Santa Pod Finals

Fifth and last round of the FIA European Championship 2011.

Danny's Racing Team was already on Wednesday on sight to do some testing before the last race of this season. Danny was able to complete 3 runs on testday and the results were satisfying. This gave the team a good base for the weekend. Everyone was a little worried about the weather forecast, but in the end we had a pretty sunny and warm couple of days.

On Friday the 8 car Top Methanol Funny Car field was out for the first qualifying sessions. Danny made two nice runs. First a 5,858 sec. / 240 mph, but after the finish one chute didn't came out and the other came off as the chute deployed. Luckely Danny managed to stop the car. In the second run Danny set a new sixty feet personal best of 0,96 and passed the finish after 5,797 sec. That placed us in top qualifying position after day one.

On Saturday we were hoping to improve our performances. But in the first run tiny spots of rain came down while Danny was staging the car. Still Danny had to go, but the track wasn't there because of the rain. 5,943 sec. and no improvement. The last qualifying round of the weekend was quite late on the day. When Danny left the line, one chute deployed and so Danny made a full pass with the chute out. Still a 6,74sec. I guess this must be a new record for a funny car going from start to finish with one chute out. Anyway the public loved it!

Earlier Ulf Leanders made a 5,65 sec. pass, so we ended up in the number 2 spot.

On Sunday we had to meet Jarmo Kuutniemi in the first elimination round. Jarmo was only 15 points before us in the points standings and the winner of this round would take third place in the championship. A 5,86 sec. for Danny to a 5,91 sec. for Jarmo, but Jarmo took the win with a huge holeshot. 0,01 for him to a 0,22 for Danny. This meant the end of the Finals for us and also the end of the season. We stay 4th in the championship, just like last year. However we are happy with the last race. We made four 5 second runs, which means we are getting more consistent and we nearly didn't damage any parts this year. We participated in 4 races of the Championship and we were 3 times qualified as the number 2. With all this in mind we begin the off season and start already planning the next season. But first things first and that's our Support BBQ on October 8th.

We would like to congratulate Ulf Leanders for winning the championship and Rob Turner for winning the Finals in Santa Pod.

And of course many thanks to our sponsors Iso-Mobil, Rico Tools, Marcover, Speedshop Belgium, Danny Cars and De Klussenier Nico Van Uytven and to our fans for their support.

See you in a couple of months at the track!!