Malmö Raceway
You learn as long as you live!
This was our first time ever at Malmö Raceway with the Chevelle 65 and also the first time for me to take a car down the track there. We started our journey really early on Wednesday morning from Täby to Malmö so we could make some test runs in the evening, what a great attitude, have a test evening every Wednesday during the summer! I am thinking about moving to Malmö only because of that! 🙂 Anyway, we got to the track at about 3 in the afternoon, took the car out, warmed it up and where ready to hit the track. But for some reason it took long time to get the car approved (it was a lot of cars there) so we had some dinner and around 9:30 in the evening we got our first test pass. I didn’t do any changes to the car so it was exactly like it was tuned in Norway when I made my personal best (4.23 @ 1/8) but this time it was pretty cold outside and I just spun the tires and hit a shake when I released the clutch. 1.1 something to 60ft. After that we got some light rain, so they called the day… 🙁 But I was pretty happy anyway; it was really neat to drive the car when it was dark outside. I liked it a lot!
Thursday, was a free day for us. We did some small stuff to the car, drank some beer, eat good food and slept a lot.
Friday and race day finally! First round out we got some problem at the tree and then I just hit a shake and spun the tires again (1.098 to 60ft). Second run; the car worked pretty good but I was somewhere else metally because of some misunderstanding when we were about to get the car in to pre stage so I messed things up totally… But I managed to make a 1.038 to 60ft and 5.075 @ 1/8.
In the third run the car worked. Finally! And then it is a but, of course… When I got the car in to pre stage the fresh air bottle ran out so I got condensation on the inside of the visor and had a hard time to see the track. I made a 1.039 to 60ft and 4.412 @ 226km/h with the chutes out early and that put us as number 21 on the qualifying list so far.
Saturday. First round out the track was pretty cold and I just spun the tires and hit a shake 0.2sec out from the line… To the next run I put on some more power, the car worked to 0.7sec out from the line then a shake and spun the tires AGAIN…
Third run out on Saturday we did some changes to the clutch and the car worked again! 1.041 to 60ft and 4.686 @ 214km/h I held the throttle down for about 1.8sec and then of it because I got to close to the guard rail, pedal little and got loose in the rear and out with the chutes…
Then it was time for the last qualifying round, 33 doorslammer cars that all of them wanted to get below the bump spot that was 4.19 for the moment! In the second pair out it was a car that hit the guard rails and then on the roof and caught fire (but of course the driver walked away and where just fine). But because the clock was already about 7 in the evening and the track crew needed to repair the guardrail and clean the track they called it the day… Sad for us because I really wanted this last round to make a pass and get in to the ladder. But now it was over for us… 🙁
We ended up as number 24 qualifier with our 4.412 of 33 cars this weekend with only 2 decent runs of total 7. Way cool with a bump spot at 4.19! The first five cars qualified below 4 seconds and we saw a lot of low 3.9-runs in the elimination.
But it was a really good weekend anyway, they say that you learn as long as you live and that’s true! The more I try things on my car the more I learn about it and the stuff in it, it’s not easy at all to figure out how a car like this works and what it wants. And I do the most of it myself and I got way much to learn. I really don’t know what I am doing right now, just trying stuff…! 🙂
I would like to say a special thanks to:
Markus Ek – www.mek.nu – for being our photographer for the weekend.
Mathias Westman that was away from his work three days just to help me.
John Björkman for being away from his work and family again and helping me drive the bus.
John Johansen for helping out once again.
My mom, Yvonne Ädel that prepared all food for us.
Sara Sjödin my sister that served us food all weekend.
Åsa Larsson that helped my sister serving us food all weekend.
Max Hamrin for just being himself and help me.
Marcus Sjödin for driving 1300 kilometers for just be with us for the 60ft on Wednesday evening.
Åke Sjödin of course the world’s best dad.
Simon Arvidsson for being our outstanding camera guy.
And once again,
Lenn Lindell for borrowing me his old bus.
Björn Friström for borrowing me his trailer.
And because Mathias forced me, and that I am not satisfied at all with the performance from us at Malmö Raceway
I decided that we are going to Kjula Dragway for the last event there this year!
Pistonhead Slight Return here we come!
Yeah baby!!!! 🙂
/Andreas
Video
Photo gallery by Markus Ek (www.mek.nu)
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Live event posts
Home sweet home!
Going home!
Over for today…
Third round today.
Second run…
First run today.
Saturday morning.
Done with the racing for today!
Second run.
Qualification run 1.
First run soon!
Yeah! Race day tomorrow!!
Doing some small stuff on the car.
Thursday morning in Malmö.
A bit disappointed…
At Malmö Raceway and ready!
Checking out Ljungby.
We are now heading for Malmö Raceway!! 🙂
