Tuesday 19th December 2006: Looking back.

Looking back at the 2006 season, a couple of things crossed my mind. Not all of them are highs, but the second year of running of a Top Fuel programme is far from easy. The start of the 2006 season was the Easter Thunderball; I never have felt any pressure during the season carrying the #1 number on my rear wing, but the first time out with that number on the car felt kind of special. The fact that you are the defending Champion is something I never had experienced before, so you think during the winter break about how being #1 will change your season. To be honest, the activities at home were rather disappointing, not that I'm the type of guy that is fond of being in the spotlight, but being an FIA Top Fuel Champion is something you want to celebrate, especially when you are born and raised in a country where fast cars and motorsport has a firm group of supporters. The fact that we still don't have any facility to drag race in the Netherlands will unfortunately contribute to this lack of interest in the future.

The Easter Thunderball was the first race for us in 2006 and gave us the time to clear the rust from our mind to take us back in the groove of working and driving at the race track. After a, for us, rather disappointing outcome we were ready to go into the battle for the 2006 FIA Championship.

The tuning we were using at the Main Event was more aggressive than we used before, something I asked to do because the competition could be fierce. At a certain point during qualifying we were running serious numbers, the problem was that after the eighth mile, things went away. You can imagine the disappointment when we were out in the first round of eliminations, something that didn't happen in our first year of Top Fuel racing in 2005.

We figured we were down but not out, the problems we encountered were investigated and by the time we were leaving for the second round of the Championship in Finland we would have a tune-up in the car that would give us more room to breath and the possibility to find our way back to the top of the Championship.

This all went in a different direction when our Crew Chief gave me the signal that he wanted to quit. Just a week before the second event I had to face a new task; luckily I have a great bunch of people around me. Sebastian, who had a steep learning curve, stepped up from being assistant tuner and I already had brought Hans Brings into our team just before the Finland event as my new Crew Chief. We shuffled some things around and a new team combination was born.

In June, my private life changed as well - my partner Gerda became my wife. From then on we will together share our life and name, something I'm very proud of.

Alastaro (Finland) has got to be one of the more tricky tracks in the Championship; the tuning window is really small, and for us it was an extra handicap to start our new endeavour. After the fourth qualifying session, we were happy to be in the field; during the evening before race day, we found a clutch timer was causing the problems we had during qualifying. We changed the timer and the car was running almost to the finish line without any problems. You can imagine the joy we had. Our bonus came when the FIA allowed us to race in the second round. This round we lost but the numbers were promising and the feeling that we were heading in the right direction made it worthwhile.

Mantorp Park hosted the third round of the Championship; for Sebastian and I it was the second race we were tuning the car, and we had figured out a game plan in the time between races. Things can go differenlyt from what you suspect, but we had a weekend we never want to live through again. We lost our crew van in a nasty accident; luckily the crew members on board the vehicle survived with minor injuries. The fuel system in our race car gave us some readings we never had seen before and are definitely not good. And the record of getting two qualifying runs without an ET because of an error in the functioning of the timing equipment is something you don't want against your name.

One of those "Oops, I'm sorry, no ET" runs was, according to our computer, good enough for the #2 position at least. The race director told us something we knew already, that an on-board computer read-out is no official record to get us in a higher position in the field. At the end, we were lucky to get into the field with only two runs with an official ET on the scoreboard. The bad luck continued when we lost our first round match up right at the finish line when our blower belt broke at the 1000 foot mark.

Gardermoen (Norway) was the next round in the Championship. My memories of this event are good; going to the track where I won my first FIA event, when I was running Alcohol Funny car, is always something special. The track can be really good, and it's an extra challenge to go there and see what we can do. At first we could not get a handle on the tune up, Sebastian and I decided to try a different direction, resulting in our first four-second pass of the season. That we were heading in the right direction was obvious, because we were running four 4 second runs one after another. We were the only team who pulled this off, something that made me very proud. Defeating one of the finest drivers in Top Fuel in the final was pretty hard for me, especially because it was Thomas Nataas at his home track. But the gentleman he is, he told me we deserved the win, something I never will forget.

The Finals at the Pod were pretty hectic, basically because any one of four of us could win the title. Although it was not a big issue for me because it was out of my hands, you hope to finish on a high with points standing as close as possible to the number one position. Qualifying went pretty well, although we aimed for better numbers, something that didn't really work. Considering the conditions we had to face, I'm pretty happy with the end result of both that race and the Championship, although the difference between ending as the #4 in the Championship or the #2 was in the end just less then one round.

We have been part of a season that had five different winners, with most of the records being reset. A couple of teams that were not qualified, with names that if you had mentioned them as potential DNQs at the beginning of the season, you would have had all the people laughing at you for sure.

One thing is for sure, this year was pretty entertaining, and our sport was the winner. I can unveil one thing already. The 2007 season will be even more entertaining.

I would like to thank all the readers and fans for the time they spent to read everything I had to share with them and I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and healthy and beautiful 2007 on behalf of all my crew and partners.

Sunday 3rd December 2006: Pomona Finals (Part 2).

As I promised in my last blog, I will share some of the experiences we had when we visited the Mach 1 Air Services team of David Baca and partner Bill Windham.

During the past two years, Gerda and I have visited the pits of David's team when he has been racing in Pomona. It's always good to see each other, talk with the crew and share the things that happened during our seasons. This time, Sebastian (our tuner) made the trip with us. It was the first time he has attended a race in the USA, and, well, it's an understatement to say he was there at the right moment.

David's crew had a hard time this weekend. Each time his car came back from a qualifying run, the engine needed to be changed for a fresh one. The competition was really tough; at the end of the season (Pomona is the last race of 23) most of the teams had their tuning figured out resulting in a 4.58 bump spot at the final race.

Fuel management problems plagued the team during the qualifying sessions. When you need to run in the low 4.5 seconds region, you want to have a perfectly balanced fuel system. Too much fuel at a certain point during the run will result in dropping cylinders or, worse, blowing up the engine. When you don't feed the engine enough fuel, detonation kicks in and the lack of the cooling factor of the fuel will result in a meltdown of certain parts inside the motor. The sentence “the motor is eating it self up” or “the header flames are turning green” are often the result of a malfunction in the fuel management system.

At the end of the last qualifying round, Baca was still in the field at the number 15 spot. As you know, number15 has to run against the number 2. (the pairing total in a sixteen car field is always 17). The number 2 in this case was Tony Schumacher, who was on a roll to retain his Top Fuel Championship title. We agreed that this situation could end up in David's favour because Tony needed to go for a record ET to clinch the Championship. Looking at the conditions at the track, the optimum time to run a record is usually in the morning or at the end of the day. During the heat of the day, it's usually not possible to make the quickest run of the meeting.

I don't know what kind of tune up Rick Henkelman (David's crew chief) put in the car, but David rattled the tires and the dream of defeating the man on a mission was over within 2 seconds. David's crew was disappointed, although it was the first time at this event that the motor was still in one piece, something that gave David at least some kind of good feeling.

