FHRA Nitro Nationals 2017

[Niko L]

2017 Nitro Nationals were held on the first weekend of July as always. Thursday would be for Sportsman racers only and on Friday and Saturday also the Pro-categories would have their Qualifying sessions before all Eliminations on Sunday.

Wednesday:
This year there were more teams than there has been for a couple of years, so we thought it would be a good idea to go there a bit earlier on Wednesday to get a good pit area. We had already loaded the car inside the bus on Tuesday and Mika left a bit earlier from work on Wednesday. My only choice was to take my Chevy S10 and start driving towards Alastaro Drag Strip when my day at work was over.

When I arrived to the pits, Mika was already there and the car had already been taken out from the bus. I just went to the race office to do the paperwork and tech inspection was also done in the evening.




It was great to see several Stock & Super Stock racers from Sweden waiting to get on the track with their cars, it's always good to have some variety and different cars in our class. Another new thing was Kai Suilo who used to run a black '66 Nova Stocker last year. He had just finished his new FS/C Chevrolet Camaro that was looking really good. It's the first Factory Stock car around here, plus it's completely built here in Finland.





Thursday:

Thursday was the big day for us... Usually a good number of Qualifying rounds are driven on Thursday if nothing unfortunate happens. The weather was pretty good too so we were ready to go. After a little warm up our first Qualifying Round happened at 10:37 AM. I left with a good .031 RT but immediately after that I suffered from the famous Quadrajet "bog" issue which resulted a slow 60FT time (1.715). I went full throttle until the end and 12.476 with 169.40 KM/H top speed was shown on the scoreboard. So despite the bad launch, my top speed was already better than it was on previous events, though it wasn't still where it should be.

Unfortunately at this point a lot of oil was laid on the track, and of course it happened to be tranny fluid which is tricky to remove. Because of that we had plenty of time to figure out the carburetor bog issue so we tried to adjust the secondary air flaps to see if that would help. Finally our second round was at 4:11PM. I took a small red light, -.067 but the bog issue stayed the same and I got another bad 60FT. The weather wasn't as fast as it was in the morning so I ran only 12.523 with 168.31 KM/H top speed.

At this point we could only wait for Friday, when we probably would get one Qualifying Round either before or between the Pro Qualifying Rounds.

[Niko L]

Friday:

The weather was nice on Friday also, so it looked like we would get probably one Qualifying Round at some point of the day. After the first Pro-Categories' Qualifying Round, it was our time to run our 3rd round. We did a bit of carburetor tuning before that run, I left with -.082 red light, the bog issue wasn't as bad as it was yesterday, but still the car bogged at the start, resulting a 60FT time of 1.673. But for some reason the car didn't run well in the top end, so my ET was only 12.568 & 165 KM/H, not good.





On the 2nd Pro round there were some oildowns and other problems, so we were unable to do 4th Qualifying session after that. So we were waiting for Saturday, and hoping that we could make one more Qualifying Round to be able to go under our class index!


Saturday:

Saturday wasn't a good day for us, or for most of the Sportsman teams anyway. On the first Pro-Qualifying Round of the day, a massive oildown happened and the 2nd Pro Qualifying Round started pretty much straight after the first one. After that, the day was over. So the next thing for us would be Eliminations on Sunday.

Qualifying Results:

1. Jarmo Grönman was again the number one Qualifier. His Mountain Dew sponsored C/S Camaro ran 10.228 which is -1.122 under NHRA 11.35 index. Unfortunately though Jarmo's camshaft snapped in two pieces during his last run, so he was out of the Eliminations.


2. Arto Sulopuisto with his B/S Pontiac Firebird was on the 2nd place. He ran 10.213 which is -0.987 under the NHRA 11.20 index.


3. Björn Bondesson from Sweden with his B/SA '71 Chevelle was on the third place. He does some huge wheelies with that car and it seems to run really well otherwise, too. He ran 10.277, which is -0.973 under NHRA 11.25 index.


4. Jarmo Markkanen with his 2002 A/S Pontiac Firebird. He ran the best of 10.015, which is -0.935 under NHRA 10.95 index.


5. Ari Körkkö, another Swedish racer was on the fifth place with his wheelstanding SS/CA '69 Camaro. His best ET was 9.141, which is -0.909 under NHRA 10.05 index.


6. Hannu Palasmaa with his B/S '71 Chevelle. He ran 10.397 which is -0.803 under NHRA 11.20 index.


7. Anna Hassinen with her SS/JA Pontiac Trans Am. She drove the best of 10.274 which is -0.726 under NHRA 11.00 index.


8. Iiro Mikkola with his SS/HA '69 Camaro. His best ET was 9.874, which is -0.726 under NHRA 10.60 index.


9. Krister Fogelin from Sweden with his clean A/S '68 Camaro. He said he was still looking for the right clutch setups, but despite that his best ET was 10.256 which is -0.694 under NHRA 10.95 index.



