They say ‘timing is everything’. There we were transiting Stockholm airport when the airline realised they were overbooked and needed half a dozen seats on the flight to London. 300 euros, a hotel room for the night and a flight to London in the morning. We thought about it but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. Then we noticed the 3 young Swedish blondes who had decided to take the offer!!.

Well there was nothing wrong with the timing or any other part of our car at Alastaro, it just flew all weekend long. We had some new parts to play with, a pair of cylinder heads and a pair of rear wheels courtesy of Blingrims our new for this year wheel sponser. The wheels were fitted with new tyres and stacked in the pits ready for use. I kid you not, spectators were lining up to be photographed standing next to the wheels. The cylinder heads didn’t do it for the spectators so they were just prepped by Dave and stored in the truck. Shame really, they are a marvel of engineering artistry, designed to withstand high temperatures and enormous pressures yet a couple of shiny wheels that spend their lives just spinning get all the glory. Come to think of it our crew is a bit like that. There we are, fine specimens of men (and women), hewn from granite, working long hours and taking all kinds of abuse and yet it’s our driver that gets the glory, just because he can drive in a straight line and looks cool in his flash helmet and race suit.

It was far from cool for the first qualifier, with a track temperature of 105 degrees although the air quality was reasonable at 1279 feet corrected altitude. A conservative tune-up for the first run gave a time of 5.58 at 251mph. Seemed a good run until the car started weaving like a snake towards the top end and very nearly crossed into the opposite lane. Slightly surprisingly this was the quickest of the runs in the first round for our class. Although from a careful inspection the night before the track was difficult to assess, the left lane now seemed less favourable. More rear wing angle was added for Q2 in the left lane to control the weaving. After a long wait in searing heat the second round of qualifying was abandoned as there was oil seeping up through the track. Makes a change to have an ‘oil-up’ rather than an ‘oil-down’!

So with the car ready to run on Saturday it was time for a beer and a chance to discuss what’s wrong with European Drag Racing. Hours later we moved on to Bahrain. Fairly basic issues such as where is it and what’s the weather like? Although an island, this didn’t stop one of us wondering what country it borders and mention was even made of the Austrian coastline! It’s amazing that with such geographical expertise on the team that we can find the startline but in Alastaro it was easy because we were always in the last pair to run so we just followed the others.

Saturday seemed even hotter than Friday although track temperature was slightly lower. A strong launch with a little shake and 5.54 came up on the board, terminal speed was 252mph. No damage was done but it was decided to fit the new cylinder heads just to check them out. The additional rear wing angle had certainly tied the back of the car down but in fact had made the car equally unstable. The front was now too light and Dave had struggled to keep the car straight because he had very little steering and this despite our trick front winglets. We didn’t want to add weight to the front and the front wing angles are not adjustable so the rear angle was moderated.

Q4 and the weather had become overcast and the air quality had deteriorated. Some changes had been made to the tune-up just to see what the track could take and to our slight surprise we knocked out a 5.47 @ 257mph. This was a new track record for both time and speed for our class. Dave’s words upon collection at the far end were “the heads are alright then!”

Time then for some Lapin Kulta beer courtesy of our sponsor Ray Maguire of Playstation. We must be one of the luckiest teams around to have a sponsor that visits most of the foreign rounds and helps in the pit and buys some beer. Readers who have not visited northern Finland might not realise that there is only a few hours of dusk each night and the sky is bright with sunlight by about 3.30am. This is very disturbing to normal sleep patterns. It’s important therefore to take plenty of beer or wine to ensure a good night’s sleep. Inevitably, under such circumstances, the conversation gets fast and loose and gave rise to the 2 quotes from the weekend:
Suzy “I am very hot in bed” and Linda “when I lie down nothing happens” - what can one say?

Race day saw us against Arto Hoyla in the first round with a bye into the final for the winner. Mindful of the fact that we threw a blower belt in the first round last year we were a little nervous. We knew that Arto’s team had been working on a transmission problem both the night before and during the morning of race day and after their burnout it was obvious they were going no further. A bye run then and with no lane choice necessary for the next round it was a sedate 7.18 seconds. There was a feeling that the track was changing during the afternoon and we decided to change the setup to take account. This decision appeared to be spot on as we ran a 5.48 @ 258mph in the semi-final which gave us lane choice for the final. We had favoured the right lane all weekend convinced it was better. Ironically Urs Erbacher (TMFC) had favoured the left lane and eventually won his class, so who knows?

We faced Peter Schofer in the final who had found some extra performance and seen off Rob Turner in the other semi-final. Peter is a true gentleman out of the car but a hardcore racer once the lights are running. Both cars left the line together but the ACI Flyer powered its way to the win in 5.47 @ 260mph.

There is a tradition at Alastero that the winners are dunked in a barrel of water during the prizegiving. Dave managed to avoid this last year but this year the team made a planned assault and he was tipped head-first into the water. A fitting end to a great weekend and no mention (or sight) of moose. See you in Sweden.

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