We spent the rest of our day walking up and down between the hospitality trailer from our good friends and the grandstands to see John Force clinching his 14th title and Tony Schumacher retain his Championship crown in a unreal race that will go into the books as one of the most spectacular ones in dragracing history. And as Sebastian said with a twinkle in his eyes: “I can say I was there”. That was a feeling and race you will never forget!

Sunday 19th November 2006: Pomona Finals.

When visiting the Auto Club Finals in Pomona (Ca) there is always something to remember. Each edition has its own “Oh yeah, I was there when it happened” moment. This years edition was one of many to remember. On Friday, Del Worsham grabbed the attention of everybody who was watching. Around the 1000 ft mark, when his car had reached 300 mph, his motor exploded in a big way. The Chevrolet body was smashed into pieces. For Del, it was not possible to reach for the parachute levers because the roof, where these levers are mounted, had moved out of reach for his hands to grab them. Del admitted he was out for a couple of seconds because of the explosion. He did not remember hitting the concrete wall twice before going into the sand trap. The fact that he did not use the brakes also did not help the situation. The car flipped over its nose twice and was so high in the air that it managed to fly over the safety net at the end of the track. Del came out of the wreck under his own power and was taken to the hospital; he was released with some minor injuries and was able to continue qualifying on Saturday in the team's spare car.

Race day had a pretty nice billboard, the TF and FC championship were still not decided and this was the day. For John Force, everything went according to the book, defeating Ron Capps in the second round which clinched him the title. Force won the final on a holeshot from Jack Beckman. While John won the event, he lost the national et record at the same time to Beckman who ran a 4.662 @ 329.99 mph, having set the mph record in qualifying with a 336.15.

At the same time, Doug Kalitta and Tony Schumacher were both contesting the Top Fuel Championship with Doug leading entering the last NHRA round at Pomona.

Kalitta, who needed to go through the third round to clinch the championship, lost against Melanie Troxel on a hole shot. Troxel, who runs out of the same team as Tony, gambled on the tree and cut a 0.028 light against Doug's 0.058 which is really not bad given the sunny circumstances. Both cars ran a 4.50 et leaving the win light to Troxel.

Tony, who defeated Brandon Bernstein with another 4.4s pass, had to win the Final round with a National Record ET to win the Championship. Kalitta was not happy with this outcome because he knew that if one team could do it, the Army team from Schumacher was the one.

Before the TF final, the FC's ran with Beckman setting a record ET. Then we all knew it was possible for Allan Johnson the crewchief of Schumacher to tune the car for what it needed.

Both cars left hard with Tony getting the lead; everybody was waiting to see the Army car go up in smoke but it kept on going; towards the finish line, fuel was coming out of the exhaust when the engine hit the rev limiter. The damage was done for Kalitta, 4.428 0n the scoreboards and everybody in the house going mad. Tony had done what he came for, clinch another championship! As Bob Frey (announcer) said, this was unreal, running these numbers when there was no other option was awesome.

An intriguing detail was that on Saturday evening during the last qualifying round, Schumacher was ready to run the numbers which he needed to set the record and acquire the necessary points under ideal circumstances. After the burnout, the car came back to the staging area, where he got the sign from the starter (Rick Stewart) to shut the engine off because of a oil leak. Allan Johnson said it was no problem and the car left the startline going up in smoke, likely to be because of the oil that was coming out of the engine. It cost the team a $25,000 fine. Tony reacted afterwards that Allan did not give him any signal to stop it so he had to carry on. The talk was that one of Tony's crewmembers had forgotten to mount a valve cover gasket. Oops!

Interesting stuff from reliable sources we ran into is that it's sure that Ashley Force will drive a Fuel Funny Car in '07 and Gary Scelzi will stay with the Schumacher team.

In my next blog I will write about David Baca, who invited us to the race, and his quest to qualify in one of the quickest fields in NHRA history.

Monday 30th October 2006: Something Funny going on.

Looking at what has been published and talked about over the last couple of weeks, it seems that interest in the Fuel Funny Car class is growing. An important factor is that this interest is coming from drivers and team owners: these are the people who have to spend their money and make things happen. It's no secret that fans will be thrilled when the number of Funny Cars grows and, as in the old days, more than eight Fuel floppers make passes down the Santa Pod drag strip at an event. I think Kenneth Lorentzon was right when he explained to Eurodragster News that there is a big market in Europe for the Nitro FCs. People like nitro burning cars and in that perspective, running both Top Fuel Dragsters and Fuel Funny Cars can attract even more people to the races, as has already happened this year with the larger numbers of Top Fuel and Pro Mod teams now running.

Thomas Nataas made it clear that his next race car will be an FC and with Rune Fjeld as a partner I think he has a good chance to become really successful. Rune is one of the most dedicated FC car drivers in European history. I remember back in the 80's I was promoted as crew member on his team when he was short handed with crew. With two people still working on the car when we were being towed to the start line, we managed to get the car ready. Rune had made plastic side windows at the side to keep the massive nitro fumes outside the body during burnout and staging. During the run, the plastic flew away but by that point, Rune had no problem with fumes! Also, Knut Söderquist stated that he is thinking about going back to his roots and starting to run a FC again. It will be interesting to know if Harlan Thompson will team up with Knut in FC again after so many years?

Another interesting issue is the lack of FIA rounds in the provisional calendar. Per and Karsten mentioned the fact that it's a shame we only run as many races as we do, and that for the rest of the year, the equipment is just sitting there doing nothing. Another problem, in my opinion, is that with the amount of races we have to deal with right now, it's not possible to hire professional crew members, something you really want, looking at the amount of work that needs to be done besides race weekends. We need more races to get our budgets worked out and get more sponsor money into our sport and teams. Keith Bartlett is working to get more countries involved and, if I understand right, Italy will be on the calendar in the near future. Racing in the southern countries can be a good way to extend our season because the weather conditions will be less of an issue.

Talking about southern countries, Bahrain seems to come around looking at the numbers that were run at the end of the event. When you read the interviews that Tog had with Rune and Al Jackson, it's only a matter of time before the first Bahraini four second run will be a fact.

My next blog will come from the USA when Gerda, Bas and your Blogger will visit the last NHRA race of the year at Pomona, CA. For me it's a chance to look at the latest tricks and get our programme setup ready for '07.

Saturday 14th October 2006: Taking over the tuning.

Last Saturday was very emotional with the funeral of Monique Pels. It was good to see that so many people came to pay their respects to the family after a loss they have to cope with for the rest of their lives. I know I speak for everybody when we let the family know that we will never forget Monique, that she may rest in peace.

The 2006 Top Fuel Championship had everything in it to remember for a long time. Each round had a different winner, something that proves that TF is changing dramatically. With new records set in ET, speed and side-by-side runs it's obvious the performance level improved big time.

On the Swap Meet on Eurodragster you will find an ad from Knut Söderquist in which he has three Top Fuel cars for sale, scrolling down Tommy Möller is trying to sell the two TF cars he was running this year. The car Monica Öberg was campaigning for I don't know how many years has been sold in Finland. There is a lot going on in European TF scene and it will be very interesting to see which teams will battle for the 2007 title. The European Finals gave us a sneak preview which direction things are heading. The difference between the European cars and the recently-imported USA dragsters is becoming visible.

