FHRA August Nationals 2015

[Niko L]

Well this Race Report should have been written long time ago, but better late than never I guess!

FHRA August Nationals were driven at Motopark Raceway in August 15th - 16th 2015. Before this race, our problem with driver's side header was fixed and everything seemed to be ready. On Friday we arrived a bit late to the pits so we couldn't make it to the tech inspection. Because of that we had to do it on Saturday morning.

Saturday:
In the morning we cleaned up the car as it was a bit dirty and then we headed to tech inspection. This time it was in the other end of the pit area, and as it was so early in the morning, we couldn't drive the car there (You're not able to fire up the cars before 10 AM). That said, the only possibility was to push the car there. On a warm sunny morning that wasn't too funny (The car sure is heavy!) but thanks to guys at Gee M Racing for pushing help!

After we passed the tech, we were ready for the first Qualifying Round.




The first Qualifying Round for Stock & Super Stock was at 11AM. I started the weekend by taking a big red light, -.173. My ET was 12.372 with 168,49 KM/H top speed, so it wasn't the best run. For the second round we tuned the carburetor a bit to make it running little better. On the 2nd round I took a bit better RT, .089. My 60 FT time was a bit slower than on the first run, but it ran better anyway, 12.351 with 169.52 KM/H top speed. Third Qualifying Round was driven at 1:39PM. We adjusted the carburetor a little, but the car ran just like it did on round 2. This time my RT was -.066 and I ran 12.349 with 168.51 KM/H top speed. Fourth round was kind of succesful as I ran my best ET on this run. Red light bulb flashed on the start though, -.035 but I ran 12.334 with 169.14 KM/H. On the fifth round I was sleeping at the wheel as my RT was .253... ET was 12.324 and 169.26 KM/H. For the last Qualifying Round we adjusted the carburetor a bit again, but 12.332 with 168.96 KM/H top speed wasn't my fastest. I got .110 RT on that run.

After the last Qualifying Round, we headed to sauna and ate some stakes! Everything was ready for Sunday's Eliminations.

On Saturday a friend of mine was watching the races, and he shot a couple of good looking photos of our car with his antique camera:





Qualifying Results:

1. Jarmo Grönman was the number one qualifier with his C/S Chevrolet Camaro. He ran 10.202 that is -1.148 under NHRA 11.35 index.


2. Arto Sulopuisto with his B/S Pontiac Firebird. He ran 10.169 that is -1.031 under NHRA 11.20 index.


3. Tarmo Mikkola with his 350 Cid SS/HA '69 Camaro. His best run was 9.960 that is -0.64 under NHRA 10.60 index.


4. Iiro Mikkola with his F/SA Chevrolet Nova with 327 SBC. The Nova ran nicely, 11.353 that is -0.497 under NHRA 11.85 index.


5. Yrjö Wallius with his SS/J Rambler American. He ran 10.310 that is -0.49 under NHRA 10.80 index.


6. Ari Martikainen with his 440 Cid A/SA '71 Dodge Challenger. He had minor issues with the car during qualifying, but he was able to get them figured out as he ran 10.555 that is -0.445 under NHRA 11.00 index.


7. Sami Toppari with his Factory Racecar SS/C AMC AMX. He ran pretty good numbers, 9.744 that is -0.306 under NHRA 10.05 index.


8. Hannu Palasmaa with AA/S '71 Chevelle. He was suffering a bit from traction problems, but he ran 10.328 with his best. It's -0.272 under NHRA 10.60 index.


9. Cilla Koskinen with SS/HA '67 Camaro. She ran 10.347 with her best, and it's -0.253 under NHRA 10.60 index.


10. Niko Lindström with J/SA '74 Malibu Classic. My best ET was 12.324 that is -0.126 under NHRA 12.45 index.


11. Antti Korhonen with SS/JA '73 Duster. This was the first race for him, he had just got the car together and running after troubles he had during the buildup. He was able to run a couple of runs, but then his transmission stopped working so after all his best was 11.643 that is 0.643 over NHRA 11.00 index.


12. Jarmo Markkanen was having lots of problems with his A/S Pontiac Firebird, and he wasn't able to make a single good run. He was left with the best of 20.558.

[Niko L]

Sunday:

It was a nice weather on Sunday too so luckily we were able to run the Eliminations now as they were rained out at Kalajoki.

Elimination Ladder looked like this:

1. J Grönman VS 7. S Toppari
6. A Martikainen VS 12. J Markkanen
2. A Sulopuisto VS 8. H Palasmaa
5. Y Wallius VS 11. A Korhonen
3. T Mikkola VS 9. C Koskinen
4. I Mikkola VS 10. N Lindström

First Round:
We warmed up the car before we were called to Lineup. It was about Noon when the first Elimination Round for us was driven. On the first pair Jarmo Grönman slept a bit at the tree, he left with .397 reaction time. Compared to Sami Toppari's .056 RT Jarmo had no other chance than to break out. He ran 10.226 on 10.24 dial in while Sami ran 9.947 with 9.70 dial in and won.

