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Veidec Festival coming up
Mantorp, Sweden, 30 july - 1 august
As reported below, Jimmy Ålund showed up at Alastaro for the second round of the European Pro Stock Dragracing Championship. The J&J Performance Team joined forces with Futura Racing to try to score their first points of the year after having spent the beginning of the season in the USA, racing in the NHRA Pro Stock Series.
This was the first race with this combination of car, engine and driveline. With that in mind, the first round of qualifying turned out very satisfying. Jimmy ran an ET of 6.93 which put the team in the number three qualifying spot and ahead of some of the strongest Pro Stock teams in Europe. The second qualifying run netted another 6.9 second ET, but when the team returned to the pits they discovered a broken connecting rod that had let go right at the finish line. Unfortunately, that meant the end of the weekend for J&J Performance.
"We tried hard" says Jimmy, "but the performance level of these Pro Stock motors is astounding and sooner or later things break". He continues, "the runs we got in were really promising but unfortunately it was all over after that second qualifying run. At least we picked up points and are now part of this years European Pro Stock Championship". Jimmy sends thanks to the sponsors and of course also to Stefan Eriksson and Mats Olsson of Futura Racing who made the Alastaro race possible.
Next race is the Veidec Festival at Jimmys home track Mantorp Park in Sweden. Jimmys own car arrived back home from the US Tour just over a week ago and is being looked over as we speak. "We hope to do better than at Alastaro", Jimmy says with a smile. On a question about the possibility of winning the 2010 championship, "No, no, that's not realistic, the other teams are too strong and too far ahead but we really want to get out there and race the car as hard as possible". As for winning individual races, "be sure we'll do our best but the other teams have been racing in Europe and we don't really know where we stand compared to them."
Jimmy brings the full team - Petter Greborn, Kalle Hrupa, Mats Appelgren with the addition of Christer Bergström who is also in place for the Mantorp race.
You can keep track of the weekend activities at Mantorp through Eurodragster.coms reporting at EuroDragster.com
First race in Europe 2010
Alastaro, Finland, 2-4 july
OK, the team had barely shaken off the jetlag from The 2010 Klintberg & Way U.S. Tour when Jimmy surprisingly turned up in the entrylist for the second round of the FIA European Pro Stock Dragracing Championship: the FHRA Nitro Nationals held at the beautiful Alastaro circuit the first weekend of July.
A bit earlier than originally planned, Jimmys J&J Performance Team has joined forces with Futura Racing to try to score their first points in the 2010 European championship.
The owners of the car, an '05 Pontiac Grand Am, are Stefan Eriksson and Mats Olsson who previously raced in Competition with their mighty blue ´65 Ford Falcon. The new Pontiac Grand Am was purchased from Janne "Snowball" Palmkvist in 2008 and was completed with a drivetrain from Jimmy Ålund in 2009.
There will be a solid team in place at Alastaro. In addition to Stefan and Mats from Futura Racing with Jimmy Ålund as the driver, the J&J Performance Racing crew chief Peter Greborn is along as well as Markus Svensson from Clutch Service who will keep a sharp eye on the tuning of the clutch that's delivered from that same company.
The engine had its first startup in the beginning of June and the race at Alastaro is the first time the car is running this combination. The deal for Jimmy is to try to pick up as many points as possible during the weekend. The goal? "To win, as always" says Jimmy, "we feel it's possible to qualify and hopefully score some points during eliminations". Jimmy smiles, "we can't give away more than a one race advantage this season". He continues, "seriously, we race to have fun and we've been looking forward to competing back here in Europe after this years US Tour". Jimmy ends with a big "thank you" to all the sponsors.
Looking forward Jimmy will be racing his own car at Mantorp where the Futura Racing Pontiac is also entered. Please keep track of the weekend activities at Alastaro through Eurodragster.coms reporting at EuroDragster.com
The 2010 Klintberg & Way
US Tour review
Heading back to Europe...