When we imported a Top Fuel car from the USA in 2005 the general belief was that the tracks would not hold this kind of power. Others had their question marks regarding the parts that were used on the car, some of them which were never seen before in Europe. Eddie Corr, who has a outstanding reputation tuning Top Fuel cars, had his hands full to get the car down the track. The set-up of modern Top Fuel cars is based on 85% nitromethane, something that is mandatory in the NHRA rules. Here in Europe we are still allowed to run with 90%, something that will make a huge difference in tuning and horsepower gain. When Eddie left our team this year after the Main Event, Sebastian and myself were placed in a situation without any options. None of the European tuners were up to speed to tune a Top Fuel car with the equipment we had on our car with 85% in the fuel tank. Urs Erbacher found himself in the same situation, after blowing up several motors he decided to start working with a respectable USA tuner, Glenn Mikres, something that paid off very well looking at what happened at the European Finals.

After my experience with Eddie I decided to go for a different route. Until I started to run Top Fuel I always tuned my own cars. Top Fuel is a different ball game, there are way more things to look at. Most of the Crew Chiefs I know have an assistant to help them to analyse the data after a run, with the current data loggers there is so much to look at and to compare you need an extra pair of eyes to get it analysed in time. I decided to keep the tuning in-house, with Sebastian already acting as an assistant for Eddy I had the man in place to get things done.

The good thing was that neither Sebastian nor I had an "old school" background looking at Top Fuel racing, which helped us to get our act together without using information that was not useful for the current set-up. The bad thing was we had to work out our tune-up during the remainder of the season without any possibility to test. Looking at the car right now we have our mission completed, the car is starting to perform, and we don't use any more parts then you should expect. It certainly gives me a good feeling we have everything in-house to continue our programme, sponsors, crew, people and equipment, which makes it possible to raise the bar for the 2007 season.

My eldest son Martijn celebrated his eighteenth birthday last Sunday. This means he will go for his drivers licence and will be at the wheel of a car very soon. Small boys get big very quickly nowadays.

Friday 6th October 2006: Monique Pels.

The devastating news we got this week that Monique Pels has lost her long battle against her breast cancer in the early morning of 4th October leaves us all with a tremendous sad feeling. I knew about her long fight against this unfair enemy, at first everything seemed to go her way, something a beautiful woman as she was desevered, without any question! Monique will stay an example for everybody who have met her. Her smile and the joy she had in life will never be forgotten. Sshe was a person who made us proud to be active in the same sport. A wonderful mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend; all this stands as her greatest accomplishment, we need more Moniques in this life.

The Pels family is the ultimate example where drag racing has its roots. The whole Zodiac team was always family related. We all feel so helpless in this situation, all we can do is be there for the family should they need us. The foundation of drag racing will always be the family relationship, this we know for sure. Monique was one of the icons in our sport, one in a million and she will be missed tremendously. She will never be forgotten.

Picture courtesy and ©Remco Scheelings

Friday 22nd September 2006: Post-Finals and a tough decision.

It has been a hectic couple of weeks after our return from the UK. Things needed to be investigated and sorted out about our plans to attend the last two races of the NHRA tour in the USA. At the same time as the Las Vegas race, our partner and sponsor MPM Oil will launch their product range in the USA and this will be made official at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Adding everything together, though, it appears that the time left to get everything organised is not enough to get matters completed in a good fashion. To get everybody involved heading in the same direction needs more time than we have right now. Of course the disappointment is there, but there will be more chances in the near future, especially when MPM USA Inc. start promoting their line of products in the USA.

The FIA European Finals was for me personally an event to look back at with mixed emotions. Losing people due to an accident during a race weekend is terrible, but leaving your home in the morning to go to visit the race track as a spectator and never come back is inexpressible. The death of Roger George marks one of the blackest pages in European drag racing history. Our race community is expressing their feelings and looking at what has already been said, our thoughts are with the family of Mr George.

The FIA European Finals gave us a new European Champion in Top Fuel. Håkan Nilsson and his team displayed a steady performance over the whole year, which is an awesome job for the first year with a new car, team and driver. It was a tough Championship and each round gave us a different winner. A well-deserved Congratulations to those who made this Championship possible.

Heading into the Finals, my biggest goal was to get the car performing without hurting parts. I know the general impression is that TF motors need to expire during the five seconds they do their job, but to be honest this is not true. Of course we are working at the limit of what is possible, stressing everything that is involved to make the 7000 hp going down the track. We made six runs without hurting anything and we left the Pod with the same head gaskets in the motor as when we arrived. The car is starting to show the performance we are looking for.

What did not help was the oildowns that occurred in front of us during the weekend. Two of our qualifying runs were mid-4.6 runs until we lost traction where the oil was spilt in the run before us. I don't mean the track was not cleaned well because I think the Santa Pod track crew did an awesome job cleaning and preparing the track each time they were called to perform their jobs. But punishing a track with oil takes its toll, and as we tried to run the numbers, we needed a track in its best condition, but what can you do?

Looking at the timing data from the FIA European Finals the reaction time from Håkan Nilsson in the first round against Thomas Nataas gave some food for thought. A reaction time of 0.047 generally means you leave before you see the lights go on at the Christmas tree. I know in the USA the lights are better than ours in Europe but that has everything to do with the different bulbs they are using contributing to a better RT. Losing in the second round against Håkan Nilsson made the difference for me between ending fourth in the Championship instead of second, but, as I have said before, the 2006 Championship has been the toughest in European drag racing history and it was very close at the end. For us as MPM Top Fuel, the 2007 season has already started by getting into the next gear with ordering the parts we need, the knowledge we have, and a car and crew that is better than ever before.

Next year will be even more interesting than this year.

Saturday 9th September 2006: End of year thoughts.

This blog entry was written between qualifying sessions on the Saturday of the FIA European Finals.

We have had to change our engine between the third and fourth qualifying sessions. Rather than breaking a mechanical part, the problem was vibration caused by a slightly bent crank that was causing the car to lose traction down the race track. We think the crank was bent by the smoker we did at Hockenheim. We have had no engine damage this event and I am proud that Sebastian and the team are keeping it all together.

The air and temperature conditions are really good this weekend but the other part of the equation is how much the track can take from the Top Fuel cars. There may be some excess rubber still despite the hard work of the crew in scraping it off on Thursday and Friday nights. We think we have the conditions figured out and have set the car up to run a 4.7. we shall see this coming session (He ran a 4.817/271 to take #3 position in the ladder - Blog Ed).

We are enjoying the meeting and are feeling no pressure as the Championship is probably beyond our reach. It will be fun to see what happens tomorrow.

Our trip to the U.S. at the end of the year is still up in the air. A couple of people are working to get the programme together. If we go we will run the last two races of the 2006 NHRA series and the start of the 2007 season. We will be making the decision very soon.

I would like to correct a report published in National Dragster which stated that we were not sure whether we were going to run in 2007 due to business commitments. If another driver becomes interested in driving the MPM TF car during our visit in the USA it could be that we will run the car with that driver if I also had an opportunity to step into an NHRA Funny Car class, which is something I have on my wish list.

We are looking forward to attending the SEMA show at Las Vegas at the end of October at which MPM U.S. will be launched.

Thursday 31st August 2006: A shot in the dark.

When you read my last Blog, you knew I was really looking forward to attending the Nitrolympx in Hockenheim and being part of the Saturday night show. Driving the MPM Top Fuel dragster when it's dark is really awesome, especially with the huge crowd attending the evening event. The weather conditions were not good throughout the day and showers held us back from driving during the daytime on Saturday, leading to a sense of disappointment in the grandstands for the public and our guests. At first it looked like we would get a trouble free run in the evening, but things changed rapidly when it started raining again at around 7.00 pm.

So Rico asked us drivers if it would be possible to make a short burnout after the rain stopped.

The first part of the track had a sort of dry groove, but around the 1/8 mile things started to become rapidly wet. First the Pro Modified and Top Methanol cars performed their burnouts; the situation was really difficult looking at what was happening on the track. The cars were skating all over their lanes and, as soon as they crossed the 1/8 mile mark, a lot of water was spraying from under the rear slicks leaving them in a haze of mist towards the finish line.

Certain people from the USA were looking at this situation and told me they never ever had seen a situation like this where cars were allowed to go down the track under power in these conditions. "Yeah", I said, "Only in Europe!" I advised him not to tell the story when he got back home, because they would all think that he had gone crazy during his European trip.

You should have seen his face when I left the start line and told him we would fire up the car and give it a go. With all our guests from MPM in the grandstands we did not have any option then give them the best we could do at that given moment.

I was paired up together with Urs. Sebastian gave me the signal and the engine came to life. For this evening session, we turned on the dash light on my display, something that Racepak put in their system, an option that's really cool. I adjusted the amount of fuel going into the motor with my fuel lever according to the information on my display. All other information looked okay and I waited for the signal to roll forward. It took a little while because there was a little more work to be done on Urs' machine. If this had been a normal run, it could have been a problem as waiting longer then normal can lead to an empty tank during the run, but this was different so we could handle the waiting.

Finally the signal was there. I released the brake and clutch and the car moved forward, through the water box and there we went. I was planning to do an eighth-mile burnout because the crowd wanted to see smoke and there are not many things in life that are better then making long smoky burnouts. I asked Gerda to stand on the concrete Armco, this being because the conditions were pretty difficult; she gave me the signal to start the burnout which was funny for me because I had to raise my head to see her. She was standing there like a traffic cop in the middle of a jam.

The burnout went just fine. When I reached the eighth mile mark I lifted the throttle and the engine came back to the idle mode; I then switched the fuel lever to the close position, causing the engine to rev up caused by the lean condition. I then found myself on a wet track, with the darkness as a bonus; the front wheels started to spray water over my windscreen and helmet visor. I was also thinking about Thomas Nataas whom I had seen in the fire-up lanes with a dark visor fitted to his helmet. Where to go I thought, somewhere in the darkness I saw a flashlight waving, was it for me or for Urs?

At that moment my attention was drawn to something I had never experienced before. My rear slicks started to float on the track. The amount of water and the lack of down force made the wide slicks start to lose grip on the track surface and aquaplane. The speed was too low to make sensible use of the parachutes, hard braking was not an option either because it could make things even worse. I tried to use the brake in a gentle way, knowing that the carbon fibre discs needed some temperature to start working properly anyway. The guy with the flashlight started waving to me when I came closer to his position and I managed to make a turn, not knowing where I was. I stopped the car somewhere in pitch darkness. My headset started to make a noise; it was Gerda asking me if I was OK. I told her I was fine, but that she needed to start looking for me because I didn't know where I was.

Our guests were impressed with the show that all the drivers put on. For us as drivers, it was a new experience, something we will never forget. For next year I will order some extra parts from the Murf McKinney the chassis builder, it will look like this:

• Two front fenders
• One wiper for the windscreen
• Two headlights
• One tail light
• A set of grooved slicks

Pictures courtesy and ©Remco Scheelings

Monday 21st August 2006: Parts and parcels.

As most of you enjoy the holidays, this is the busiest time of the season for me. After the races in Sweden and Norway, we have to check all our equipment. It's important to have a complete inventory on hand of what's in stock and what needs to be serviced or repaired. We managed to make twelve runs on the Scandinavian tour, which says something about the kind of use we had to make of our inventory.

One of the first things I do when I get back home after a race weekend is get in touch with Gary Burgin, my US connection and main supplier. His office in California is based in the centre of where most of the manufacturers are located who make the parts that I use for our race programme. I have said this before: without Gary, European drag racing with be a lot tougher to handle. his involvement means a lot for us racers and our fans.

This coming weekend, the Nitrolympx in Germany is on our calendar. I'm really looking forward to this event. MPM Oil have a lot of people invited to this race, something that give us an extra incentive to do well.

We spent the whole of Saturday cleaning everything to maintain our smart appearance: we have to look extra good both in the pits and on the track.

To make an appearance in the night show with a Top Fuel Dragster is one of the best things a driver can dream about. Last year, it was the first time I was part of the evening show as a driver. I can tell you it is awesome. The fact that you have to send your missile somewhere into the dark gives you an extra rush of adrenaline. I also love the crowd on the grandstands cheering, waving and using all kinds of things to attract your attention. Our crew have to work with flashlights to find their way in the dark.

We will continue with our quest to upgrade the performance of our car after our win in Norway. The race in Hockenheim will give us more information and at the same time the fans will have a chance to see some great numbers on the scoreboards.

Our latest victory was a sweet one, as most of the other teams thought we were dead in the water after Eddie Corr left our team. Without any doubt, when things like this happen you have to regroup and write a new strategy to continue. At the start of a season, this is not something that can be done as quickly as you would like it, but I was one hundred per cent sure that we could do it. Every tuner has his own way of working and setting the car up, something we had to do by ourselves the moment Eddie left the team.

For Sebastian and myself it is a great challenge to pull this off, and I can tell you I'm very proud that we managed to get the car running without losing too many points in the Championship and collecting our first win in the third race at which we were tuning the car ourselves. It's good to see how Sebastian is growing in his role and taking his responsibilities that come with his new job in the team, and how the response of my crew has been flawless.

As proved in Sweden where Andy Carter did not make the cut, and in Norway were Tommy Möller did not qualify, Top Fuel racing is not as easy as it used to be with more than eight cars competing for only eight places on Sunday's race day.

Talking about the Norway round and getting nothing for free, we had to face Håkan Fällström, who was the winner at the Main Event at Santa Pod, in the first round; our second round opponent was Håkan Nilsson who had won the third round in Sweden; and our final opponent was Thomas Nataas who had won the second round in Finland. Beating all those champions says enough about our performance. The icing on the cake is the fact that we were the only team running a four-second tune up the whole day with temperatures over thirty degrees Celsius.

Right now we are ready and on our way to the Hockenheimring, hope to see you there

Tuesday 8th August 2006: Fours to be reckoned with.

