Race Report – Hockenheim and Santa Pod
Here comes, finally, a longer and more complete report from the last two rounds of the European Drag Racing Championship.
After the race in Tierp (Sweden), we did a major service on the engine. We replaced the connecting rods. We do this as a preventive measure so they won’t break, because if they do, it means a lot more work and very high costs. We usually replace them after about 16–20 runs. We also replaced the Teflon strips on the supercharger rotors and machined them into the housing. Then we installed it ahead of Hockenheim.
This season’s ending was different, as we had two races on back-to-back weekends in two different countries, so we tried to be as prepared as possible. Normally there’s at least one weekend off between races.
When everything was packed and ready, we left for Hockenheim on Tuesday morning, August 26. Mats and Exon drove the truck, while LG, Sara, and the kids went by car.
The first day we drove down to Trelleborg in southern Sweden, a 740 km trip. In the evening we boarded a ferry, had dinner, and slept overnight. The next morning, we left the ferry early and continued toward the Hockenheimring. Another full day on the road, 650 km, arriving Wednesday evening.
We set up our tent and rolled out the race car in the evening since we knew Thursday would bring rain. Thursday was inspection day for the race car. We also checked the weather on our weather station and planned adjustments for Friday’s first qualifying run. Depending on weather conditions and engine power, gear ratios sometimes need to be adjusted, so knowing the forecast is important.
During warm-up, we struggled to start the car. We suspected it was because the supercharger, freshly restripped, was turning harder than usual. We thought it would smooth out after the first run.
Hockenheim Q1 (qualification 1)
Good launch, but when Mats shifted into second, the tires lost traction and shook. Mats lifted, then got back on the throttle, but the car misfired. He shut down completely to avoid unnecessary engine damage.
We replaced the trigger sensor before the next run. Our ignition system is powered by a magnet that generates 44+ amps on its own—enough to weld with! It can run the ignition alone, but it isn’t stable. With a crank-mounted trigger, we get much more precise timing.
Q2
Much better. A 5.92 pass put us number one qualifier—felt great. The ignition issue was gone. We’d also changed the ignition curve for the first two seconds, which the car really liked. But traction was weak further downtrack, so we added rear downforce by adjusting the wing for the next run.
We were also lucky to have a skilled driver. After the finish line, the parachutes deployed strangely—one crossed over the other, pulling the car sharply right, directly in front of Bruno Bader. He had to brake hard to avoid hitting Mats from behind, with his own chutes out. Mats steered back, everything ended safely, but one chute was ruined. We installed new ones for the next run. The car experienced 2 lateral Gs at over 350 km/h when it yanked sideways.
Q3
Didn’t go our way. The burnout box has a deep dip to hold water—too deep for our liking. Mats has to creep over it to avoid scraping the front. This time, a piece of fiberglass seems to have broken off. On video, we later saw this piece interfere with the staging beams. The pre-stage light came on, then went out, stage light on, but both should be lit simultaneously when staged correctly. It confused Mats, who aborted. The timeslip confirmed nothing matched. Regulations require 3 inches clearance at the front for accurate beam readings. We slipped to number two qualifier after David Vegter ran quicker.
Q4
We improved to 5.87, but still second qualifier, as Vegter stayed slightly quicker. We actually ran against him this round—Mats had a better reaction time, so he crossed the line first despite being slower. That was useful in case we faced him later. Psychology matters—what counts is winning, not necessarily being fastest in eliminations.
Looking at the data, we discovered Mats shifted too early—so early the shift light didn’t even come on. That made him shift early into third as well. The computer tracks RPM drop at shifts, so we saw both were off. Since the shift light never triggered for second, the same RPM threshold carried over into third. The motor revs faster into second than third, so we normally set different shift points. Both should hit at the same engine speed, but because of the glitch, it didn’t.
On Sunday morning before warm-up, we found a damaged bearing in the left front wheel—not easy to replace in the pits, and no one had spares. Years ago, when we crashed Goblin II at Santa Pod, we rebuilt the front end with the best Lamp Components parts, including ceramic bearings. Great setup, but uncommon. The car could roll, but we didn’t want Mats running 390+ km/h with that risk. The bearing likely got hurt when the car yanked sideways after the chute failure.
E1
We got lucky—our opponent broke, so it was a bye run. No burnout, just staged and took the green light to advance.
