Andy Carter- King of Europe

On Sunday September 7th 2008 Andy Carter in the Lucas Oil Top Fuel Dragster secured an unprecedented third FIA European Top Fuel title, aided by an incredible 4.90 number one qualifier, under difficult conditions.

The European Finals held at Santa Pod Raceway England, is always the FIA Championships season finale and has historically been the meeting where titles have been won and lost and traditionally in Top Fuel, the field has been very tight with a number of possible champions. This years event would see no less than 4 racers with a chance of winning the Fia Championship, including Andy Carter, Micke Kagered, Urs Erbacher and Lex Joon with Joon leading Carter by 5 points going into the meeting. Traditionally a four day event including a full supporting cast of sportsman racers, the incredibly bad weather meant that any track action would only take place on the Sunday, with the decision to race only the Fia pro classes as qualifying and elimination's had to be completed.

The pressure was really on all the teams who had one shot to go out and stamp their authority on the field and pick up extra points along the way. As the rain finally let up, Carter and Joon lined up together for their qualifying effort which saw both cars claim the numbers one and two spot, with Carter heading the field following an outstanding (driving job that included 2 peddles) 4.90-293mph blast!

Going into round 1 of eliminations, Andy would face Risto Poutiainen, fresh from a strong outing in Germany where he recorded new personal best numbers. With the track beginning to build some heat in the surface, a simply awesome 4.74/317mph run would see Risto back on the trailer and Andy into the second round. With Micke taking out Urs in their match-up, it would now only be one of three to take the title.Tommi Haapanen would be the opponent in the second round as Micke squared up with Lex Joon in the other pairing. As
Haapanen hit the loud pedal, he seemed to only creep away from the line, by which time Carter was gone!
A 5.05/237mph timing ticket highlighted that a chute had come out early, in fact it had come out at 400 feet and Andy had pulled it all the way! In the other match up, Micke's championship hopes were dashed as Lex Joon took the win light and the stage was set for the numbers one and two in the championship to go head-to-head for the title.

The rain has played its part in many key championship moments and it was once again the wet stuff that prevented the final from being fought out and with the points lead with Andy Carter at this stage the announcement that the meeting had been called was greeted by a huge cheer from our pit! Festivities continued long into the night as the team celebrated an incredible 3rd FIA European title in Top Fuel for Andy. The 09 aim now is back-to-back titles!

It has been a very tough year in many ways and we'd like to thank so many people for making this all possible, including all at Lucas Oils, all at Andersen Racing, all at Carter Motorsport and all our marketing partners,

www.lucasoil.co.uk
www.lucasoil.com
www.landmeco.dk
www.ngkntk.co.uk
www.binamic.co.uk
www.pioneerprint.co.uk
www.cranecams.com
www.knfilters.com
www.yuasa-battery.co.uk
www.bmrs.net
www.sigmasigns.com
Rainbow Conference Sets
www.3tcreative.com
www.norfolkline.com
www.rcscables.com
www.toolstars.co.uk
www.caar.co.uk
Jerrys
www.extremeactioncameras.com
www.aacint.com

We would also like to thank everyone at Santa Pod Raceway who fought against all the odds to make this race meeting happen and of course all our fans who cheered on every run that we made over the year, thank you for all for the kind words, e mails, texts and phone calls it really is appreciated! Anyone we have forgotten here, thank you! We couldn't have done any of it without you all!

Finally as the FIA tour retires for the winter, those still looking for one last whiff of nitro should be advised to put the 27th-28th September in their diaries where 6 fuel burning cars will battle it out in a 'Nitro Shootout'. The following is taken from an official Santa Pod press release:

A Nitro Shoot-Out including a spectacular night-time fuel session will now take place over the 2 day meeting comprising 6 Fuel cars - 3 Top Fuel Dragsters and 3 Fuel Funny Cars!
Keith Bartlett (Santa Pod CEO) said "The weather has been hard on everyone this season but our fans still deserve to see some top flight drag racing action. As a gesture of good will we've just confirmed a showcase of some of the best Top Fuel cars to appear at our next drag racing event on Sept 27/28th. This is event will still host the finals for the National Championships but adding this Nitro shootout will make for something really special! "

Dan Welberry
Carter Motorsport
www.lucasoil.co.uk
September 2008

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