We were very pleased to win at Gardermoen but the start to the weekend was not so good. On our first qualifying run on Friday we damaged two cylinder heads. No fuel was getting through and a Top Fuel engine can't do without fuel. We found an air leak in a hose and air was being sucked in to the fuel system. On the second run the fuel system was different because of the repair and we damaged two more heads. I hit one of the top end timing reflectors on that run too - I saw it coming and just missed it with the front spoiler but one of the rear kickout panels hit it and we had to repair it.

Sebastian and I realised that we had to change our strategy for Saturday because we were four heads down and only had two left. We changed the set-up and for the first run on Saturday I wanted to check it out, so I was on the throttle for two and a half seconds and still ran a mid-five on the new set-up. On the second run on Saturday I tried a full pass to see if the engine would stay in good shape. We ran 4.9 and the engine was good.

On Sunday I told the crew "Be ready to go rounds". In the first round we were against Håkan Fällström and I knew that he would run a 5.0 and that we could run in the fours. Håkan Nilsson and Urs Erbacher went in the pair before me and I saw them run a 4.8 and 4.7 and I knew the track was OK.

It was amazing to see Urs run the 4.7 and it was a pity to see the red light. I was interested to see the emotions of the two crews. Håkan's crew thought they were out and then realised about the red, and Urs' crew saw the 4.7 second run and then realised about the red. But they were all hugging one another on the start line and it was great to see.

In our race the car left hard and picked up the front end at half track but it was going straight and so I stayed on the throttle. The blower belt broke at 1000 feet and went over the rear spoiler and broke a piece off a spill plate. I ran a Personal Pest of 4.76 on a 1000-foot run, imagine what it would have been if it had been a full pass.

I had to face Håkan Nilsson in the next round. I wondered what he thought when Urs had run a 4.7, I had run a 4.7, he had run a good 4.8 but was only third quickest. I had lane choice and it was really hot but I knew that we had a good set-up. Sebastian and I decided that we should make no changes except to add some fuel at the top end to save the blower belt. Håkan turned the tyres at the top end and I won with another four.

When I pulled the chute I heard a scraping noise from behind as if the belly pan had grounded. I tried to turn left to leave the track and the car was scraping and stopped on the track. It turned out that a tyre had deflated after I had shut off. It could have been a lot worse if it had happened under power.

Whilst I was waiting for the crew to bring another wheel from the pits I saw Thomas Nataas' solo run in the semi final and I could hear him spinning the tyres at half track. When we checked the car everything was OK and I told Sebastian that we should not change anything. We'd been running fours all day and I knew we could do it again.

I had lane choice which was a benefit because the left lane was definitely slightly better, certainly for Fuel cars. Thomas was at his home track and he was doing well in the Championship. Håkan Nilsson came up to me before the final and said "You have to win for the Championship!" but I said to him that I was planning to beat Thomas anyway.

I didn't see Thomas at all in the final. We turned the tyres a little but still ran a 4.9. We were the only Top Fuel team to run fours in every round on Sunday.

There is more to come yet, but we didn't want to change anything at Gardermoen because we knew we had the right tune-up.

We were really happy about this result. We got a lot of congratulations from people who were pleased to see us win - they thought we were finished, but you know me! I was very pleased for all the people who trusted us and supported us. We have even had some calls from the USA. The guys over there are working hard to get things arranged for us to race the last couple of NHRA events this year.

Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen did an awesome job last weekend. They had a hard time to get everything prepared on a very small budget but they made it a great weekend for us all.

In our next Blog we will have more details about this weekend.

Sunday 30th July 2006: Close racing and a mishap.

This blog entry was written late Sunday evening following eliminations at the Veidec Festival.

The MPM Top Fuel Dragster lost in the first round of by seven hundreths of a second to Urs Erbacher. It was a really close race with my reaction time faster than Urs by only three thousandths, but I didn't have enough power at the finish line. The snout of our setback blower got damaged on that pass and we didn't expect to break these parts. Now we have to chase down the spares that we ordered from the US before we left Holland for the race. They are parts not used widely in the pits as only Urs, Håkan Nilsson and us are using setback blowers and we will need them to be able to run next weekend at Gardermoen.

We had a difficult day as some of the crew of our fellow countryman and MPM-sponsored Pro Mod racer Robert Koper borrowed our minibus to take some people to Stockholm and had a road accident after a tyre burst. It was a big relief to know that the driver and passengers were pronounced unhurt after being checked out at hospital. None of my team were involved but our minibus is a total loss and we will need to find another solution for transportation.

My congratulations go to Håkan Nilsson, Per and Karsten Anderson and their team on a tremendous victory in Top Fuel here. It has been the largest Top Fuel field in the history of European drag racing and he must be really happy to win his sponsors' race.

Now it's on to Gardermoen next weekend for the next race.

Saturday 29th July 2006: A case of bad timing.

This blog entry was written after the conclusion of qualifying at the 2006 Veidec Nitro Festival.

Qualifying was good for us on the Friday as we ran a 5.099/447.81 kph in the second session. We went faster still for the next two rounds, except for one big problem - the timing system failed to record our ET on our third and best run. Our data shows that the third run on Saturday morning was a 4.86 and we were really disappointed that there was no time recorded. It cost us points and it cost us money as we ended up officially in sixth position.

The sport definitely needs some sort of backup in case of malfunctioning timing equipment and I am in favour of a camera at the finish line to prove who finishes first. I don't know what the rules say but all I want to say is that when there is a problem you have to look for the cause to solve it.

After today, we are thinking of buying lottery tickets as a better option to racing. It was lucky that our second run of 5.099 held up. On our final run, something was wrong with our fuel system and we are still searching for the problem. A big problem for the racers has been the air, with a corrected altitude reading of around 3,000 feet. When you think that at Santa Pod the normal corrected altitude is 1,000 feet, you realise that we needed to do something to make up for the thinner air. We did the usual thing by increasing the blower overdrive but as it is the first year with us tuning the car ourselves it was not easy. We have never run so much blower and feel there was an error in the fuel system but the performance was good for the conditions.

Another factor in the poorer times than usual is track temperature. This was 120 degrees Fahrenheit when we ran. The optimal temperature is in the region of 75 to 90 degrees. But what goes around comes around.

The first round pairings in Top Fuel are interesting for this year's Championship. The current number one and two in the championship, Håkan Fallström and Thomas Nataas are meeting in the first round of eliminations and I am on the other side of the ladder from them and Håkan Nilsson who is number three. From my point of view it will be best if Micke Kågered gets to the final and races me. And local boy Micke has a very good record of reaching the final at Mantorp Park.

I am meeting Urs Erbacher in the first round. I like racing against Urs as he is a good competitor with a good team. Their car is running better mechanically since they hired Glenn Mikres to help with their tune-up. But, as good as Glenn is, you need the team to think about the tune-up all the time and not just on one or two weeks in the season. On most runs so far, we were the better car and I know we can win this event.

Saturday 22nd July 2006: Shopping and helping.

