FHRA Spring Nationals 2015

[Niko L]

The first race in 2015 took place at Motopark Raceway on May 16th - 17th and again, on Friday (May 15th) there was a Test & Tune day so that drivers were able to test their new setups before the actual race.

FRIDAY:
We had put the car on trailer already on Thursday and at 6 AM on Friday we started our trip to Motopark. A bit after 10 AM we arrived to the pits, where it looked like it had been raining in the night. Driving was supposed to start at Noon so we had plenty of time to get ready for that. Of course the first thing was to get the car down from the trailer. After that we changed rear tires and put those Hoosier Slicks on. I went to the race office to do all paperwork needed and changed class markings on windows (From K/SA to J/SA).



After warming up the car, first run took place at 1:07 PM. The weather was cold but there was a headwind which might slow down ETs a little. We were hoping for a good run as with the new modifications, it should run easily to high 11 second zone. I did a slightly longer burnout as new tires had to be warmed up properly and staged the car. It launched really nicely with both front wheels up and it ran pretty good...Except that for some reason it ran only 12.500 & 167.73 KM/H. I couldn't figure out what went wrong, and 60FT time 1.657 shows that tires didn't spin.


We decided to try again without modifying anything, just to see if it would run better now. Second run was a solo at 3:02 PM. I took a .069 RT and hammered the throttle as much as I could. Now 60FT time was better, 1.627 but still the car ran only 12.444 & 167.63 KM/H.



We did some checking and little modifications for third and final run of the day, for example launch RPM was now a bit higher. This run was at 5:51 PM and it started well with a .016 RT. Anyway, 60FT of 1.638 and 12.278 ET with 170.00 KM/H top speed wasn't really a satisfying score. It was the best run of the day, but still slower than what I ran in K/SA year before. Nothing wrong was found in the car so we just had to wait until Saturday to be able to try again and hope that it would run better.



After some good steak at MotoMajat and hanging around in the pits, we went to sleep in our Chevy Van. Luckily we had a portable heater in there as the temperature went to the freezing point at night!

A Sad thing on Friday was that there were two Stock & Super Stock class cars broken. On the first run, Timo Eronen's SS/DA Hemi Challenger broke its engine which unfortunately meant that they left home that evening. Same thing happened to Ari Martikainen's '71 Challenger Stocker and he left home as well.




To Be Continued...

[Niko L]

SATURDAY:

After a good night sleep in the Van, we prepared ourselves for Qualifying. Nothing much was done on the car as we could not figure out why it wasn't running properly. First Qualifying Round for Stock & Super Stock cars took place at 11:20 AM and it was extremely interesting to see how the car would run now. My Burnout was good, but when I staged the car, hammered the brakes and put the RPM in the Two Step Limiter, car started crawling forward. It resulted a -.238 red light on my lane and 2.043 60 FT time. I ran 12.838 & 167.58 KM/H on that run after all.



While the problem on that first run was found between the steering wheel and bench seat, we did no major modifications for the second run at 1:47 PM. We had 3800 RPM at launch and the car stayed on place, but after watching a video that Hannu Palasmaa recorded from that start, it was seen that the chassis didn't work as we hoped and the car's ride height lifted way too much just before I lifted the brakes and car started moving. Because of that it didn't do any kind of a wheelstand at all, but 1.644 60FT time wasn't our worst anyway. I ran only 12.380 and 167.54 KM/H on that run.


Some adjusting with the shocks was done on the third Qualifying Run, which took place at 2:53 PM. We also reduced launch RPM a little and this time the start looked a lot better. I took a -.005 red light and 60 FT time was a bit better than on that last run, 1.631. ET was pretty close, though, 12.374 with 167.85 KM/H top speed. Still it was nowhere near where it should have been...


Third run was at 4:18 PM. There is not much to tell about this one either... Pretty much similar run and 12.318 with 168.20 KM/H Top Speed.

Before that last run we adjusted the carburetor a little. We hoped it might help a little, but for everyone's surprise it didn't... The car ran 12.347 with 168.40 KM/H top speed and overall it was a similar run to the third one.


Now it was the end of the Qualification day and it meant that we had zero proper runs so far. I took some measurements and we checked the chassis geometry a bit noticing that it could be better. To do the modifications that would have changed it to a better direction, we would have needed some parts we didn't have so it was left as is.

A Sauna and good food helped the me and Mika stay fresh and after hanging around for a while we were ready for Sunday's Eliminations.


QUALIFYING RESULTS:

1. Jarmo Grönman with his C/S Chevy Camaro. He ran very nicely, 10.252 that is -1.10 under NHRA 11.35 index.


2. Jarmo Markkanen with his A/S Pontiac Firebird. He ran 10.026 that is -0.92 under NHRA 10.95 index.


3. Arto Sulopuisto with his B/S Pontiac Firebird. He modified this car to a Stocker himself and it ran 10.333 that is -0.87 under NHRA 11.20 index.


4. Bo Nylund with his E/SA Ford Mustang. He was the fastest carburetor car in S/SS running really good numbers. His ET, 10.846 is -0.85 under NHRA 11.70 index.


5. Tarmo Mikkola with his SS/HA '69 Camaro. He ran good ETs as usual and of course massive wheelstands too, this time his best was 9.998 that is -0.60 under NHRA 10.60 index. (This picture is from 2014).


6. Iiro Mikkola with his E/SA Chevrolet Nova. With a 327 SBC he ran 11.411 which is -0.29 under NHRA 11.70 Index.


7. Niko Lindström with J/SA '74 Malibu Classic. My best... Or should I say the least-bad run was 12.318 that is -0.07 under NHRA 12.45 index.


8. Cilla Koskinen. She drove her first race ever in S/SS category, last summer she was still seen behind the wheel of a Junior Dragster. She drove SS/HA '67 Camaro and her best run was 10.560 that is -0.04 under NHRA 10.60 index.





SUNDAY:


In Stock & Super Stock, the Elimination pairs were as follows:

1. Jarmo Grönman VS 5. Tarmo Mikkola
4. Bo Nylund VS 8. Cilla Koskinen
2. Jarmo Markkanen VS 6. Iiro Mikkola
3. Arto Sulopuisto VS 7. Niko Lindström


On Sunday morning the weather didn't look very good, though...



It was raining so that there was a quite big delay at the start of the Eliminations. When the rain finally stopped and the Racing begun, there were a couple unfortunate oil leaks on the track. Anyway we were called to the lineup and it looked like we would be able to drive as the sky was cloudy, but it wasn't raining. I knew that it would be a very tough race against Arto Sulopuisto. Anyway after flipping a coin, I got a lane choice and I took the left lane. I decided to put 12.34 as my index as it might be pretty close to what the car might run.

Before us it was Super Gas Bike's 1st Elimination Round. Unfortunately the last SGB laid some oil on the track and track crew started cleaning it up again. While they were doing the cleanup, it started raining so much that we were told to go back to the pits to wait to the decision whether to continue or cancel the race. It was already pretty late and the rain didn't seem to stop, so the jury decided to cancel the race. It meant that no Eliminations for S/SS could be driven which was a real shame. We packed up the car and drove back home then...

Here is a video of my runs. It has videos from inside and outside of the car as now I have a proper in car camera as well:



Pictures can be found from the Picture Gallery: FHRA Spring Nats 2015

And a couple of other video clips:
1400 HP Twin Turbo Ford Taunus
Ari Pietilä's Top Methanol Funny Car Test Run
Marko Lantto's '70 Barracuda Pro Mod Test Run

Next time we'll be in action at FHRA Drag Race Weekend at Alastaro Raceway at the end of June... Be There or Be Square!