Santa Pod (England), September 9, 2013 - A great comeback for MPM-driver David Vegter at Santa Pod after his bad luck in Sweden two weeks ago. In the last race of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship the Vegter Pro Mod Racing-driver was the great number six in qualifying and impressed even more in eliminations with a semi-final finish. With 6.06 seconds the MPM-driver saved his best run of the weekend for the semi-final, to fall only 0.02 seconds short to advance to the final. "At that moment that was the best we could do. Unfortunately it was enough", said Vegter, who ended up as the number five in the FIA European Pro Modified Championship 2013.
After the engine damage the Camaro suffered at the race in Sweden, Vegter Pro Mod Racing had to work around the clock to get the '67 MPM Camaro ready in time for the European Finals, the last race of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship at Santa Pod Raceway. MPM-driver David Vegter wasn’t only looking for a good result in that last race of the year, but also wanted to do everything he could to stay in the well-deserved number five position in the championship.
The first qualification run immediately proved Vegter Pro Mod Racing did an excellent job. With a great 6.18 seconds the MPM-driver was second in the 17 car field. With this excellent run the team knew there was more to come and tried to find the set-up to run even faster. But the MPM Camaro was hit by tyre shake in the next three runs and although 6.20, 6.57 and 6.25 seconds were not bad at all, it was of course not what Vegter was looking for. So Saturday night was spent to try and find a better set-up for the difficult and changing track conditions of Santa Pod.
Because other drivers did improve their positions, Vegter was the number six qualifier and had to face Wayne Nicholson in the first round of eliminations. But the Englishman was hit by problems in the burn out and so Vegter had a bye run into the quarter finals, where Mattias Wulcan, the number two in the FIA European Championship, was his next opponent. But the Swede pulled a red light and so de MPM-driver had a walkover into the semi-finals. As the MPM-team still had problems with tyre shake, they changed the set-up for the semi-final run against Bader dramatically. De Swiss driver made consistent 6.05 seconds runs in the previous rounds, so it was 'all or nothing' for Vegter. And it almost was 'all'. In a great side-by-side run Vegter's time was 6.06 seconds. At the right moment by far his best run of the weekend and only 0.01 seconds away from his personal best. But still, it wasn't enough, as Bader improved to 6.04 seconds, a new personal best for the Swiss racer who crossed the finish line with an advantage of 0.02 seconds only. "We did our very best and this set-up was good, but it wasn't enough. It was so close, even Bader didn't know who was the winner", said Vegter. Of course the MPM-driver was disappointed he wasn't in the final, on the other hand it was a good feeling the changes they made worked out. "If we had found this set-up in qualifying, we would have had something to work from and could have been faster in the semi-final. But that's 'if'."
With his semi-final finish Vegter is the number five in the FIA European Pro Modified Championship. A great result after the team could hardly score any points in Sweden after the engine damage in qualifying. Oncoming winter the MPM '67 Camaro will be checked completely and get new parts were needed to be in 100% perfect condition when the new season starts May 2014.
- Author
- Remco Scheelings
David Vegter Dragracing FIA European Championship FIA European Finals Main event MPM Racing MPM Sports Pro mod Santa Pod
