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15/07/2003 A WING AND A SPARE This has to be the most remote location for me to write a report from yet; deep in the Finnish forests near the tiny town of Pieksamaki, around 300 km north east of Helsinki. It has been an interesting route here to say the least and of course there was a bit of racing along the way. As Max Bygraves used to say; let me tell you a story…  My last missive came from a boat on the North Sea bound for Gothenburg. We arrived safe and sound in a very wet and rainy Sweden having enjoyed the smorgasbord on the boat on more than one occasion and endured some of the staggeringly bad cabaret acts on board. After an uneventful trip across the country, past lots of rocks, trees, lakes and sand we made it to the docks in Stockholm around midnight to find several other racers already there in the queue waiting for the morning sailing to Finland. With some interesting contortions we both managed to lay down in the front of the van and grab some sleep before driving on board and settling in for the spectacular crossing through the islands to Turku. After some more sleep and some more smorgasbord we landed with no problem, used some nifty overtaking maneuvers and devious routes through the town to make it to the head of the pack of vehicles heading for the drag strip for round two of the FIA European championship. We made it to the races having had no problems on the way and when all was said and done a very easy and relaxing trip. Dave and David had been there since the previous morning and had the pits set up except for the kit we had in the van. Despite the late hour the sun was still up so we got stuck in to unpacking the van, getting the car ready and putting on a new set of slicks. That job got a good sweat on so we called it a night, enjoyed a couple of local beers and went to bed in broad daylight to try and get some sleep. After asking around we found out the following day was Thursday (it was getting difficult to keep track at this point) which meant our crew would be arriving that evening in Turku airport on flights booked for us by fellow alky racer Steph Milam through her company, Harvey Travel. The team had a connection to make in Copenhagen, where they were told that their flight to Turku had been cancelled and they would have to wait for a different flight to Helsinki instead, some 100km further from the track. So they arrived several hours late around 10 p.m. by which time we had the car ready for qualifying the next day and had fitted our fancy new carbon fibre injector from Knut Soderquist so the guys just had to unpack their gear, resurrect their bunks after we dumped gear all over them for the journey over and make sure that the Finnish brewing standards were as high as the previous year…  On Friday morning we passed tech, got the ignition timing set and went to the line for our first crack at the track. Instead we took a crack at the rear wing. About 100 feet out the right hand end of the carbon fibre rear wing past the wing struts broke clean off and fell on the track leaving Dave speeding down the track with only two thirds of a rear wing. The car had some serious tyre spin but thankfully stayed straight and posted a 5.687 at 255.68 mph to take the number one spot. Dave didn't know part of the wing was missing until he went to wrap the parachutes round it after the run! Relieved that nothing had gone wrong we had a chance to congratulate ourselves on recording our 25th 250mph pass before trying to work out what on earth we were going to do next as a spare wing is one thing we do not carry. We were very grateful to two Finnish TMD racers, Simo Patoharju and Eero Kilpelainen for their offers to borrow their spare wings and then Simo told us that one of our competitors of days past, Kari Eskelinen had a wing for sale. We discovered that by some miracle the wing would fit straight onto our frame, and that it was a really good Wendland one too. Rapa Ripa "Engine Man" from the Mad Bomber team offered to bring that wing up from Helsinki for us that evening so we decided that using that wing was a much better option than cutting up our frame and someone else's spare wing to make them fit together. So we sat out the rest of the day's qualifying and retired to the excellent as always Paddock restaurant for some of their famous Giant steaks and a glass of the local tap water or two... Our wing duly arrived, (thanks again to Kari and Ripa) and fitted straight on. A very nice piece it is too; made from aluminium, very light and with fancy billet cross sections and all sorts of smart stuff. Luckily we had a spare set of race numbers on board and we managed to remove the FIA championship stickers from the old wing and reapply them to the new one. This meant were all ready to qualify again on Saturday morning and try and get back with the program.  This race was washed out last year and in the morning the sky looked threatening. Luckily things brightened up and we got out on the track around noon. Because we had no way of judging how much of the tyre spin on Friday had been caused by the lack of downforce we left the tune up the same and obviously got something right when the PlayStation backed machine stormed to a 5.511 at a huge 259.82 mph, the highest speed ever for a Top Methanol Dragster outside of America and just a shade off the magic 260 mark. In the shut down area the blower belt came off which cut through the lead from the coil to the mag, which we could easily replace, and the drive cable for our trusty old mechanical rev counter which we could not easily replace. So the newfangled electric one went in instead and we were all set for another go when some rain did materialize and track delays like oil downs and errant race cars meant that the next qualifier was cancelled, leaving only one more session but an important chance for us to make a pass in the less favoured right lane. We could see why people were not so keen on the right lane when our car span and shook its way down it to a 5.690 at 253.16 mph. It just goes to show how times have changed. Eighteen months ago we would have all exploded with ecstasy after posting numbers like that, but now we just shrugged, shook our heads and decided the best plan of attack for race day was to try and lead from the front and keep lane choice for