Euro Finals ’19

Drag racing

September already and the drag racing season is drawing to a close.  What better way to wrap up the European series than with one of the best, if not the best, meetings I have ever seen.  The weather conditions on Saturday and Sunday were perfect and to reflect this the number of records and personal bests broken was unreal!  In qualifying on Saturday, which I watched via live feed, the Top Fuel Bike world record came within 1/100th of a second of falling not once but twice as ‘Fast Fil’ from Greece ran two 5.66 sec passes.  The European Top Fuel E.T record was lowered to 3.806 by Norway’s Maja Udtain.  And the Pro Mods just keep on getting quicker.

Race Day on Sunday and it’s a different mindset.  Now is the time to get to the other end of the 1/4 mile first yet still the times were phenomenal.  Apart from 2019 champ Anita Makela the Top Fuel cars struggled to get the power down and several very expensive engines went bang.  With few major clean-ups the day flew by.  Roll on next season.  As usual there are more images and results on my HOME page https://blhphotoblog.wordpress.com/portfolio/drag-racing-2019/

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The queen of drag racing Anita Makela of Finland leaves the line in Top Fuel final and wins with a 3.850 297mph run which would have been quicker if the engine had not let go before the stripe!
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The nitro burning Super Twins have a unique method of steering as the front wheel stays up for almost the whole 1/4 mile! This is Christian Jaeger from Germany on ‘Juntes One’
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Robin Noren of Sweden wins Pro Stock beating champion Jimmy Alund on a holeshot. A holeshot is where the elapsed time is slower but the reaction time to the starting lights quicker
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The quickest and fastest bike over the 1/4 mile in the world. This is Eric Teboul known as ‘The crazy Frenchman’ on his rocket powered missile running a 5.321 @ 262mph demonstration. The 1/2 mile shutdown area is only just long enough!

30 thoughts on “Euro Finals ’19”

    1. Yes I pan and for this meet I lowered the shutter speed more than normal to get more motion blur. It is tricky and a lot of shots are crap. I use a high burst and can get three shots by the time they go past. The hardest part is how close to zoom, obviously as they get closer (very quickly) you can end up with a bit missing so I keep it mostly a bit wider and crop.

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    1. Balls of steel them riders! When I was a young bike hooligan I would race on the street and my bike would do a 1/4 in about 14 secs at 100mph and that was scary!
      Depends what part goes bang B. If it’s a supercharger they are strapped down so can’t in theory fly (they used to!). If it’s a rod or crank then it can get messy, most of the oil is contained but obviously some will spill, with the cleaning equipment they have it can usually be cleared up in 10 – 15 mins. A new block is about 25k!

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      1. 25K whoa so those bangs can impact the pocket book big time. Seems like they have the safety elements considered – I had visions of small engine parts being ejected toward all the track workers and potentially those in the stands – we had a monster truck event a few years back that threw some heavy parts into the stands which inflicted some serious injuries.

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      2. It’s been said if you want to make a $million in drag racing you start with $2 million! One run in Top Fuel costs $5k without any breakages $570 of that is for 17 gallons of nitromethane.
        Several years ago a spectator was killed here at the Pod when he was hit by a bit of transmission which was down to negligence, it’s a very rare event thankfully.

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    1. It was a fantastic day Kim. When you practice panning next year be prepared to delete many, many shots (thank goodness for digi cameras) I would suggest 1/125th for good blur but remember to keep panning when you press the shutter and after.

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    1. Thank you Michael. Drag racing, basically two vehicles race from a standing start over a 1/4 mile. There are several classes that have different rules but it’s the worlds fastest, noisiest and most powerful motor sport and I love it! (as you probably realise 😄)

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      1. People drop off the grid so easily in Cyberspace. I reckon it’s also important to give someone your password just in case you bugger off and join the choir invisible.

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