Alastaro (Finland), July 8, 2014 – The second round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship turned out as one big disillusion for MPM-driver Marc Meihuizen. The Alastaro track was so slippery and tricky, almost all drivers had to abort most of their runs. And as the driver of the 3,000 bhp ’68 MPM Firebird, one of the most powerful cars in Pro Mod, Meihuizen had these problems too. Santa Pod’s number one qualifier and leader in the Pro Modified championship was ninth qualifier at Alastaro and outside the ladder. The MPM-driver was furious about this lottery. “This is ridiculous! All teams do their very best to bring their cars up to the highest standards and then you have to race on these tracks. There was no traction and we were lucky no accidents happened. A big shame and FIA officials should have intervened. This is unacceptable!”
After his strong outing at Santa Pod and his win at the Nitro Nationals last year, MPM-driver Marc Meihuizen travelled to Finland with high expectations and as the leader in the European Pro Modified Championship. A few weeks ago the Finnish track was repaved but to make a track a real good sticky dragstrip you need races or long and intense track preparation, otherwise the track can’t handle the immense power of the FIA European Championship cars. But at Alastaro both were not the case. The new asphalt had no traction at all and so almost all runs went ‘up in smoke’ or cars went sideways and the drivers had to abort their runs. Meihuizen, with 5.9 sec. the number one qualifier at Santa Pod, had these problems too and could not do any better after four runs than 7.2 sec. while Mattias Wulcan’s Pro Mod unworthy 6.25 was good enough for ‘poleposition’. But even worse for Meihuizen; he was ninth qualifier and outside the elimination ladder.
The MPM-driver was loud and clear in what he thought about this whole situation. “It’s a big shame and ridiculous. We took out all the power, ran low rpm, hardly any clutch and ignition and still we had wheel spin immediately after the start line. Even in second gear I had wheel spin and felt the car going sideways at 200 kmh. In the burn out it was already impossible to keep the car in a straight line. Zero traction. We did our very best, but this was a mission impossible. All teams invest a lot of time and money to take the sport to the next level and then we have to deal with these conditions. Unbelievable! And unacceptable the FIA observers did nothing and didn’t intervene. What is their added value for our sport? How can we explain this to our sponsors? In one race my championship aspirations are reduced to zero. It’s one big disillusion. The only good thing is, we didn’t damage any parts, but we were lucky no accidents happened”, said Meihuizen, very disappointed in everybody involved, from race organization to track crew and FIA.
Although Meihuizen doesn’t want to think about it right now, the next race of the FIA European Championship will be August 8-10 at the German Hockenheimring.
- Author
- Remco Scheelings
Alastaro Dragracing FIA European Championship Main event Marc Meihuizen MPM Racing MPM Sports Pro mod
