Motopark 30 Years Drag Race 2017.

[Niko L]

The second Finnish Championship event at Motopark Raceway was also the 30th Anniversary of Motopark track that was opened in 1987.

On Friday afternoon we started driving towards Motopark. This time we arrived a lot earlier on Friday evening than we did last time. Tech inspection was passed and then we were ready to race. No major changes were done to the car after the first race, now we were just hoping to get many runs so there would be time to tune the car better.



Saturday

On Saturday the weather looked really good. So when the pit silence was over we did a little warm up and then we were ready to race. Our first Qualifying run was at 11:03. I had a minor red light (-.043), but of course that didn't matter at this point. My 60 FT was 1.647 and I ran 12.529 & 165.28 KM/H. Needless to say we weren't happy with the ET or top speed... Especially the top speed was a lot slower than it should be. But during the run I noticed that after shifting to higher gear, the RPM drops just a bit below the converter stall speed. So for the 2nd Qualifying Round I decided to shift with a bit higher RPMs to see it it would help.

We also tuned the carburetor a bit before Round 2 as we thought it would need a bit more fuel. The second round was at 12.22PM. My RT got worse, -.082 but 60FT stayed pretty much the same. Anyway we did something right, now the ET was 12.442 with 167.49 KM/H top speed. Not good, but at least we were heading to the right direction!



We were going to try tuning the carburetor a bit more before the third round, but then something strange happened at the track... During Top Doorslammer round, one racer laid some oil on the track. While the track crew was cleaning that out, a big piece of asphalt came off from about 330FT! And unfortunately the Qualification had to be called off, since the track crew needed time to fix the track before the Eliminations on Sunday. That was very bad news for us, as now we didn't get enough test runs to see what should be done with the car.



Qualifying Results:

1. As usual, Jarmo Grönman was the #1 Qualifier with his C/S Chevy Camaro. He ran 10.299 that is -1.051 under NHRA 11.35 index.


2. Arto Sulopuisto with his B/S Pontiac Firebird. His best run was 10.249 that is -0.951 under NHRA 11.20 index.


3. Jarmo Markkanen with A/S Pontiac Firebird was the third Qualifier with the best of 10.163, -0.787 under NHRA 10.95 index.


4. Hannu Palasmaa was the fastest guy with a carburetor. He was 4th with his B/S '71 Chevelle with the best of 10.471 that is -0.729 under NHRA 11.20 index.


5. Iiro Mikkola with SS/HA '69 Camaro. He ran 9.896 that is -0.704 under NHRA 10.60 index.


6. Anna Hassinen with SS/JA Pontiac Trans Am. She was the fastest of the "rookies" in Stock and Super Stock classes by running 10.313 that is -0.687 under NHRA 11.00 index.


7. Yrjö Wallius with SS/J '67 Rambler American. He ran the best of 10.300 that is -0.500 under NHRA 10.80 index.


8. Vilma Palasmaa with D/SA '68 Camaro. She ran 11.063 that is -0.487 under NHRA 11.55 index.


9. Akseli Koskinen with SS/GA '67 Camaro. His best run was 10.163 that is -0.387 under NHRA 10.55 index.


10. Sari Kainulainen with F/SA '66 Chevrolet Nova. She ran 11.529 that is -0.321 under NHRA 11.85 index.


11. Niko Lindström with J/SA '74 Malibu Classic. I was left with the best of 12.442 that is -0.008 under NHRA 12.45 index. Not good, but at least we were going into the right direction!

[Niko L]

Sunday:

Sunday was the Elimination Day and luckily the track crew was able to get the asphalt fixed so everything was ready to race. Our first round pairs looked like this...

J. Grönman VS Bye Run
H. Palasmaa VS A. Koskinen
J. Markkanen VS V. Palasmaa
A. Hassinen VS N. Lindström
A. Sulopuisto VS Y. Wallius
I. Mikkola VS S. Kainulainen

Elimination Round 1:
Our first Elimination Round was at 12:20 PM.

Up first was the #1 Qualifier Jarmo Grönman doing a Bye-run in his Chevy Camaro. Jarmo went full throttle of course and ran 10.299 on that run.