10. Yrjö Wallius with his SS/J Rambler American. He ran the best of 10.347, which is -0.453 under NHRA 10.80 index. Unfortunately his transmission broke at the end of Qualifying, but luckily he was able to lend a similar tranny from Jarmo Grönman's Camaro with a broken engine.


11. Vilma Palasmaa with her D/SA '68 Camaro. She ran 11.101 which is -0.449 under NHRA 11.55 index.


12. Rick McCann, a former British, now Swedish racer with GT/GA Chevy Camaro took the 12th place. He does some massive wheelstands as well, and his best ET was 9.985, which is -0.415 under NHRA 10.40 index.


13. Cilla Koskinen with SS/GA '67 Camaro. Her best run was 10.157 which is -0.393 under NHRA 10.55 index.


14. Antti Korhonen with SS/JA '74 Duster. This Duster is the one that The Ramchargers raced back in the '70s. Now Antti had fixed bunch of problems he was struggling with last summer, and he ran his personal best ET with it, 10.661. It's -0.339 under NHRA 11.00 index.


15. Sari Kainulainen with F/SA '66 Chevy Nova. She ran the best of 11.521, which is -0.329 under NHRA 11.85 index.


16. Sami Toppari with SS/C '69 SS AMX, one of the 52 Factory made Super Stock race cars. He does some big wheelies as well, and ran the best of 9.740, which is -0.310 under NHRA 10.05 index.


17. Kai Suilo with his brand new FS/C 2015 COPO Camaro. These were the first test runs for that car, so I think he did pretty well by running 10.061 which is -0.239 under NHRA 10.30 index.


18. Jouko Jalava with his D/S 302 Cid '69 Camaro. He ran 11.337 which is -0.163 under NHRA 11.50 index.


19. Timo Eronen with his new car that he plans on renting to someone who wants to come and race Stock Eliminator. So it's C/SA '97 Pontiac Firebird, and despite bunch of problems that Timo had with it, he was able to run 11.415, which is 0.015 over NHRA 11.40 index.


20. Niko Lindström with '74 Chevy Malibu Classic. I was left with the best of 12.476 from the first Qualifying session, and that's 0.026 over NHRA 12.45 index.

[Niko L]

Sunday:

Sunday was the Elimination day. Now when there were 20 cars in our class, we were going to have a 32 car ladder, which means you have to survive bunch of Elimination rounds if you want to win.

We did only a minor modification to the car by changing the carburetor needles. Our first Elimination Round was in the morning, before the first Pro-Elimination Rounds. The Elimination pairs looked like this:

J. Grönman VS V. Palasmaa
H. Palasmaa VS S. Toppari
B. Bondesson VS C. Koskinen
I. Mikkola VS J. Jalava
A. Körkkö VS S. Kainulainen
Y. Wallius VS N. Lindström
A. Sulopuisto VS R. McCann
A. Hassinen VS K. Suilo
J. Markkanen VS A. Korhonen
K. Fogelin VS T. Eronen


Elimination Round 1:

On the first pair Vilma Palasmaa had a solo run, because Grönman's camshaft was broken. She ran 11.178 on this run.

Second pair was Hannu Palasmaa against Sami Toppari. Palasmaa left first with .053 RT, but unfortunately the race was over soon as Toppari red lighted by -.058. Palasmaa ran 10.459 on 10.46 dial in and Toppari ran 9.702.

Third pair was Björn Bondesson against Cilla Koskinen. This race was also over too soon, as Bondesson left a bit early with -.057 red light and ran 10.264 with 10.25 dial in. Koskinen did a great run, .018 RT and she ran 10.151 with 10.15 dial in!

Next pair was Iiro Mikkola against Jouko Jalava, so a battle of two '69 Camaros. Jalava left first with better reactions, .076 against Mikkola's .140 and was the first guy to cross the finishing line, but he broke out by running 11.226 with 11.35 dial in, so Mikkola went to the 2nd round. He ran 9.957 with 9.93 dial in.

Next it was Ari Körkkö against Sari Kainulainen. Sari left first, but unfortunately she got a minor red light, -.010 so Körkkö goes to the next round. Kainulainen drove 11.548 with 11.55 dial in and Körkkö drove 9.240 with 9.12 dial in.

Next pair was me against Yrjö Wallius in his Rambler. I knew this would be a tough race, especially because my car didn't run to the class index that well, and 12.45 was the only allowed dial in for me. So I left first with .055 RT and ran 12.580 with my 12.45 dial in. Anyway, Wallius took a -0.37 red light and ran 10.579 with 10.35 dial in, so I continued to the 2nd round!