Second pair was Ari Martikainen against Jarmo Markkanen who had figured out the problems in his Pontiac. Martikainen left first with .058 RT and he ran 10.798 with 10.63 dial in. Jarmo got a minimal red light by the starting line (-.017) so Ari Martikainen won this round. Markkanen ran 10.138 with 10.15 dial in.

Third pair was Arto Sulopuisto against Hannu Palasmaa. Hannu left first with .107 RT, a bit better than Arto's .196 RT. Arto did a nice run, 10.239 with 10.20 dial in, but Hannu took a holeshot win by better reactions, he ran 10.463 with 10.41 dial in.

Fourth pair was supposed to be Yrjö Wallius against Antti Korhonen, but as Antti had problems with his transmission, he couldn't show up for this round so it was an easy bye run for Wallius. He took .095 RT and ran 10.234 on that run.

Fifth pair was Tarmo Mikkola against Cilla Koskinen. Both drivers ran in SS/HA so it was going to be an interesting Heads Up run. Tarmo had been a bit faster in qualifying, but of course anything could happen. Cilla took a better reaction time, .024 against Tarmo's .067 but it wasn't enough as Tarmo ran 9.951 and headed to the 2nd round. Cilla ran 10.290.

The final pair was Iiro Mikkola against me. I wasn't quite sure what should I put as my dial in time, but I decided to put 12.35 on the window after all. I thought I'll let Iiro stage first in his Nova, but looks like he thought the same way, we standed in Pre Stage for a pretty long time! Then I thought I should stage first before the track crew gets angry and Iiro did the same thing shortly after myself. I left first with .136 RT, definitely not the best but it could be worse, too. I hammered the throttle as much as I could but Iiro crossed the finishing line first anyway. I was sure that he won, but soon I found out that I had won that race... Iiro red lighted by -.009 and ran 11.227 with 11.32 dial in. I did my best run of the weekend by running 12.267 with 12.35 dial in, so a massive break out happened to me, too.



After the first round we did nothing, just added some more fuel in the tank and started thinking about the new dial in time.

Second Round:

The first pair on 2nd Round was Sami Toppari in his AMX against Ari Martikainen and Dodge Challenger. Martikainen's car suffered from technical problems so after all Toppari got an easy bye run to the Semi Finals. He took .174 RT and ran 9.733 with 9.70 dial in.

The second pair was Hannu Palasmaa against Yrjö Wallius. This was going to be a very tight race but unfortunately Hannu red lighted by -.019 and lost the race even though Yrjö red lighted too, -.018. Hannu ran 10.410 with 10.41 dial in, so apart from the RT I'd say it was a great run! Yrjö ran 10.288 with 10.25 dial in and continued to the Semi Finals.

The third pair was Tarmo Mikkola against me. I went straight to stage this time as I didn't want to make another one of those "Staging Competitions". But something happened right away when I started to raise RPMs a little and the car just jumped forward resulting a huge red light and an easy win for Tarmo. I had changed my dial in to 12.28 and I ran 12.312 anyway. Tarmo did 9.946 with 9.96 dial in. He took an excellent RT, too, .006.


Semi Finals:

Semi Final Round came pretty fast after the 2nd round. On the first pair Sami Toppari had another bye run to the Finals. This time he launched full throttle, but lifted early, his ET was 13.004.



The second pair was Yrjö Wallius against Tarmo Mikkola. Wallius left first with .092 RT, but Tarmo did a bit better, .045. Wallius ran 10.272 with 10.25 dial in, but it wasn't enough to beat Tarmo's 9.960 (9.93 dial in).



Final Round:

Final Round was going to be another interesting race between Sami Toppari and Tarmo Mikkola.



Tarmo Mikkola left first with .095 RT, but the winner was clear soon as Toppari took a -.277 red light. He lifted early again and ran only 11.830 while Tarmo ran 10.233 with 9.94 dial in on the other lane and took the win. Congratulations!




After the Final round we loaded the car on trailer and started driving back home. We stopped eating at Mäntyharju as usual and hauled the Malibu Classic to one of our garages. It was a nice weekend and lots of fun, even though it was a bit disappointing to lose that way on the 2nd round. It would have been fun to have a close tight race, no matter who won or lost. But anyway it was a great weekend.



Here is a link to my pictures from the races: tapahtumakuvia.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Tapahtumat+2015/FHRA+August+Nationals+15.-16.8.2015/

And a couple of videos, too: