Sat, 07 Jul 2018, 16:05 PM A Historic Two for Two

Courtesy of Par Willen

Norrköping, Sweden -- Jimmy Ålund entered the third race of the FIA drag racing season in two classes again this last weekend. The venue was Alastaro Motopark in Finland and the race and the event was concluded under good weather and good track conditions

FIA Pro Mod. Due to rain delay on the Friday, there were only three qualifying runs. Ålund drove Magnus Peterssons The Old 51 Chevrolet Business Coupe to the #1 spot but it wasn't pretty. The Old 51 only made it to the finish line twice and only once under full power. Ålund, "we had issues with the shut-off box and tire shake but got that one 6.86-second run in and it was enough for the top spot".

Sunday's eliminations turned out a lot better. Ålund won round #1 with the 2nd quickest ET of the round and continued to the semifinals care of a bye run. The semifinals was won with the quickest ET of that round and in the bottom half of the ladder, reigning FIA Pro Mod champion Micke Gullqvist did his job to get to the final against Ålund.

Ålund left hard while Gullqvist ran into problems, The Old 51 winning with a 5.92 against Gullqvists 6.55 seconds. "This is great, the team overcame some less than perfect qualifying rounds and we took it all the way and won the last event here at Alastaro" says Ålund.

The win at Alastaro has Ålund extending his points lead in the 2018 FIA Pro Mod championship.

FIA Pro Stock, history in the making. Ålund pulled off the worst qualifying rounds of his career. The Summit Racing Camaro never made it to the finish line under full power, not once. Ålund qualified last. With the slowest ET ever for an FIA Pro Stock car, a somewhat less than stellar 19.08 seconds. "There are firsts for everything", says Ålund, "at least we came in under 20 seconds but to add insult to injury, the hopped up exhibition combine harvester had us covered by more than 3 seconds in its exhibition runs".

"We went through the whole car, everything" continues Ålund, "and concluded that the problem was in the tires. We had tested all the pairs of tires we brought along but no go. Then fellow racer Michael Malmgren stepped up and let us have one of his sets of tires for Sunday's eliminations. We can't thank Michael enough for his generosity, it paid off well".

It was a slightly worried Ålund in the pits on Sunday morning before eliminations. "Sure, we wouldn't know if the problem was solved until we got to the 60 footer in the quarter finals".

Eliminations turned out totally different than qualifying. The car and tires worked perfectly. Ålund won the quarters and semifinals running the quickest ETs and fastest speeds in both rounds. And like in Pro Mod, Ålund went up against the reigning class champion in the finals, Bengt Ljungdahl. Again, Ålund did his job one last time this weekend and won the FIA Pro Stock class at Alastaro.

History of course, this is the first time ever that one driver has won both FIA Pro Mod and FIA Pro Stock the same afternoon. "Unbelievable" says Ålund, "to say that we struggled in qualifying would be the understatement of the century. But like the saying goes, 'it ain't over 'til it's over' and Sunday turned out just perfect for both the Old 51 Pro Mod Car and the Summit Racing Pro Stock Camaro".

The next event for Jimmy Ålund is FIA Pro Mod at the NitrOlympX at the Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, Germany. Ålund leaves the Pro Stock car at home for that race and will fire up The Old 51 for the first round of qualifying on Friday morning, August 17. Ålund, "as always, we can't wait to get there and put more rounds in the car in front of the record crowd that is the trademark of the NitrOlympx".

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