro Mods (similar cars) who
took a
chance of more lap training before winter. Among them the European Champion Micke Gullqvist,
former champion and first into 5's Mats Eriksson, former champion Johan Lindberg, former champion
Micke Lindahl.
Also Per Svedberg, Linda Thun, Martin Lundqvist and Fredde Fagerström.
Congrats "Ubbe" who came from behind with
this Kung Fu attack called "Gutapetter".
However, as we say in Sweden, there were some "Smolk i Glädjebägaren" ("Some shit floating
around in the wine". The 60-foot times were a bit on the good-to-be-true-side in the left lane for many
racers and Ubbe
had an unbelievable never-before-recorded 0.94. So they checked the beams
and found out that in left lane the Stage-beam was locked upon the pre-stage reflector - resulting
in a "flying start" through the guard beam. That meant many things, like my 1.45 wasn't that good
and that Ubbes run wasn't that quick either. Hey, we all saw that it was extremely good, possibly
the quickest Top Doorslammer/Pro Mod all weekend,
and the quickest ever for Ubbe - but
add a
couple
of hundreds or forget about it? OK?
First Test'nTune run! Happy as can be! Happiest was Axel 13 years because he now was a crewchief
and could follow me in the lines and stay on the outside of the wall (need to be 16 to enter the inside
of wall). He then ran to pick up the timeslip and quick as a squirrel take the bike to me in the pit.
It felt like the best start of the year! YEARS! Kent was right, this time everything worked!?
Ooooiiiii!!!!!!!!..PANG!-bank-eli-bank-klonk-slam-slam-slam-sla m - s l - m...!?
Driveshaft broke. Well that's new for us, so Kent was wrong...I was right, as usual. Sorry about that!
Click it to have a look.
It wasn't the carbon fiber that broke, it was the aluminium! And what a good investment
that driveshaft
safety loop is!
There are no "use-before-date" on drive shafts but I could sit down and count on
this
site how many runs this driveshaft have had. At least how many
races, or
years.
Well, I'll do it some other time, because now I surprised the Blackout SS and the rest
of the world
by
revealing my backup driveshaft! Another one! Haha!
Underneath the SS I needed to delete half of the exhaust system to be able to change to the new
driveshaft. A lot of extra work again, while
Axel
strapped himself in the driver's seat and
the next
minute
he was in a well deserved deep sleep with open mouth. I was glad for one thing while working - that I
always
had brought with
me the
spare driveshaft, while many have asked and complained about all
the
stuff I carried around to the races! See now! Haha!
No 1 Qualifier in Top Doorslammer 6,03 Mikael "Tvilling" Lindahl lost in second round
and the
team just
went
bezerk of happiness! That was of course because of their first ever 5-second run which meant a
breakout
- 5.9933
@
382 kmh /
237 mph and 1/8: 3.90 @
304 / 188. 60 foot: 0.9816. Congratulations!
Time for another test run for the heaviest cars on the meet.
Kent really has his act together and always show good results. What more
can I
possibly do to have
my
act together? I do everything I can imagine!
The TTH marking on the
windows shows that you want
a running sportsman
tree, while a TT gave you a Pro tree.
Kent lost his first round in ET Open in a inch close race to Lina Brathen. In his TTH run he noted a
better 60 ft
than my 1.4573 with a 1.4528 and also got the only SS-9 this weekend with a 9.86.
The
speed was "only" 221 kmh / 137 mph because of the "new" 3-speed TH400 of course (compared
to
the 4-speed 4L80E) and he didn't get the time to change back to the 3.73 gears before this race, still
ran
4.10 gears here
so
he didn't
want to
torture the Ellwein Engine's "King of Spades", just a little...
It wasn't a wheelie, but it was close.
Last run of 2011 in Blackout SS was possibly also the most dangerous so far?
At 1000 ft
I was
suddenly on ice! Rear tires had NO TRACTION! I let off the pedal
EASY!
Avoided
potential
slip and crash in something like 190 kmh / 120 mph with quick reflective
steering with jerky
arms (I realized
afterwards, with aching arm muscles!)
and at the same time bring this big
monster
closer
to the
wall
so not to spread oil all over
the track!
You don't want to be that guy who
stopped
the whole
meeting... The boring timeslip said 10.88 @ 186 kmh/ 116 mph.
Why all this hassle? Overheating!
The long seconds before you get to know it's only water - and not oil...
Not fun to see a wet string after your car, especially on a strip! You must taste it to find out! PHOOEY!
One of the safety crew came to me with the 18 PSI lid that was found around 1000 ft! Also thinking
about that ugly extra
oil tray...this was the second time it paid off in the same race!
