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2012 starts with a bang
Awards galore!!
It's only January but time flies and Jimmy Ålund and the whole J&J Performance Racing Team are hard at work in preparation for the 2012 drag racing season.
Why not start off with a party? At the end of January, the prestigious Swedish automobile magazine "Bilsport" celebrated being in business for half a century with a huge gala party that included awarding deserving members of the Swedish racing community.
No surprise, Jimmy received the award for senior Drag Racer of the Year but that was not all. Bilsport had set up a readers popular vote for all the nominated drivers within the different motorsports disciplines. Jimmy picked up 32% of those votes and won that award as well. Much deserved and a good inspiration for this years racing.
The new Jerry Haas race car
So what's up for 2012? In the awards acceptance speech Jimmy ended all the rumours, "thanks to our main sponsors Klintberg & Way and Exclusive Cars we'll be racing a 2012 Camaro in this years European Pro Stock Championships".
The car is brand new and of course built by Jerry Haas Race Cars in Fenton, Missouri. It's the fourth 2012 Camaro Pro Stock in line from Jerry Haas Race Cars, delivery expected in time for The NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville Florida at the beginning of March. Will the team be there? "We'll see, but it wouldn't be a bad thing to race the car in the US before shipping it to Europe".
Stay tuned...
We welcome a new racing season and DHL Express as a new major sponsor!
On the track again!
The first round of the European Pro Stock is only a few weeks away. J&J Performance Racing Team has been preparing the car for the European racetracks after last years Klintberg & Way Tour of the US.
Lots of engine work over the winter, a new paint scheme on the car and some very good news: a new sponsor for the team. We warmly welcome DHL Express to the wonderful world of drag racing.
Driver and six time European Champion Jimmy Ålund says, "This is such good news for the whole team. DHL Express is the leader in international express shipping. The company has been around for over 40 years now. And just like our operation, DHL Express is all about speed and quality."
DHL Express Marketing Director Ann-Kristine Johansson adds, "I agree - this is a very good match. Jimmy and the team run the fastest Pro Stock car in Europe and that takes commitment, know-how and attention to detail. As far as service goes, Jimmy is a first rate representative for what DHL Express stands for when it comes to good customer relations." Ann-Kristine continues, "Everyone at DHL Express is very pleased to be part of a championship team and we are very much looking forward to the start of the season".
This last weekend, 7-8 May, Jimmy and the team attended the opening of the new world class track at Tierp Arena in Sweden. "Yes, we went there for testing" Jimmy says, "and we were pretty satisfied with the results. We had time to test two different engines and we got good data from this session". Indeed, on the second test run of the season, the team pushed the car to an elapsed time of 6.74 seconds, which is very quick, but the story was the speed: 334 kilometers per hour is faster than the current European Pro Stock record, held by Jimmy Ålund himself. "Yeah, well, actually we were not all that impressed by that run. Sure, the speed was definitely there but we left a lot on the table as regards to running a faster time".
- What about the first race at Santa Pod at the end of May? "Obviously we are very excited to go to the Main Event again, the race track and the event carry lots of history. It’s gonna be very hard racing, beginning with the first qualifying session.”
- Any reflections on last years tour in the US? "No doubt, it was a very good lesson for the whole team, we worked as hard as we've ever done in all our years in drag racing." Jimmy adds with his trademark grin, "We picked up a few pointers that we will try to put to good use in the European Championship this year..."
The first round of the 2011 FIA European Pro Stock Championship is held at Santa Pod Raceway in the United Kingdom. The season starts around lunchtime on Saturday, May the 28th.
Don't miss it!
Thanks for your support!
2010 is over
Another exciting season is over for Jimmy Ålund and his race team. You can read the race reports by clicking on the "News" and "Latest news" in the top menu.
Be sure that the goal for 2011 is nothing else but to go for yet another European Pro Stock Championship.
Time to plan for the next race. Very welcome to the first race of the 2011 championship season: The Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway.
The championship kicks of on the morning of May 28th, 2011.
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
7-time European Pro Stock Champion!
The Finals, Santa Pod Raceway
The J&J Performance Racing Team left Hockenheim with a solid points lead. All that was needed to clinch the 2011 championship was to have the car pass scrutineering and run a qualifying run at The Finals at Santa Pod Raceway but until that was done, the championship was not confirmed.
"That's right, anything can happen. We race on the track, not on paper", says a very elated Jimmy Ålund. "I'm very happy about this championship. This year has to count as one of the most competitive seasons in the history of FIA Pro Stock championship racing, to win it all this year rates very high in my list of accomplishments."
This last event was just as tough as usual. Jimmy got off to a good start by being the #1 qualifier after the first round of qualifying but ran into problems in both Q2 and Q3. "Tireshake in the second round and too soft a setup in Q3 hurt us. To be honest, the track was not good at all, the changing conditions created a lot problems for the racers but we came back OK in the last run of qualifying". Yes, Jimmy Ålund ran the fastest time and speed of Q4 and went into eliminations as the number 1 qualifier, having run both quickest ET and fastest speed of all. Those numbers turned out to be the best for the whole event.
Sunday means eliminations. Jimmy won the first round with 6.7887 seconds at 328.9 km/hour (204.42 miles/hour) but fell victim to a tricky track in the semifinals. "We spun and shook the tires again. We did all we could and were just waiting for this bad track to hit us and it did in the semi finals."
Jimmy is all smiles despite the early departure from eliminations, "the whole team worked hard this season and brought home another European championship to the team and the sponsors".
"It's been a great season for everyone involved, it started out with us getting DHL Express on board as a new major sponsor which turned out to be very important for winning the championship. DHL Express have been very supportive of our efforts and saved us more than once when we needed fast and reliable delivery of parts from the US. Of course we thank all of our sponsors, this is simply not possible without their support."
Jimmy sends a special thought to engine builder Bob Ingles. "As always it's been good to work with a world class engineer like Bob Ingles. He did it again, supplying us with good engines and the horsepower necessary to win the championship. Thanks Bob."
The 2011 season has just ended but planning has already started for next year. Many of the cars in the class have been updated with new technology while J&J Racing have been hard at work getting the most out of what has been in place for a few seasons. The ever increasing performances in the class calls for stepping up in the engine department. "Yes, we need to take a realistic look at what we can afford for next year" says Jimmy, "it takes a good sized wallet to be competitive in these championships but right now we're very much enjoying what we accomplished this year."
All right, that's it for the 2011 FIA Pro Stock championship. Many thanks to all the fans for the great support you've given us during the year, see you next season.