It might sound like a paradox but the US Tour was a success even if the team did not qualify according to plan. No doubt, the three major factors the team had to over- come were known long before the Tour started: No previous tuning data from any of the four tracks in The Tour, nowhere close to having the same experience and track time as the US pro teams who race NHRA Pro Stock full time, plus missing a few horsepowers compared to the big teams.
Engine development for reaching the absolute top echelons of NHRA Pro Stock is a process that goes on literally every waking hour of the year. The top engine builders currently squeeze out around 1500 horsepower from an 8.2-liter (500 cubic inches) naturally aspirated gasoline V-8 engine running carburators. And these top-of-the-line engines can not be purchased, they are rented to a few teams at a cost of many hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single season. Not an option for the J&J Performance Racing Team.
For a European Pro Stock team to travel to the US and go all out in NHRA Pro Stock competition under these conditions and successfully fight for those few hundredths of a second that makes the difference between being a number one qualifyer or last place is a serious effort.
No doubt, the J&J Performance Racing Team out-qualified a few well known competitors and showed that they are as good as some of the US teams though the budget for the necessary horsepower is not in place.
A new personal best time was set during this US Tour: 6.638 seconds over the Englishtown quarter mile which is better than the current European Pro Stock record. At that, Jimmy and the the team hold both ends of those European records, 6.649 seconds and 207.07 miles per hour. That's 334.24 km/hour for the metric crowd.
"Yeah well.. of course, we're a little bit disappointed right now" said Jimmy on Saturday afternoon at historic Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, right after the final qualifying round of this years Klintberg & Way US Tour. "We really felt our goal was realistic. It was all about qualifying at one or more of the events" - "Good thing is that this has given the whole team lots of real useful experience for moving forward towards what we want to accomplish in the future".
Sure enough, after a couple of hours of reflection it's all on to future endeavours. Jimmy comments with his trademark grin while loading the trailer for the last time this trip "...this has made us stronger for racing back in Europe..."
"Seriously, I'd like to put all sorts of positive attention onto this whole team. They have contributed to all we've accomplished - Petter Greborn, Kalle Hrupa, Mats Appelgren, and Lasse Rodeblad from Exclusive Cars. Without them there would not be any racing".
"It's also been a real pleasure to have met so many good people during this US Tour, especially the staff of the NHRA organization and all the NHRA Pro Stock mechanics and drivers. It was also great to see (and hear!) a few Swedish hard core fans who made the trip across the Atlantic to cheer us on, many thanks. We're now looking forward to the challenge of racing for as many points as possible in the 2010 FIA European Pro Stock Dragracing Championship."
Yes, there are Swedish flags in the stands...
This years US Tour is over and the Klintberg & Way/Exclusive Cars GTO is now on its way back home to Europe for more racing.
Reports and results will be posted here.
An update from Curacao -
The International Drag Festival
Curacao, the Caribbean...
"Hello everybody,
Unfortunately we struggled all week to try to run some respectable times. When we finally started to get the car to work it was time for eliminations and it was not enough. We ran 6.71 against Jeff Dobbins who went low 6.50s and who also went on to win the event.
One can not imagine that drag racing would be so big on a carribbean island but there were 256 cars that went through inspection at this race...
Win some, lose some, it has been a very exciting and fun experience to be here and we'd like to thank everyone that made it possible.
Next on the agenda is the continuation of the Klintberg & Way US Tour. We'll be in the lanes again on Friday May 14 at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta, Georgia.
Greetings
Jimma and Petter"
We´re off towards
new adventures!
Curacao, the Caribbean...
"Monday, April 26, me and crew chief Petter Greborn will fly to Curacao, an island off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean. The island is located on the equator so the one thing that that would be guaranteed is racing under good weather.