The Veidec Festival 2006 is almost ready to open its gates. Mantorp Park will take care of one of the biggest fields in European drag racing. For the loyal fans it will be fun - if you love drag racing and you like the Scandinavian environment you can smell Nitro six days in two weeks because after the race in Mantorp, we will pack our equipment and hit the road to Gardermoen, Norway. If you imagine that even for teams racing in the USA, two races in two weeks is a battle, it's obvious what this will mean for us European racers.

You have to think ahead; two Championship rounds could mean you have to do 4 qualifying rounds and 3 elimination rounds; that makes 7 rounds, times 2 is 14 rounds of racing.

Going over the inventory you need to order for 14 rounds it will look a little bit like this:

14 x 16 plugs is 224 plugs
14 x 12 ltr MPM warm-up oil is 168 ltr
14 x 12 ltr MPM race oil is 168 ltr 14 x 8 rod bearings is 112 rod bearings
14 x set main bearings
14 x sets of piston rings
60 clutch floaters
30 clutch discs
Enough rods and pistons for the service intervals
6 sets of rear slicks
3 sets of front tires
4 drums Nitro Fuel
6 blower belts

And the small parts are not even listed in this shopping list.

I'm looking forward to come back to Mantorp were we ran our PB last year. The amount of work already done to get the track in top condition is huge. It will not surprise me if the European record will be reset. If you take a closer look at the Top Fuel field you see that most of the teams are capable of running the ¼ mile in 4 seconds. So, seeing the quickest field in European history is a great possibility.

After the Finland race, we went over the data we collected; it gave us much pleasure to see we are going in the right direction with our tune-up. I'm full of confidence and ready to go after the number one position in the Championship. Looking at the Championship so far, the conclusion is that it has never been as close in the points as it is right now. I must say that it is really cool to be part of this challenge.

I don't know if you readers are aware of what's going on at the other side of the ocean, but there is one thing that I want to share with you because I think this is something that needs attention, no matter what.

As you probably know, our car is a former David Baca car, and, because of that, we still have something going on with David and his team.

Baca has introduced something I think we need to do here in Europe as well. Racing over in Europe and meeting a lot of fans, I think we have an obligation to do something for people who are less fortunate. Baca is helping young Muscular Dystrophy patients. He invites them to come to the track and the team also collects money to give these patients a better quality of life.

I'm interested to know if there is a institute here in Europe similar to that which David Baca is taking care of, who would like to have MPM Top Fuel as a team standing behind their programme.

My next blog will be from Mantorp Park, when I will keep you updated with the latest news and interesting stories!

Tuesday 11th July 2006: On oil.

There were a large number of oildowns at the 2006 FHRA Nitro Nationals, especially on the first day of Pro qualifying. During that weekend, Eurodragster.com suggested that Lex write a Blog entry about whether he thought it was time to introduce NHRA-style oildown penalties in the European Championships.

With the number of Top Fuel cars increasing, the amount of down time caused by oildowns is growing as well.

This negative element is something that is not new to our sport. The NHRA experienced a lot of problems losing track time caused by the clean-ups that were necessary to get the track back in shape again after an oildown. The public started to get bored watching a track without racing activities and the deadline for the live coverage of the finals broadcasted on ESPN television was in danger several times as well.

As a result, the NHRA decided to penalise the teams and drivers when they oil the track. On the NHRA web site you can find all of the information regarding the ins and outs when you oil an NHRA track. It starts with deducting points and it continues with fines when you keep behaving like a bad girl or boy. In the USA they are proud that they have reached a record low number of oildowns and I personally think it's good for the sport to maintain this level of clean runs.

Looking at our situation, things are not as easily solved as they were in the USA. Most of the teams running in Europe are funded with private money, some with the help of sponsors. To impose a fine on these teams will have an opposite effect, as it will cause less money can be spent on parts that can enable clean runs to be made. The quality of the tracks can be a factor as well: when running in more slippery conditions, the engines can easily be over-revved, causing severe damage to the powerplant and, a lot of times, oil spilt on the track. The lack of both testing possibilities and funds also contribute to things going wrong during qualifying runs. Most of the Top Fuel teams have to find their tune-ups during qualifying. In the USA, the day after the race you can hire the track to make test runs. Some of the teams have a test driver who will make runs with different parts on the car to test and tune. Not testing at the race meeting will save a lot of down time.

The bottom line is that none of the teams like to oil the track, most of the time oil outside the engine means trouble and trouble is spending money where you don't like it!

Oil on the track is bad news, especially when you are the next in line and in front of you things go wrong you're not happy. Sitting in the car with the adrenaline rushing through your body, you have to wait until things are clean and fixed by the track crew. In the meantime, you are wondering if the track is affected by the clean-up. Sometimes, the track conditions can be better after a clean-up but when you have to find your ultimate tune-up you would like to have the basic track conditions to start from. In eliminations, it can affect the lane choice and, when you get back in the pits, it will hurt your service time because the other teams are already stripping down their cars.

When we had to run against Håkan Fällström at Alastaro last week, I was happy to hear him tell me that we would go out as the first pair. The #1 qualifier has the right to choose to go as the first or last pair. Running first won't tell you a lot about the track conditions, but the good thing is that you will have a clean track and enough turn-round time to get the car ready if you have to run the next round.

My opinion is that during the season the tuners will get a handle on the problem after more runs have been made. To penalise the teams would not help.

Tuesday 4th July 2006: Alastaro reflections.

Writing these Blogs is always something to look forward to. I'm aware of the fact most of you are reading my Blogs because they give an inside view about how a Top Fuel team goes through all kinds of stages during a year. As you probably know I always try to be open-minded and objective regarding all kinds of subjects that I discuss.

The "Wing protest" as it was called is something that needs a better explanation. Although, in my opinion, a lot of my fellow competitors will not make any extra comment about it, I think it's important for the future of our sport to address what went wrong and how to deal with this kind of issue in the future.

When our team was scrutineered on Friday morning before the first round of qualifying, we asked the officials if the wings could be checked. In the USA, the cars are checked before the meeting starts and at random after a run. The rules mandate a wing angle of zero degrees plus or minus two degrees. This is done to prevent too much load on the rear slicks, which would cause them to explode. A safety matter, you understand. The main purpose of the rear wing is to generate downforce which contributes to increasing the traction of the rear slicks. Using more wing on slippery tracks will have an effect on the amount of horsepower you can apply to the track, resulting in better ETs. The officials told us they did not have the equipment so we offered them the use of ours in case they needed it.

After our first elimination run, we came back to the scales where all cars are weighed and checked. I asked the official if he also was checking the rear wing angles, this being because it can affect the performance of the car, the same as if you add more than 90% nitro or run with a car which is underweight. The important point is that I did not protest specifically against Håkan Fallström. After they checked his wing they found it had more than the allowed two degrees. How this was measured I don't know - they checked my car and others, and as far as I know they all passed the inspection without failing.

The mistake the officials made was that they did not exclude Håkan from the race, but let him go. When you are underweight or you run too much nitro in your tank, you are sent home. This should be the same with the wing angle. If you run too much angle, you are disqualified. When I read Kenneth's comments, I understand that he was going after me by protesting against my protest, but what he should do is talk with his crew members because they left the place where the officials made their measurements knowing they were not legal. The bottom line is that the FHRA had to disqualify Håkan, because he was running a car which did not adhere to the rules.

