Tommi & Anita Top Fuel Racing

European Finals

Our car is running again!
What a great booster this run was to all of us!

All the year long we have been waiting for this moment.

Just before the finishing line, the burst panel blew out, so the time could have been even a bit better. And like the top speed 270 tells, all the horses were not running any more.

On the Sunday morning I was all ready to take my first event win. We had Jöran Persåker up against us. Few minutes before firing up the engine I noticed the throttle pedal wasn´t right. I informed Jari and soon Tommi took the side panel out and started to fix the linkage. We all thought the linkage was now fixed. But it wasn´t. I went to burn out, but the engine didn´t response to my driving. No burn out. That caused I couldn´t put any heat into the brakes. Then I went in pre-stage, pull the high side on, but I couldn´t hold it in stage. Believe me, I´m pretty strong (I can easily do 20 push ups) and what a horrible moment it is to see the front wheels rolling althought the brake was fully loaded. Red light. And Jöran left. I thought I´ll hit the throttle to have a nice numbers on timing board although there was the red light. Hit the throttle and the car moved one meter. I knew I couldn´t even roll over the finishing line so I had to shut off the engine and go home. (Go full throttle or go home - you know!)

Sorry, I couldn´t do any more.

BUT otherwise we would have won! (There has been quite often that BUT-word...)

Anyway, that 4,86 is giving us some comfort and makes our winter a bit better. And we are ready for the season 2010! We are gonna be fast! Pitty this season is over, just when the fun started!

During this race I had a pleasure to meet Rhonda Hartman-Smith. It was really nice to share some thoughts with a real professional racer. Rhonda´s experience in racing is in such a level I could only dream about. I could have been listening Rhonda all weekend long, but the time was absolutely too short. Wish to meet you again!

I have to see my chickens now, but I´ll put some photos and more thoughts within few days, so stay tuned!