The race we'll be attending is "The International Drag Festival 2010" which is a large yearly event run from April 28 to May 1. I've been invited to run a former Pro Stock car which I think comes from the Alderman/Geoffrion team once upon a time. It now sports a Pat Musi/Hallberg built 648 cubic inch motor running a nitrous oxide system and the transmission is a 5-speed Lenco. With separate levers for each gear... The car has also been updated with the magic of chassie builder Jerry Haas.
The owner of the car is Frank Brandao and he also owns another five cars, most of them former Pro Stock cars.
This is going to be real good fun, as long as I remember to release the lever and pull another one when shifting gears..."
A bit different than here in Europe, daytime is too hot to race so this is all about nightracing. Please visit www.CuracaoDrag.com for more details on "The International Drag Festival 2010" and dragracing in the beautiful Caribbean Islands.
Jimmy Ålund and
the Klintberg & Way US Tour
6-time back-to-back FIA European Pro Stock champion Jimmy Ålund of Norrköping, Sweden is to race selected NHRA events in the US during spring and summer 2010 and will not be defending a seventh European championship this season.
The team has scheduled 4 events with start in Charlotte, NC with the inaugural NHRA Nationals at Z-Max dragway March 25-28. Tour continues with NHRA National Events in Atlanta, GA May 14-16, Chicago, IL June 3-6 and ends in Englishtown, NJ June 10-13. During their stay the car will be stationed in the race shop of Pat Musi Performance, Carteret NJ were Pat and Robert Hallberg will be to their supporting service. They will not only host the car between races but also support Jimmy Ålund Racing with race transporter/trailer to use at the events.
Jimmy Ålund Racing long time engine builder Bob Ingels and J&B Performance is currently updating the engine for the Klintberg & Way Pontiac GTO and the team is confident they will have the horsepower to meet the American Pro Stock performance.
The car will be shipped in the good hands of Geodis Wilson freight management company and is scheduled to be back in Sweden in time for Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park. This will be the first European event for the team 2010 and the plan is to continue the FIA tour after this with the events at Hockenheim, Germany and Santa Pod, England.
- It will be a big thrill and a great challenge to race against the world elite in the tightest professional drag racing class around. We know we have the material to be in the field but do not come close to have the same experience as the American professionals and this is the big challenge for us – it will not be easy but we are not going there to have a pick-nick either, says Jimmy Ålund.
For further information or if you wish to be involved in this project, please contact Jimmy Ålund at jimmyprostock@telia.com.
Jimmy interviewed
on swedish TV
SVT Sportspegeln. October 14, 2009
2010, second round, Alastaro Finland
Back from the US Tour
First race in Europe for Jimmy Ålund this year. The team showed up at Alastaro for the second round of the European Pro Stock Dragracing Championship. The J&J Performance Team joined forces with Futura Racing to try to score their first points of the year after having spent the first part of the season in the USA, racing in the NHRA Pro Stock Series.
This was the first race with this combination of car, engine and driveline. Having that in mind, the first round of qualifying turned out very satisfying. Jimmy Ålund ran an ET of 6.93 which put the team in the number three qualifying spot and ahead of some of the strongest Pro Stock teams in Europe. The second qualifying run netted almost as good an ET as the first, 6.97 seconds, but when the team returned to the pits they found that a connecting rod had broken right at the finish line. Unfortunately, that meant the end of the weekend for J&J Performance.
"We tried hard" say Jimmy, "the performance level of these Pro Stock motors is astounding and sooner or later things break". He continues, "the runs we got in were really promising but unfortunately it was all over after that second qualifying run". "We picked up points and are now part of this years European Pro Stock Championship". Jimmy sends thanks to the sponsors and obviously to Stefan Eriksson and Mats Olsson of Futura Racing who made the Alastaro race possible.
Next race is coming up at the end of July. The venue is Mantorp Park, Sweden, only a few miles from Jimmys shop. The team are waiting for their own car which is in transit from the US and it's all for picking up a maximum of points at round 3 of the championship.