The second pair was Hannu Palasmaa in his '71 Chevelle against Akseli Koskinen in his '67 Camaro. The reactions were almost identical, .034 for Hannu and .029 for Akseli. Anyway, Hannu ran closer to his dial in 10.45 by driving 10.541 against Akseli's 10.268 (10.14 dial in) so Palasmaa went to the 2nd round.

On the third pair there was Jarmo Markkanen in his Pontiac Firebird going against Vilma Palasmaa's '68 Camaro. Unfortunately the race was over right at the starting line as something happened with Vilma's car and she left before the tree activated. Despite that Jarmo didn't take it easily, he took an almost perfect .001 reaction time and ran 10.189 with 10.16 dial in.

Then I was running against Anna Hassinen...Again, just like in Spring Nats. I thought I'd put 12.45 to the window and see how it goes. The car had exactly the same setup as yesterday, so we just had to hope that the weather conditions would be pretty close. I left first, but I was a bit sleepy at the tree with my .149 RT. Anna's light was a bit better .107 and because of an unknown reason my car didn't run even close of its' dial in time (I ran 12.669 with 12.45 dial in) she passed me early and continued to the next round. She ran 10.420 on 10.29 dial in.

The fifth pair was between two long time Stock/Super Stock racers, Arto Sulopuisto in his Pontiac Firebird against Yrjö Wallius in his Rambler American. Wallius left first with .032 RT and he ran 10.480 on 10.35 dial in, but that just wasn't enough as Sulopuisto took .005 RT and ran 10.364 on 10.26 dial in.

The last pair was Iiro Mikkola against Sari Kainulainen. Sari got a headstart, but unfortunately red lighted by -.044 so Iiro took the win. Sari ran 11.653 on 11.55 dial in while Iiro did 9.942 on 9.92 dial in.


Elimination Round 2:

The first pair on the 2nd Round was Jarmo Grönman against Hannu Palasmaa. This race ended right at the starting line too as Hannu red lighted by -.034. He ran nicely though, 10.497 with 10.47 dial in while Jarmo ran 10.359 on 10.28 dial in.

The second pair was Jarmo Markkanen against Anna Hassinen. Anna got a small headstart and she left with .166 RT. She ran really close to her dial in, 10.351 (10.33) and won the race as Jarmo had red lighted by -.003! Jarmo ran 10.151 on 10.18 dial in.

The third and last pair was Arto Sulopuisto against Iiro Mikkola. Just like all other races on this round, also this one was over right before it even started as Mikkola took a small -.025 red light. He ran 9.904 on 9.93 dial in. At the same time Sulopuisto took .009 RT and ran 10.340 on 10.32 dial in... Almost dead on.


Semi Finals:

In the Semis, the first pair was Jarmo Grönman in his C/S Camaro against Anna Hassinen's SS/JA Trans Am. Both drivers had 10.31 dial ins so they started exactly on the same time. Both had good reactions, .044 for Anna and .035 for Jarmo and it was a really close race until the end. But Jarmo crossed the finishing line first, he ran 10.339 with that 10.31 dial in while Anna ran 10.390 with that same 10.31 dial in. Anyway, she did a great job by going into the Semi Finals in her second race after moving up from Jr Dragsters.

The second pair was a Solo Run for Arto Sulopuisto. He left with .284 RT and ran 10.339 which was only .001 faster than what he did on previous round.


Final Round:

The Final Round was a battle between two 4th Gen GM F-Bodies. Jarmo Grönman in his C/S Camaro VS Arto Sulopuisto in his B/S Firebird.


Both had 10.31 dial ins for the Final Round, and Sulopuisto continued taking some excellent reactions as he left with .020 RT. Jarmo wasn't bad either with his .085 RT so it was a close race. In the end Sulopuisto was just before Grönman on the finishing line, so he took the win by running 10.379 against Grönman's 10.335. So Congratulations to Arto for the win!


Overall it was a great weekend even though we got only three runs.

Here is a video of my runs...


And here's a link to the Full Picture Gallery.