It was a curious end of a so far good raceday at the Rico Anthes Quartermile of the HockenheimRing. With the finalists of the four classes of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship in the line-up and ready for their finals, the 39th NitrOlympX came to an early end. An oil down in one of the Sportman classes that was run short before the finals of the FIA classes caused such a long delay, that it would be impossible to run the Top Fuel, Top Methanol, Pro Modified and Pro Stock finals before the curfew of 6pm, the time after which it is strictly forbidden to make any noise on Sunday at the HockenheimRing. As a result the third round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship finished with finalists but no winners.

So far it had been a good day of racing for the drag race fans in the grandstands of the HockenheimRing, with many close runs and some major upsets.

In the semifinals of Top Fuel reigning FIA European champion Susanne Callin defeated her RF Motorsport teammate Colin Millar, winner of the race at Tierp Arena, two weeks ago. Both drivers had traction problems, but Callin recorded a winning 4.23 seconds.

In the other semifinal Øyvor Jacobsen pulled a huge red light, handing the win to number one qualifier Jndia Erbacher, who ran into problems and didn’t even cross the finish line. It was a pity the all-female final between the 2024 champion, Erbacher, and the reigning champion, Callin, was not run, as it would also have been interesting for the championship standing.

In Top Methanol the final would have been run between the number one qualifier, Tony Bryntesson, and his A-Fuel Team Sweden teammate Jonny Lagg, the number three from qualifying. Bryntesson had a bye run in the first round and another bye run in the semifinal as Isak Lagg, who defeated home favourite Silvio Strauch in the first round, suffered a severe engine damage on his first round win and was not able to come back for the semifinals.

On the other side of the elimination ladder Jonny Lagg, father of Isak Lagg, advanced to the semifinal after a win over Jürgen Nagel. In the semifinal Lagg had to face home favourite and the number two qualifier Timo Habermann. In a great and close run Habermann had the better reaction time, but Lagg defeated the German driver with 5.31 over 5.38 seconds to advance to the final.

In Pro Modified there were several upsets in the eliminations. In the first round all top qualifiers had no problems to win their run and advanced to the quarter finals. In the quarter finals number one qualifier Michel Tooren recorded another great 5.84 seconds to defeat his countryman Marck Harteveld, last year’s NitrOlympX winner. Because David Vegter ran into problems and was defeated by current championship leader Andres Arnover, the driver from Estonia was the next opponent for Tooren in the semifinals.

This time it was Tooren who suffered tyreshake and a broken blowerbelt and as a result the Pro Dutch Racing driver saw Arnover, who had traction problems as well, take the win in 6,37 seconds and advance to the final.

On the other side of the ladder Stian Rusånes had a bye run into the semifinals, were the driver from Norway had to face Jere Rantaniemi, the reigning FIA European champion. The driver from Finland, number three in qualifying, had recorded a great 5.80 seconds in the quarterfinals to beat Bruno Bader, but suffered some problems and saw Rusånes take the win in 5.88 seconds and advance to the final.

For Arnover and Rusånes a win in the final would have been very interesting for the points standing.

In Pro Stock the numbers one and two from qualifying, Jimmy Ålund and Robin Norén, advanced to the final. In the first round Ålund defeated Henry Riehl and although the 13-time champion had a bye run in the semifinals, the Swede recorded a great 6.59 seconds on his semifinal run. Norén advanced to the final after defeating Stefan Ernryd in the first round with a great 6.62 seconds and Michael Malmgren in the semifinals with 6.63 seconds.

The fourth and final round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship is the European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway in England, September 10-13.

Championship standings

For all results:

https://www.tw-sportsoft.de/NitrolympX_2026_488942/TW_ON_Virtueller_Aushang.php

For the photo gallery: https://dragracingeurope.org/hockenheim

Text and photos: Remco Scheelings