Now my popularity with the Swedish racers and fans has gone down the drain and all this because the officials failed to do their job. Hey guys, I'm sorry, I understand this is hard to swallow, but you have to understand we all want to race fair and square. Saying I'm too serious is fine - I see it as a compliment. Drag racing is growing in Europe, and more Professional teams are stepping in. The clubs that organise FIA Championship rounds need to step up as well if we want a healthy future for our sport.

Track conditions were really marginal in Alastaro. This is one of the reasons that a lot of Top Fuel teams sacrificed a couple of motors trying to get down the track without even a minimal amount of traction available. The loss of engines did not benefit these conditions either, because the oildowns were major and gave the track crew a hell of a job, especially because the equipment they had to use to clean the track there was not what it should be.

For Sebastian (our tuner) and myself, the difficult task was to see how our new tune-up would work under the given conditions. The car left the line too aggressively for the conditions. Running a sixty foot time of 0.880 is nice, but further down the track the car was losing traction. We needed to take more power out of the car. The strange thing that occurred is that by taking out power, the car started to go even quicker to the sixty foot mark - it was getting more and more clear that we had some kind of mechanical problem.

There were ten cars competing for eight places and because I had not pedalled the car, the times we put on the scoreboard were not impressive. Things became tricky and we decided to go for the numbers and get ourselves qualified, trying to sort out our problem in the meantime. On the second qualifier on Saturday, the car smoked the tires again after 150 feet. I started to pedal the car, I can tell you this is no fun, the car was going all over the place, losing traction every time I hit the pedal. I managed to get to the other end in six seconds which would be good enough to end up as number eight qualifier. The third qualifying session did not help us, we changed all the settings on our clutch management system but the car did not react.

On Saturday night, Seb and I went over the whole clutch system to determine where our problem was coming from. Collecting all the information, we found our problem, or at least we had a good feeling about it, but the ultimate answer would come when we ran the car over the quarter mile. As you will understand, we still had no data that we could use to go into the first round of eliminations. The data we had from previous races was of almost no use, because we have chosen to have a clean sheet approach on the tuning.

In the first round of eliminations, I staged the car after the burnout, but then the car did not move into stage. After I switched the fuel system to the high side, the RPM lowered and after the changes we made the evening before, which we could not check, the car did not want to move into stage. Action needed to be taken and quick, because Håkan was already staged. I needed to raise the RPM again. The question was, how to do this and how to do it with 7000 horsepower under your right foot? Switching the fuel back to the low side would take too long and was also not an option because I would have blown the engine to pieces on the startline. Just to graze the throttle would be the only way to get the car into stage. The movement I needed was just minimal; not over-staging was the other thing to be careful about.

I was looking at my front wheels to see if they started to turn when I started my final attempt to stage. The car moved, and right then I realised that I had triggered the stage beam resulting in the starter pushing the button. I looked at the Christmas Tree and both lights were lit, at the same time the lights came down. I managed to pull my best Reaction Time of the weekend, and the car rocketed away.

I was ready to handle a situation to rescue the car in case our tuning strategy did not work, but the car just kept on going. It was the first time this weekend we made it down the track. Around the 1000 foot mark the car started to haze the tyres, but I decided to keep my foot in it because the car was still pulling forward Gs. Right before the finish line, the blower belt broke, resulting in us losing the race by 0.05 seconds.

When we got back to the pits the only damage we had was the broken belt. The car looks really healthy and we never before had had a weekend with no damage to gaskets or related parts. The crew is in excellent shape and turning the car around in seventy five minutes is great stuff.

Because we were reinstated by the Race Director, we were able to go into the second round against Thomas Nataas. The MPM Top Fuel Dragster left the line hard and we were quicker during the first eighth-mile, and then we lost ground because we started spinning the tyres, resulting in a win for the Champion of the meeting.

After two rounds the Championship is wide open: the fans will be treated big time when they visit the next race at Mantorp Park.

Monday 26th June 2006: Alastaro anticipation.

That life is not all about racing is hard to imagine; each day in our life, Gerda and myself have drag racing on our menu. What started as a hobby more then twenty years ago has developed into a job on a daily basis. With our regular job demanding our time each day too, you can imagine we don't have enough time to get bored.

With the routine of the daily workload, it's important to have a hobby which can clear your mind and keep your body in good physical shape and condition. Our horses are our solution to this need. They force you to set your mind on other things and more often than not help you through stressful situations that occur during your daytime jobs. Gerda is doing really well, and won last weekend with her horse when she competed in the dressage at a councours event. We are both fighters and I was really proud to see she managed to win and overcome the obstacles that you have to deal with when you want to be the best.

Talking about racing, the MPM Top Fuel dragster is ready to leave for its journey to Finland. Everything has been done to make the car as good as can be and all the parts which were damaged during the FIA Main Event have been repaired or replaced. The bad feeling we had after the Main Event, looking at all the destroyed parts and the first round loss, has made way for the fighting spirit which is the characteristic of our team. Last year we showed we could defend our position, this year we are going to prove that we can make up ground when necessary.

Being the current number seven is enough reason to make it a challenge to move up. With eleven Top Fuel cars entering the event, it will give all of the Top Fuel teams the extra motivation to go as fast as conditions allow. The conditions can vary at Alastaro and this will make this race extra interesting.

I can remember not so long ago when Top Fuel in Finland was just a four car field entering eliminations on Sunday. The huge field which has entered this year's event will make the fans happy and will guarantee a lot of people coming through the gate.

For us it will be the first event where we will make our own decisions regarding tuning. Looking at the stream of information he has gathered, I'm feeling really confident about the progress Sebastian has made during the last couple of weeks. You could say a new era has been entered and with the changes to the MPM Top Fuel crew structure, people are interested to see how things will develop. I know we can turn a few heads by the end of the meeting.

For our crewmember Sami, who is working on the top end of our motor, it will be a special event for other reasons as well. He lives in Finland, so for him this is a home race, and his former team will enter the event as well. It will be good to see Anita and Tommi again after such a long absence from the sport. I understand Tommi updated his license recently to make it possible for him to be a serious contender during this upcoming event.

Together, there are enough ingredients to make it a weekend to remember. By next week we will know where we are and if we made good decisions!

Monday 19th June 2006: Raising the bar.

You would think that when we have a couple of weeks to recover from the first round of the Championship there is enough time to get things ready for the second round in Finland. As you will have seen earlier last week, time is just an arithmetic word in sense of a frame you are working in. The announcement from Eddie that he was leaving our team was made last week, something I really regret because Eddie is a cool guy and a person with a lot of experience of Top Fuel racing over the last ten years.

I know that working with me is not easy. The bar is always set higher the moment you think you have reached your goal. Becoming Top Fuel Champion is part of that - I believe we became Champions because of the willpower and dedication from all the people involved with MPM Top Fuel Racing.

