Champions decided at European Finals at Santa Pod

07.09.14
Santa Pod Raceway, UK Sunday September 7th

The last round in the FIA European Drag Racing Championship was hosted by UK´s Santa Pod Raceway. One of the champions was already decided before the event and that was Johan Lindberg, Sweden in Top Methanol Funny Car. In the other four FIA classes the champion titles was still open. And when the event was over it was clear that three of the champions are from Sweden, one from Malta and one from Norway.

TOP METHANOL FUNNY CAR:
Johan Lindberg, was the only one that was already European Champion before the final event started. It is Johan´s first title in the class, while last year it was brother Jonnie Lindberg who won the the Championship. Johan Lindberg managed to get into the finals while the second ranked driver, Leif Andreasson from Sweden lost in the semifinal to Gareth Ellis from the UK. With that Ellis, who does his second season in the class, climbed the rankings and ends in third place. He also somewhat surprisingly won the final at Santa Pod over Lindberg, who ran into traction problems while Ellis performed steady.

PRO MODIFIED:
In the Pro Modified class, Sweden´s Mattias Wulcan secured the Championship win after the quarter finals, when it was a fact that second ranked Michael Gullqvist lost his quarter finals to David Vagter, the Netherlands. The final was run between the new Champion Mattias Wulcan och veteran Marc Meihuizen from the Netherlands. Both hit traction problems but it was Wulcan who crossed the finish line first. It is his first FIA Championship win. The third place goes to Roger Johansson, also from Sweden.

PRO STOCK:
I the Pro Stock class the winner is Jimmy Ålund, Sweden, who was in third place before the event but climbed the rankings when he outran points leader Michael Malmgren, Sweden in the semifinal. The final at Santa Pod was run between Jimmy Ålund och Magnus Petersson, Sweden who does his second season in the class. The final also decided who would become Champion. And it was veteran Ålund who won the tight final and both teams performed well during the full event. It is Jimmy Ålunds 9th Championship title (he also won in 2013).

TOP FUEL DRAGSTER:
I the fastest class Top Fuel Dragster Thomas Nataas from Norway managed to stay ahead and secure the Championship title. Nataas, who pilots the Danish teams Andersen Racing Top Fuel Dragster, also won the Championship title 2013 and the team was in lead before the European Finals event started. Stig Neergaard, from   Danmark who was in second place lost the semifinal to Sweden´s Mikael Kågered and with that Kågered climbed the ranking to second place. Thomas Nataas won the event final and the opponent was veteran Urs Erbecher. Erbacher´s runner up position in the event meant he climed to a third place in the Championship points table.

TOP METHANOL DRAGSTER:
In Top Methanol Dragster the new European Champion is Chris Polidano from Malta. Also the second place goes to Malta and Monty Bugeja. Both drivers however lost their quarter finals and instead the event win was a family affair for the Habermann brothers Timo and Dennis. The event win was eventually taken by Timo after Dennis was a no show due to technical problems. Timo Habermann also managed to establish a new European ET record at 5.25 sec (the previous one set in 2011 by UK´s Dave Wilson) and by the event win the Timo Habermann climbed to the third place in the FIA European Drag Racing Championship 2014.