each round if we could. Our 5.51 stood for the number one spot by a good margin so we were happy to be in that position, though disappointed that our slight mishap with the wing and the cancelled qualifying session had denied us the chance to really progress with the tune up. However we were still in good spirits and once everything was ready for race day we retired to the trusty Paddock Restaurant for another huge and great meal and a Karjala or three…  To everyone's relief the Sunday weather was perfect for racing; dry but reasonably cool. No one wanted the forecast 100 degree weather because that makes the racing a sweaty experience on a slippery race track. After breakfast (thanks to the Schofers for the eggs and bread) we warmed up and Dave spotted that the new electric tacho had broken already so we pulled it out, put the mechanical one back in and had to change magneto drives and all sorts of things to be able to put the only spare drive cable we had on because it doesn't fit with our regular mag drive. That little adrenaline rush woke us all up but the super crew stayed calm and soon had everything sorted and were ready to race right on time. We had the first round bye in the odd numbered field courtesy of our number one spot so we tweaked the tune up a little and went for a full pass in line with the game plan for the day. After some shake in first gear Dave knew that we weren't going to better the 5.51 so he conserved the motor by keeping the revs below 9,500 and still the car posted a 5.595 at 258.10 to get the golden lane choice and back up the 259.82 mph run from the day before for a new European speed record, bettering our old mark by over three miles an hour. Well I say the car posted a 5.595 but in fact the scoreboard malfunctioned in our lane on every pass on race day so it was kind of and odd sensation on the starting line waiting for the commentator to get round to reading out our numbers in English! In the semi finals we would be racing against our friend from way back when, Simo Patoharju and his multi FIA championship winning machine, currently being driven by the very tall Jari Halinen that had taken out Krister Johansson's A/Fuel car in the opening round. Jari had recorded his best ever time of 5.75 in qualifying and the car has been in the 5.6s before so we knew we needed to be on our game and ready for what promised to be a great race, and one which the huge Finnish race day crowd understandably wanted us to lose. We tweaked on the tune up a little more to try and get rid of the low gear shake and get back on to our qualifying pace. Sadly it was not to be as Jari's Mad Bomber car was sounding very rough after its burnout and once his crew spotted the blower had lifted off the manifold they had to shut their car down on the line. We were all really disappointed as no one wanted it that way but nonetheless we still had to go for it on the solo run to try and get lane choice for the final. And go for it Dave did with a stout 5.557 at 255.61 mph which did indeed give us lane choice over Peter Schofer from Bavaria for the final.  It was always going to be a great final and we knew we would need all of our 5.51 pace to beat Peter, who had recorded a 5.56 in the previous round. We fettled the settings just a little more but it didn't help as again we had some shake in first gear. Dave tried to drive through it but it cost us just a little too much time and our 5.585 at 256.05 mph wasn't quite enough to get around Peter's 5.543. We were gaining on him at the top end, but the quarter mile just wasn't long enough on that run. It was a disappointing loss as we knew the performance was there to beat Peter and we hadn't managed to extract it. However there were lots of things to be happy about; we got through what could have been an extremely nasty wing failure with no damage to either the driver or his ride, and we still have the FIA championship lead. We had run over 250 mph on every pass and increased our grand total of 250 runs to 30 and also run four 5.5 second passes in the same event, something we had never done before. So everyone soon picked themselves up, put our swanky new pit stereo (thanks Tony) back on nice and loud, started emptying the beer fridge and thinking about how to tackle the often tricky track at Mantorp Park in three weeks time. It goes without saying we retired to the restaurant again in the evening before packing up the following morning and moving on. Dave and David took the truck over to Sweden where it will stay until the Mantorp race and Jennifer and I (who are spending the summer out here in Scandinavia on holiday between the races) headed to Turku for a night and then on to Helsinki to stay with Simo for a couple of nights. Many thanks again Simo for letting us take up your floor, use your shower and drink your Jim Beam. Then we drove up here to stay with our great friend Marko Huttunen 20 miles from the middle of nowhere in the Finnish countryside. As always with Scandinavia, the hospitality is welcoming and genuine and we can't thank Marko and his wonderful family of Virpi, Janetta and Iida enough for showing us a totally different side of Finnish life. From here our route takes us up into the Arctic Circle to see the midnight sun, across to the northern Norwegian fjords and then back down into Sweden for a weekend of moonshine making with the Leanders brothers before heading on to Mantorp. Yes we are still in the trusty Iveco van which is actually a surprisingly suitable vehicle for a trip like this because there is room to sleep in the back. Many thanks to Dave for lending us the van for the summer. I'm sure he's enjoying driving my Firebird whilst I'm gone!  And of course huge thanks to all of our great sponsors and crew for making this FIA tour a reality once again. The commitment, drive and enthusiasm of everyone involved here at American Car Imports Racing is truly phenomenal. Also thanks also to our excellent pit marshal, Matti Halmalainen and to Tapio Valja, president of the Finnish Hot Rod Association for making us feel so welcome in Alastaro once again. We look forward to seeing any of you from back home who are making the trip to Mantorp, especially Tog and Sharkman from eurodragster.com. Try and find room in your suitcases folks for some jam doughnuts...
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