Fields set for the FIA/FIM European Finals at Santa Pod

FIA/FIM EUROPEAN FINALS

Santa Pod Raceway
Fri.5 – Sun.8 September 2024

Three races in a five-week span decide the destinations of the FIA and FIM European Drag Racing Championships. August’s races at Tierp in Sweden and Hockenheim in Germany are completed and now the focus falls on Santa Pod Raceway. Race teams from across the continent will descend on the renowned venue on the Bedfordshire-Northamptonshire border to settle matters at the European Finals (5th–8th September). Title contests on two and four wheels are underpinned by a national championship racing programme, while away from the track there’s an array of entertainments designed for family appeal.

Diversity is a drag racing watchword. Where else in motorsport can you find the range of machines and men (and women, and children!) combined in a single international event? Cars share the programme with motorcycles while budding stars of the future competing in the Junior Dragster and Junior Dragbike classes – nearly as many girls as boys, all racing head-to-head without gender distinction – race down the same track as their adult counterparts. Seventeen nations are represented on the 270-strong entry list, including a pair of entrants from the USA, and there is free paddock access to watch them all close-up in pitside action.

The president of the Malta Motorsport Federation leads the way among the mighty Top Fuel Dragsters. Duncan Micallef, alias ‘The Maltese Lion’, already has one FIA Top Fuel championship to his name, earned in 2017, and looks set for his second provided he can fend off the challenge of Sweden’s Susanne Callin, championship runner-up for two seasons and eager to go one better now. Micallef set a new European speed record at 321.40mph during August’s Swedish race at Tierp. Swiss star Jndia Erbacher, herself a former European record holder, scored her maiden FIA victory at Hockenheim this past weekend piloting a Monster Energy-backed car blessed with the improbable nickname Jasmine.

Finland’s Tommi Haapanen resumes his driving career after tuning his wife Anita Mäkelä to four FIA Top Fuel championships and 2023’s FIA Top Methanol champion, Norwegian Linn Fløysvik, makes a second Top Fuel start two weeks after her Hockenheim debut.

A three-way struggle among Pro Modified’s fast and furious, 250mph ‘doorslammers’ pits the Netherlands’ David Vegter against Andres Arnover (Estonia) and Jere Rantaniemi (Finland). Vegter, twice a championship runner-up in his supercharged Camaro, has battled for years to transcend his ‘young heir-apparent’ image. Arnover and Rantaniemi are Pro Mod newcomers by comparison. Should either succeed in thwarting the Dutchman’s ambition, he will become the first turbocharged runner to claim the Pro Mod crown.

Sharing the track with the FIA Pro Mods is the penultimate round of the Motorsport UK British Drag Racing Championship – two Pro Mod championships rolled into a single race. Reigning champion, Bedfordshire’s Bobby Wallace, bids to defend his title against Hampshire’s multi-champion Andy Robinson. The chase will conclude at the National Finals a fortnight hence.

FIA title chases in Top Methanol and Pro Stock are all but decided, but there is the prestige of race victory still to be sought.

American participation comes in two high-powered, nitro-burning non-championship contests. A new addition to the nitro Funny Car ranks is a Toyota-bodied machine fielded by British owner Rob Elsom and driven by Texas veteran John Hale. The car’s name? One Bad Texan. Meanwhile Randy Bradford and his Fiat Topolino-bodied Fuel Altered return to continue the match race against Britain’s Nick Davies and his Havoc Austin Bantam which so burnished July’s Dragstalgia historic event.

On two wheels, nitro is the fuel of choice for the Top Fuel Bikes and the Super Twins. The blown four-cylinder Top Fuelers, such as Rikard Gustafsson’s astonishing 260mph multi-championship mount, emit an ear-drilling screech at full chat while the two-pot Super Twins growl and bark at the lower end of the register. Denmark’s Marcus Christiansen leads the Super Twin field while Sweden’s Per Bengtsson returns to Santa Pod after 13 years’ absence with his thundering machine, The Beast.

Pro Stock Bikes and Super Street Bikes also contend for their respective FIM-Europe crowns.

A special Euro Finals feature is Friday evening’s ‘twilight’ session in which the Top Fuel Dragsters and Funny Cars join forces with the event’s exhibition Jet Cars to light up the dusk in spectacular fashion, topped by a full-scale firework display.

Away from the track, the weekend’s family attractions include Monster Truck and stunt driving and riding shows in the Live Action Arena, a static display of historic dragsters, funfair rides and a variety of children’s entertainments, and even helicopter pleasure rides. The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s WW2 Lancaster is scheduled to fly past on Sunday.

The FIA/FIM European Finals 2024 takes place from Thursday 5th to Sunday 8th September at Santa Pod Raceway, near Wellingborough NN29 7XA. Full event information is available at https://santapod.co.uk/european-finals.php and tickets may be booked online there or by telephoning 01234 782828 – advance booking only, no tickets available on the gate.

Photos attached:
1. Top Fuel Dragsters: Jndia Erbacher (Switzerland – near lane – Jasmine!) vs. Susanne Callin (Sweden)
2. Top Fuel: Susanne Callin
3. Pro Mod: Andy Robinson (UK – near lane) vs. Stian Rusånes (Norway)
4. Top Fuel Bike: Rikard Gustafsson (Sweden)
[ Pictures: Dave DJ Jones/Callum Pudge / Santa Pod ]

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