E2
Against Bruno Bader. A consistent and solid driver, though anything can happen. We went through full prep—tires, track temp, the works—to appear fully committed. Mats even did a burnout, to plant doubt in Bader’s mind. But he ran strong and straight, and Mats idled down defeated. Disappointing, since we know our car is quick and Mats drove well, but at least we had a rolling car and avoided disaster. After three of four races, we stood fifth in points, still with a chance for third after the Santa Pod finale.
Even on Sunday, we contacted Derek Lamb at Lamb Components for new parts. He built and prepped them right away, ready to ship. But Monday was Labor Day in the U.S., so UPS couldn’t send them until Tuesday. Big thank you for the support from Lamb Components.
Congratulations to Marck Harteveld as winner of the Nitrolymx at Hockenheim.
We packed up, enjoyed a nice Sunday awards ceremony, and slept in our trailer (built so we can sleep many even when the race car is loaded). Monday morning we drove 240 km north to visit “half-relatives” (related to Mats’s mother’s husband). Two nights there, Tuesday together. They’re building a great restaurant with a brewery—can’t wait to return and try the beer.
Wednesday morning we continued toward Santa Pod, crossing Holland, Belgium, and France, about 480 km.
We arrived by car, but the truck was delayed—customs officers were extra curious about the race car, plus carnet stamping for non-EU entry into the UK. They missed the ferry, had to wait two hours for the next one. Heavy seas delayed ferries too. The car got to Santa Pod, did some shopping, but the truck had even more trouble finding the customs office in England. They didn’t arrive until early morning, exhausted.
Meanwhile, UPS had already tried to deliver our Express Plus package at Santa Pod, but no one paid the customs fee, so they left with it with out contacting us. We thought it would bill directly to our UPS account. After they left, we finally got a payment link, which we paid immediately. We called UPS to request urgent re-delivery, but they said not until the next day. We tried changing the address to a pickup point 15 minutes away. But when we get there the location was closed permanently. And it was on UPS´s homepage as a pick up point.
Total mess. Multiple calls, endless stress. Eventually, after Lamb intervened from California, we managed to pick it up at Northampton UPS at 7:40 pm Friday, 20min before closing.
Because of UPS, we missed both Friday qualifying runs—crucial ones. Very frustrating.
Two days and nine calls from us, two from Lamb. Finally got it, then the installation took 15 minutes, ready for Saturday.
Santa Pod Q3
Our first run had way too much power, breaking traction completely after a few tenths. But the launch G-force was a personal best at 3.59 Gs. This setup was based on watching competitors shake on Friday—had we run then, we wouldn’t have added that much power.
Q4
Better, but still too much power about half a second out. We ended up qualifying poorly, 13th of 15.
E1
Faced Michel Tooren. Not the quickest car during the qualification, but consistent. He knew we could be fast, so the psychology was there. Mats had a good reaction, but Tooren’s was even sharper—borderline red-light. He also ran quicker, so he won outright. Our top speed was low, and Mats felt the car was down on power. The data showed cylinder #1 was dead almost from the start. The spark plug was faulty—easy fix, but too late. We ran 6.06 seconds (3.93 on halftrack, witch should be 5.93 full track) on seven cylinders, when it should’ve been a 5.8X if all eight had fired.
Congratulations to Jere Rantaniemi as winner of the Euro Finals at Santa Pod.
So our season ended there. Disappointing. The championship schedule was odd from the start. The first points race in May. Then normally, Sweden hosts a points race in June, but not this year (financial reasons). We won that event, but it didn’t count toward the championship. The second points race wasn’t until August. We red-lit in eliminations there. Then Germany with the wheel bearing issue. Finally, England with the UPS disaster. We finished seventh overall in the championship.
Congratulations to Jere Rantaniemi and his team as winners of the European Dragracing Championship in Promodified.
Over 31 days, we raced three championship rounds in three different countries—a feat in itself. The trip home was smooth: 1,800 km and two ferries. Altogether, this trip was 4,150 km and four ferries over seven of the 16 days away.
Now we’ll let the highs and lows settle, recharge, and look ahead.
Thanks for following our season—we hope you’ve enjoyed the reports.
Best regards,
“LG” and the whole team
Team members on this trip:
Mats “ME” Eriksson
Jan “Exon” Eriksson
Lars-Göran “LG” Hillborg
Sara Hillborg
Alfred Hillborg
Ella Hillborg