As the ultimate leader of this team I have a certain target to set and the route map to draw achieve this. Part of my work is to get together a team which can fight from start to finish, and the chemistry within a team is one of the most important factors in success. Understanding what is going on in the heads of my guys is one of the fundamentals in creating a good team. That's why I asked Hans Brings to join our team. Hans is the perfect guy to be Crew Chief, with his experience over the past decades helping Henri Joosten to become one of the most successful doorslammer drivers in Holland. For me a Crew Chief is the person who leads the crew when the battle against the clock and the other teams is developing. One of the other tasks of my Crew Chief is to inform the tuners during the service of the car about the condition of the parts that are being serviced. This information is important to add in the tuning for the next round.

Altogether I'm looking forward to start working with our new combination, although I must say the work already started last week and will never stop. What I must say is that I'm looking forward to seeing what our first meeting will bring us. Finland will be tough but hey, the greater the challenge the more rewarding the outcome will be.

Monday 12th June 2006: Commitment and hunger.

For one day last week our racing activities were not the main issue on our mind. As you have seen on Eurodragster, Gerda and I have made our daily life even more special than it already is. Making commitments towards each other in this way is awesome. We had a great day, everything went the way we planned. The minister said he thought he had seen everything in his career marrying people but drag racing was something he never had heard about.

The amount of emails we received was tremendous, we want to thank everyone who responded to our marriage. It shows again that the drag racing family is huge and unites people all over the world.

Last week Keith Bartlett sent to all Top Fuel teams who had entered the Main Event a letter in which he expressed his feelings regarding some issues. He said it was great to see that the number of Top Fuel cars was above the eight which can make the field on race day. This gave more meaning to the effort to qualify. He also told us that he was not happy with what happened in the second round when two Top Fuel cars idled down the track because both had bye runs. People pay a lot of money to come through the gates to see close racing and especially during the middle of the day when there is a full house it's not good just to idle down the track.

Looking at these comments I agreed totally with Keith, and at the same time you start thinking why these things happen the way they do. I think we need to keep our fans happy, or from another point of view, I hate to race at venues where there are not a lot of people. As a team and driver you want to show off and celebrate with as many people possible. This is basically the same for all teams involved.

Having said this, it's probably time to review the rules made by the FIA and make them relevant to our situation. Recently I found out that it's not only the rules and prize fund which need to be revised, but also the way technical issues are handled. It's good to know that all these matters are discussed to get a better performance on the track, and the fans will be the ultimate winners.

This week all of the McDonalds restaurants in the Netherlands are featuring a film about the MPM Top Fuel team. The fast food organization was looking for some exciting images to show to customers eating in their restaurants. They chose the images we shot at last year's Main Event which were made into an exciting short movie. Now you know: when you are in the Netherlands this week and get hungry, you can combine it with some smoky burnouts at McDonalds.

Monday 5th June 2006: The difference between winning and losing.

It's almost a week ago when the Main Event eliminations were about to begin. I gave several interviews at the event; people are interested what's going on, especially when you are carrying the #1 on your car. I told the curious interviewers that I was confident and knew we had a car that was good enough to make it to the semi finals. Our qualification streak was in my opinion not the subject that you want to write home about, but we added all the good things that came out of the three qualifying rounds and concluded it would be possible to work out a tune-up that would suit the car and opponent that we had to face in the first round.

Our qualifying sessions were all troubled with issues you could not have forseen. Our first run was a planned 900 ft pass, just to check out our rebuilt fuel pump and some other things that we needed to be sure of. I must say the car surprised me; when the clutch came in it really started to pull, almost 5 G's at mid track with the shake accompanying it resulting in a split second were there was no vision for me; keeping your foot in is all that counts. Running a 3.18/259 mph (414 kmh) at the 1/8 mile is awesome, the run would have been a low 4.6 or a high 4.5. It was a pity the excellent track conditions eventually went away during the weekend.

In the second session, I had a massive oildown in front of me when Mickey blow up his engine at the startline, giving the Santa Pod crew a handful to clean the track.

Although the track crew did a splendid job you normally would go for the other lane because the track needs more then a couple of minutes after a cleanup to get back to normal conditions again.

I carried the front wheels in the air for quite some time because of the changed traction at the startline, and after 300 foot we lost the traction because of the conditions, so at that point it was bye bye, second session.

When I left the line in our third qualifying run, the car shook but not too much, so I kept my foot in; the 60 foot et was stout, but towards the 1/8 mile the car started to nose over and I aborted the run. Back in the pits we found a damaged clutch; the amount of power Eddie applied was too much for our clutch setup and destroyed our pressure plate.

Okay, I started this blog on Monday, eliminations day. After we warmed up the car, some final adjustments were made to the clutch and ignition settings. I felt good when Chris strapped me in my car, knowing a long day was ahead of us.

We were the last pair, something I started to dislike during the weekend because it gives you a lot of seat time (waiting) if there are problems with the cars that run in front of you, plus the track suffers from all incidents as well.

My crew kept me updated with what happened on track and I understood that each of the higher qualified cars went out. Finally it was our turn; we opted for the right lane and again in front of me I saw Mickey go up in flames; this time it looked really nasty. I knew we hadn't had a trouble-free weekend but what I saw from the Kågered team was incredible, looking at the damage they suffered during the weekend. Eddie asked me if I wanted to swap lanes because of the incident, but in my opinion there was no oil on the track because most of it was burned in the fire. The left lane proved to be not a real option when Håkan Nilsson blew the tyres off the car anyway.

The car felt good during the burnout, no vibrations from the wheels and the engine felt as if it was happy, firing over all eight cylinders. The clutch worked fine when I choose reverse after the burnout and forward after backing up the car.

I knew Håkan Fallstrom is a rookie in our class and this was his first round of racing. I didn't want to loose my clutch with my fuel system on the high side in stage.

I waited for Håkan to go into stage first, I must say it felt like it took ages before I saw his stage light come on, but I was still happy with my decision to wait. When my stage light came on and the Christmas tree came down I pushed the gas peddle. The car left the line first, my 60 foot was an incredible 0.842 the car shook again but I knew I could keep my foot in. It went straight as an arrow; at that point you think what could go wrong, or what will go wrong because it's too good to be true.

At that point I was passing the 1/8 mile mark and felt the car starting to nose over again. I peddled it 3 times to get it back on the track again, I didn't see Håkan until we passed the 1000 foot marker and he then drove past me, leaving me with a feeling that I can't describe, but is all about winning and losing.

We damaged a lot of parts during that run, the peddling job was not appreciated by the motor but if it had brought victory, it would have done its job.

After the round loss, I told my guests that the line between winning or losing can be very thin; if the tires would have been stuck for another 0.2 of a second we would have been home free and probably put a 4.6 second pass on the score boards, which in that case would have put everything in another perspective.

I witnessed the second round of TF as a real disaster, seeing two cars idling down the track. Although I can't do anything about this situation and you know this is not the way I would have done it, I want to make my apologies to the public and fans. When the better-financed four teams were eliminated in the first round, the less funded teams thus had to battle for the final. They choose to spare their parts for the final which was a worthy race, giving us side-by-side 5.0 runs.

We have to adjust to what we know right now, get everything repaired again and start writing our strategy for the next round in Finland; nothing is lost; we only have one event less to make it happen again.