"Aja baja! Be careful on our strip!" They were very kind but still you feel like a bad boy when all people
over
there in the lines and on the stands just have to wait - because of you! Actually they said
"Thanks for
not
having anti-freeze in your cooling water, it's more difficult to clean up than oil!"
That Volvo is in front of me again. What would we do without Ståkkholmskjelle and his Volvo?
TD Semis; Quickest truck in the World! 1/8 was 4.00 and the 60 foot: 0.99 Congratulations Fredde!
Mechanic Stefan "Trolle" Peterson just sat down and possibly thought "-Thanks Tierp Arena, and God!"
Big numbers were set in the Top Doorslammer Final! Martin Lundkvist was untouchable for Fredde
Fagerström
when the Camaro hit a 6.08 and
this incredible speed! Normally Martin competes in Pro
Modified where no one else is close to this speed. I'm so much looking forward to 2012.
Congratulations Martin!
Goosebumps! The intro of the Night Of Fire celebration was a cacklefest with both nostalgia cars and
new turbocars. BIG SOUND AND FLAMES for many many minutes! Between the Tierp Arena
grandstands was a perfect place to do this.
Click to listen, the video is rather dark.
Then all hell broke lose in the Night Of Fire's firework-of-the-year! Many long minutes of good stargazing.
No reason to buy
own
fireworks now for years. Back in the pit Kent had already loaded the "Gentle
Giant"
SS on the
trailer. I still had some water slabbing work to do, Night Of Water. Then beer...
...and pasta dinner at Kenneth Feldthusen's Nilfisk ALTO pit which always is a fun place to be.
Follow the fiery road to the "Golden Shed" for the new season ending party for all teams and
officials.
New for Axel is to follow to a rock'n'beer party for grown ups. He brought his Coca Cola.
It was a heavy rock band - The Quill - playing on stage in the shed which only gave us a chance to
drink,
not talk.
Even
Axel thought it was too much!
So we
went out to the tent and had two beers and
one Coca-Cola.
These small 33 cl plastic bottles of Norrlands beer
were still costing 50 SEK each!
That's is an act
of war, but luckily Kent paid, thanks!
:-) Then we went home to sleep in our vehicles.
Sunday - October 2
October became a reality the day after the race. Cold, drizzly, windy and the loud migratory birds of all
kinds
filled the grey sky. It couldn't have been done more proper. We packed and went home.
On the road again! Cheers "Gomez"!
The secret behind why he is called "Gomez" was released at Tierp, but I'll tell you some other time
because I don't want to write too much here you know...
How easy is it to steer and push a 2 tonnes ferry without any help of people, engine, servo and winch?
With "Gomez" around nothing is difficult.
Here you can stay and be ashamed of yourself!
Axel's promise to his school
Axel wrote a report on his iPad for school which he had promised to
do, to get his two days off. I think
it sums up it all! So maybe this
is it,
maybe I
don't
need
to write my own
reports from the races?
What do you think?
"We were at Tierp Arena racing.
My dad broke the car 3 times.
On the last day I became sick.
We pushed our car up on a
trailer and drove home."
- Many thanks to SamiWolfManHolm, Kjell Ahl, Andreas Björklund, Kent Edin,
Kent
Lindström
www.speed4fun.com Kjelle Brelleman www.brelleman.se
Markus Ek www.mek.nu
and
especially
Patrik Jacobsson www.racebilder.nu
for lending me all your nice pictures!
- Many thanks to Kjell Ahl for helping hand, happy spirit, hot dogs and that radiator!
Thanks also to Kent for happy spirit too, and food now and then!
- Many thanks to Team Nilfisk ALTO, Kenneth Feldthusen and Mia for welcoming
us to coffee and food and good company during the weekend!
- Many thanks to Race Star to organize this race and to Tierp Arena!
- Many thanks to Ingemar "Gomez" Johansson for being a good sport
helping us transporting
Blackout back and forth. Without that no racing - or broken parts - in the first place!
- Many thanks to positive Crewchief Axel Envall who always get very
disappointed
when
car
struggles. But as he use to say: "cool burnouts are the most important"
Possibly a view that he has developed through the last years I'm afraid
:-)
All qualification data and ladders at this super nice site:
Nitroz_TimeTree_Results_NatsII
Why did we winch and push the SS after the
race?
Because, the water problem was bigger than that cap had loosened. I also
found that the lower radiator hose had loosened up so after securing that
we refilled water but that just ran "through the engine" and out on the pit.
Of course I thought of a blown head gasket but I could manually crank
the engine without any hard resistance (of possible water in the cylinders).
Anyway, it was too much to deal with on site, just bring it home first.
I will of course write on NEWS of what I'll find.
Thanks for reading! ;-)
