Team STARTA Racing Team Report, Sweden Internationals 14th – 17th of June
By admin, Jun 20 in blog with 0 commentsTeam STARTA Racing Team Report, Sweden Internationals 14th – 17th of June
A day before leaving for the Sweden Nationals SVEMO (Swedish Motorcycle and Snowmobile Federation) forms a National team from the 1st of June 2012 where we will represent the Top Fuel Bike Class together with Per Bengtsson in the Super Twin Class and Ulf Ögge + Kalle Lyrén in the Pro Stock Bike Class.
With this information and the proudness to be able to officially represent your own country on the upcoming event really encouraged us to try to run some great numbers and as some of you already know, we did.
We packed the bike and all our spares on Wednesday last week and got to the racetrack in Tierp during the afternoon on Thursday to set up our camp in good time for the qualification that would start on Friday morning.
Friday morning came around and we got ready for Q1 keeping in mind the that we ran very well three weeks ago we decided to change to a softer set up in order to get a good qualifying run but unfortunately we misjudged the traction and when the green light came on Peter had to shut off after a great 1.01 60 feet time.
We got back to the pits and prepared the bike for Q2, making some minor changings since we thought that the track would improve after all the cars had made their first qualifying attempt and were ready for our next try to qualify. After a strong burnout Peter staged and hit the throttle when the green light came on running a strong 5.92 sec run at only 324 km/h after getting off the throttle before the 1000 feet mark and we were no.1 qualifier of the Top Fuel Bike field. All of us were very pleased knowing that this run was faster than our own European ET record at 5.96 sec.
Saturday morning came around and unfortunately the weather forecast for the day didn’t look good but despite this we were called to the lanes for Q3 and after watching Pro Stock Bike and some Super Twin Bikes the rain started to fall and we were sent back to the pits to wait for a dry track, and that was the end of qualifying of that day since it kept on raining the whole day. The most important thing was that we were still no.1 and would have a bye run in the our first run on Sunday in the coming elimination and that we could keep our set up from Saturday and try to improve our previous run, in order to be able to back up our new European ET record.
The weather forecast for Sunday didn’t look too bad and the whole team decided to get up early in order to be ready for elimination round 1 just to see the rain starting to fall half an hour later and it kept on raining until early afternoon. The track crew worked extremely hard to get the track ready and the organizers extended the permission for the race until 10 pm and everyone were ready to race at about 4 pm.
We were called to the lanes and got ready for E1. Peter made a strong burnout and I was pushing him back as always and noticed immediately that the track didn’t have the same high standard that we are getting used to because of all the raining and when Peter hit the throttle he moved out of his rubber track and he was off the throttle and on/off again in order to get lane choice in the next run, running a poor 7.47 sec. / 201 km/h run.
E2 were approaching and our opponent Nils Lagerlöf had unfortunately broke his gearbox in E1 and had to leave walk over.
We were called to the lanes and decided to try the right lane with the same set up as in the previous run and instantly when the green light came on Peter hit some really bad tire shakes getting off the throttle early in to the run, running a poor 11.68 sec. / 110 km/h run.
Back in the pits we heard that Ian King had run a new personal best at 6.10 sec. in his previous run which was close to what we thought that the track could take at that time and because of this we decided to step back on our set up for the finals against Ian in order not to run in to any problems.
We were as ready as we could be and knowing that Ian had lane choice made us line up in the left lane with a bit less traction. Both Ian and Peter made great burnouts and were ready to go and the green light came on where Ian had a much better reaction time and everyone could see that Peter was one a storming run passing Ian at around 450 feet and taking the win, running a great 5.82 sec. / 370 km/h after clicking off the throttle a bit after the 1000 feet mark. This run is as far as we know the second quickest run in the world this year on the 1/4 mile and only 0.03 seconds slower than the world record!!
This run backed up or previous 5.92 sec. to be a new European ET record and the back half of this great run was a new personal best at 1.96 sec. with an early shut off!!
We packed the bike and all our stuff in to the trailer heading towards our hometown Sollebrunn, knowing that we have a new European ET record which is a great feeling.
Our next race will be the Nitrolympx in Hockenheim, Germany later this summer and we hope to see as many as possible of our fans there in our aim to run at least one new European record if the circumstances are the right ones.
Finally we really would like to take the opportunity to thank both the organizers of the race and the track crew that made an incredible work not giving up during the long lasting rain that were falling for more or less one and a half day! THANKS GUYS!!!
A big THANK YOU to all that makes this possible:
- STARTA Produkter, supplied by Sollebrunns Oljeservice www.startaprodukter.se
- HRM Engineering AB, skilled engineers within mechanical engineering, mechatronics, electronics and software development www.hrmengineering.se
- Samek Tool AB, who makes some of the best moulding tools in the automotive industry in Sweden www.samektool.se
- CemeCon A/S, one of the best coating companies in Europe when it comes to camshaft coating etc www.cemecon.se
- Real Form, product development within mechanical design www.realform.se
- Romnet, consultants within computer network favours etc www.romnet.se
- AF Konsult AB, consultants within most electrical installation areas www.konsultel.se
- JJ VENTSERVICE, solves all your problems when it comes to AC and ventilation www.jjventservice.se
- Pippi, No 1 when it comes to marketing www.harleydrags.com
- All our fans and family members that are supporting us towards new achievements every year!!
For more information about our previous achievements and updates please visit www.billetracing.se (in English).
Please find some photos by our good friends at Nitroshutter.com Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes enclosed to this report (keep in mind the copyright).
Best Regards from Peter and Sören Svensson, Team STARTA Racing Top Fuel Bike
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