Next pair, Arto Sulopuisto against Rick McCann. Sulopuisto left first with .145 RT, but McCann did better, .040. Rick was able to catch Arto's Pontiac so he won by running 10.040 with 10.02 dial in, against Arto's 10.252 on 10.28 dial in.

Then it was Anna Hassinen against Kai Suilo. Hassinen left with much better reactions, .125 against Suilo's .230 and won the race by running 10.357 with 10.27 dial in against Suilo's 9.935 on 9.89 dial in.

Next pair, Jarmo Markkanen against Antti Korhonen. But unfortunately Antti red lighted by -.070, so Jarmo got an easy win. Antti ran 10.792 with 10.69 dial in, as Jarmo ran 10.029 with 10.05 dial in.

Last pair of Round 1 was Krister Fogelin against Timo Eronen. Eronen left first, but he was a bit sleepy at the tree as he left with .564 RT. Eronen ran 11.675 on 11.40 dial in, but had no chance against Fogelin's .016 RT and 10.346 with 10.19 dial in, so Krister Fogelin goes to the next round.


Elimination Round 2:



Our 2nd Elimination Round was after the first Pro Classes' Elimination Rounds.
First pair was between the Daughter and the Father, as Vilma Palasmaa was running against Hannu Palasmaa. Unfortunately the game was pretty much over at the starting line, as Vilma left with .309 RT against Hannu's .011 RT. Hannu won by running 10.621 with 10.43 dial in, against Vilma's 11.145 with 11.15 dial in.

Second pair was Cilla Koskinen against Iiro Mikkola, so two Super Stock 1st Gen Camaros against each others. But Koskinen red lighted by -0.25 so Mikkola got an easy win. Koskinen ran 10.158 on 10.14 dial in, as Mikkola took .142 RT and ran 9.905 with 9.91 dial in.

Third pair was me against Ari Körkkö. We did small changes to the carburetor, hoping that it would make us go a bit closer to the 12.45 dial in. I staged first, and for Körkkö, it took a while to stage. But while I wasn't in a hurry, it didn't matter. I left first with .035 RT against Körkkö's .087. We were on the finishing line on exactly the same time, so it was a very tight race and there was no way to call the winner from there. But it appeared that I had won the race! I ran 12.536 with my 12.45 dial in, as Körkkö ran 9.249 with his 9.19 dial in.

Fourth pair was Rick McCann against Anna Hassinen. Hassinen left first with .246 RT but McCann did much better, .075 RT for him. Rick won this race by running 10.064 with 10.00 dial in against Anna's 10.373 with 10.32 dial in.

Last pair of round 2 was a Heads Up race between two A/S cars, so it was going to be interesting. Jarmo Markkanen against Krister Fogelin. Markkanen had been faster in Qualifying, but of course anything could happen. Unfortunately though, Fogelin red lighted by -.110 giving the win to Markkanen, who ran 10.050 with .053 RT, against Fogelin's 10.589.


Elimination Round 3:

Third round was in the afternoon, first Hannu Palasmaa had a solo run with his B/S Chevelle. He left with .038 RT and ran 10.427 on that run.

The second pair was me against Iiro Mikkola. We made no changes to the car, but hoped that it would run a little better. Unfortunately I red lighted by -.062 so Iiro got an easy win right there. I ran full throttle to the finishing line and scored my best ET of the weekend, 12.436 and 168.05 KM/H. Not good, but at least under the NHRA index. Iiro took a .030 RT and ran 9.888 on 9.89 dial in.

Third pair was Rick McCann against Jarmo Markkanen. McCann took .100 RT, while Jarmo took almost perfect light, .003! He also ran 10.069 on 10.05 dial in, forcing McCann to break out, 9.878 on 10.00 dial in.


Semi Final Round:

The first Semi Final pair was Hannu Palasmaa against Iiro Mikkola. The game was over soon as Hannu took -.026 red light and ran 10.490 with 10.42 dial in. Iiro also red lighted, but of course it didn't matter anymore as Hannu did the first mistake. Iiro left with -.022 red light and ran 9.892 on 9.88 dial in, going to the final round.




On the other side of the ladder, Jarmo Markkanen had a solo run in his Firebird. He left with .014 RT and ran 10.075 on that run.




Final Round:

Final Round was going to be very exciting as both drivers had been running really good on previous rounds. So it was Iiro Mikkola against Jarmo Markkanen. Jarmo left with .089 RT and ran 10.098 with 10.05 dial in. Iiro took a small red light by -.012 and ran 9.877 with 9.89 dial in, so Jarmo Markkanen takes the win. Congratulations!



For us the weekend wasn't the best, but overall I did pretty good in the Eliminations, so that was good.

Here is a video of my runs:


Antti's SS/JA Duster.


Fast Freddy Fagerström doing what he does the best... Burnouts!


Pro Mod Qualifying.


And here is a link to Full Picture Gallery.