FHRA Nitro Nationals 2013.

[Niko L]

It was time for the biggest Drag Racing Event here in Finland. Nitro Nationals is part of European Championship Drag Race Series, so there was a great bunch of Pro Mods, Top Methanol Funny Cars, Pro Stocks, Top Fuels etc. The event started on Thursday and after three days of qualifying, it ended on Sunday.

Before NitroNats we did some work with the car, making new parts to brake system to fine tune it a bit, basically to get more brake boost. Also we added more Ballast Weight to get that car running in K/SA as originally planned. Also we had new pair of rear wheels, since those Draglites we had on Drag Race Week were a bit wide and the tires were very close of hitting to our rear wheel openings. New wheels were from Arto Sulopuisto, who lent them. Those Centerlines were installed on this car when it came Finland around '88.

Thursday.

Thursday was qualifying day for Sportsman Categories only. For us that meant that without any problems (Rain, Oil or anything) there would be lots of Qualifying Rounds driven. And there was, total of five qualifying rounds and we took part on all of them.



Our first round was 10:30 AM. Those brake modifications we did, they worked great since now the car stayed on its place at Burnout, instead of starting to crawl forward. Mika did a huge burnout and I tried to show him to leave the water box now because I knew that our tires are bit old, and I wanted them to last the whole event. The run was nice, Mika did a new 60 FT record, 1,693 and it was the first time for us on 1,6 side. Also Mika ran 12,402 & 171,42 KM/H which is almost as good as our record in J/SA.

The second run wasn't bad either, 12,427 & 171,89 KM/H. The 60FT time wasn't as good as last time, but still it was decent 1,721. The third run was against Noora Laine. She runs K/SA car too, so it was kind of Heads Up start. Noora's 60FT time was better than ours, 1,662 against Mika's 1,712 but Mika drove faster ET, 12,407 against 12,450. Also Mika's Top Speed was three kilometers faster. Fourth run was 12,438 & 171,49 KM/H and a decent 60FT time. The fifth run was 12,442 but Top Speed was 172,16. That was good.

Friday.

On Friday there was going to be Two Rounds of Pro Categories also. We managed to run our first run before them, and actually this was our only run for this day. Another decent 60FT time 1,726 and ET of 12,449 with 171,55 KM/H Top Speed.

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Saturday

Our First Run was again before Pro Rounds. 1,704 60FT time, but only 12,482 & 169,76 KM/H. So decent start, but something went wrong at the end. Not much to tell about that run. The second run for this day was against Noora Laine again - another battle of two K/SA cars! Mika took a bit better light, .084 against .087. Noora's 60FT was better again, and so was the ET. Only 12,479 & 169,60 KM/H for us. She ran 12,469 & 168,08 KM/H. The last run for Saturday wasn't a major success either, 12,463 & 169,52 KM/H. Maybe the weather wasn't best for our car...Who knows?

A couple of pictures taken by my Little Sister.

[Niko L]

Qualification Results.



So first was Arto Sulopuisto, setting a new European Record in B/S with his Pontiac Firebird.



The Second was Jarmo Markkanen who fixed his clutch between Drag Race Week and Nitro Nationals.



Third Place was Lars Nyberg's.



On the Fourth place was Tarmo Mikkola with his Super Stock Camaro.



Fifth Place was Rick MacCann's. He came all the way from London with very nice Super Stock Camaro that does huge wheelstands. They had some problems with the car, but got it fixed and Rick did great job on the Eliminations as well.




On the 6th Place was Harri Hassinen with another very fast and nice Super Stock Camaro. This Camaro ran in SS/BM with the best ET of 8,792.


On The 7th Place was Hannu Palasmaa with his '71 Chevelle.


8th Place: Noora Laine with Buick Skylark. She ran 12,373 in Qualification.


9th Place: Mika Lindström & '74 Chevelle.


And 10th Place: Tarja Gynther with the best ET of 11,471 with 11,70 index.

[Niko L]

Sunday.

Sunday was for Eliminations. The first round of S/SS category was at 2PM. We were racing against Tarmo Mikkola again, just like on Drag Race Week one week earlier. We put 12,44 as dial in.

On the first pair Arto Sulopuisto raced against Harri Hassinen. Sulopuisto had 10,19 index and Hassinen 8,65. Sulopuisto took better light and ran closer to his Dial In Time and continued to 2nd round. On the second pair there were Lars Nyberg VS Noora Laine. Laine had 12,50 Dial In and Nyberg's was 10,89. Laine red lighted so that was an easy run for Nyberg. Then Tarmo Mikkola VS Mika Lindström, we had 12,44 Dial In and Mikkola had 9,87. Mika took .107 RT and Tarmo .074. Mika went full throttle and we got a massive break out, but that didn't matter, since it was the new Record! So 12,369 & 172,06 KM/H for Mika, also another 1,6 second 60FT time. Then there were Jarmo Markkanen against Hannu Palasmaa. Palasmaa's Dial In was set to 10,34 and Markkanen's was 10,12. Better RT for Hannu, .033 against Jarmo's .064, but .006 Break Out for Palasmaa, and Markkanen continued to the 2nd Round. Last pair was a battle between Rick McCann and Tarja Gynther. 11,65 Index for Tarja and 10,06 for Rick. Only .004 difference on RTs and a double break out. Though Rick's Break Out was smaller so he continued to the 2nd round.

On the 2nd Round Arto Sulopuisto had a solo run where he ran exactly the same ET, 10,237, as on the 1st Round. Then Lars Nyberg VS Tarmo Mikkola. Nyberg left about one second earlier, but red lighted by .043 so Tarmo took the win. The last pair was Jarmo Markkanen VS Rick McCann. 10,12 Index for Jarmo and 10,00 for Rick. Jarmo took excellent .013 RT but Rick left with .009 Red Light and Jarmo headed to the Semi Finals.

On the first Semi Final, Arto Sulopuisto beat Tarmo Mikkola taking .006 RT and running .012 off Dial In time. Nice run for Tarmo also, .031 RT and 9,94 on 9,86 index. Markkanen had a solo run on the semis, so as in last race, Final Round was going to be a battle of two Pontiac Firebirds.

But right before S/SS Final Round, there was a bad crash in Super Pro Street Final Round. Juha Räikkönen's Cobalt rolled over and hit the wall badly. The race was over then, because the cleanup would have taken more time than was allowed to drive.



Here are some Stock & SuperStock videos from NitroNats.

Here are all of our runs:


A couple of runs of Rick McCann.


Harri Hassinen's Qualifying Runs.


Hannu Palasmaa's '71 Chevelle launch.


Tarja Gynther's Chevy Camaro Launch.


And S/SS 2nd Elimination Round.


And Nitro Nationals Pictures can be found here: Picture Gallery

See You At Kalajoki!