Tierp drag strip

[robc3303]

"More rounds is surely a positive, shows expansion and growth in European drag racing, and a bigger series promotes more competition, a better championship and ultimately those things can attract better coverage and more sponsorship."

Edited by MotorPsycho on Thursday 28th October 17:37

[/quote]

I agree and hope this is the future for FIA European Drag Racing, wether it will be who knows ? However, I see this as a positive and to be fair I think everyone is excited about a new purpose built, high specification facility in Europe. I have never been to another Euro FIA event but would be tempted to visit Tierp (as a spectator) if it proves to be as good as the plans look and becomes a fully supported date on the championship calender.

BUT at the moment this does not seem to be the contentious issue. What is causing concern seems to be the usual and pragmatic problems that come with change and development. British / European drag racing has evolved slowly and has had lots of ups and downs on its journey so far. No need to go into detail on that, see "Crazy Horses" by Brian Taylor for that ! But the major single success IMO over the last decade or so has been the successful development of the FIA championship.

Dates, schedules, financing, points systems (good observation "Burndown") etc. will all have to evolve with the growth in the sport. Its in nobody's interest to alienate or put off racers when we need them more than ever if there is going to be more rounds to attend. Careful planning and co-operation across Europe between all involved surely is what is required. I'm sure people are working very hard behind the scenes and I know KB has always voiced his desire for expansion of the European rounds. If it happens, I'm sure the programme notes at the 2011 Main Event will be expressing excitement at a move to 6 rounds (7 for bikes of course). Lets hope by then arrangements are in place to assist / encourage / as many teams as possible to attend.

Maybe problems that arise in 2011 will be the pre cursor to a better planned 6 (7) round series in 2012 ?

[Tet]

MotorPsycho said:

I can't believe people are complaining about another round when most people also complain about lack of track time??! More rounds is surely a positive

Yes. But if it's to be another FIA round (and I say if -- there's nothing about it on the FIA web site yet), then I think that fact needed to be communicated further in advance. I know we're already planning my girlfriend's business commitments around the racing calendar for 2011 (and even into 2012), and I'm just a sportsman racer. The pro classes have much more of a logistical nightmare, and I know I'd want more than 7 months notice. I don't think too many would complain too much if there's an FIA round at Tierp in 2012, particularly if it's moved to, say, the weekend before Alastaro.

[wicked fish]

Tet said:

MotorPsycho said:

I can't believe people are complaining about another round when most people also complain about lack of track time??! More rounds is surely a positive

Yes. But if it's to be another FIA round (and I say if -- there's nothing about it on the FIA web site yet), then I think that fact needed to be communicated further in advance. I know we're already planning my girlfriend's business commitments around the racing calendar for 2011 (and even into 2012), and I'm just a sportsman racer. The pro classes have much more of a logistical nightmare, and I know I'd want more than 7 months notice. I don't think too many would complain too much if there's an FIA round at Tierp in 2012, particularly if it's moved to, say, the weekend before Alastaro.

I am the last person to complain about a new track FIA or not my gripe right now is the planning of dates and that is not just pointed at tierp motorpark, santa pod is just as much to blame for the summer nats date balls up, the way it is makes it impossible to do the first two fia rounds if we want to support out domestic rounds,
we could all just fk off to sweden /finland ect and desert out home track, how would you like that?

as i said i will enter my two cars in super pro at shakespeare county raceway to get tracktime, it dosnt bother me,

in fact realy there is nothing to gain by going on with this any further, you know my view and my complaints
i made my decision and that stands unless something drastic happens, ie santa pod change dates or something like that, i wont hold my breath,

[Tierp Patrik]

Hi again.
Sometime during today the right lane is going to be finished, and the work with the left lane will continue the coming week.

One personal comment about some of yours concerns regarding dates for the races and economics running a racing team...
Just the fact that someone is willing to invest close to 5'000'000 pounds in the first step in this multi arena project, need to be all positive for the sport. Tierp Arena is totally unique in Europe and will change European drag racing for ever. This will of course lead to that dates need to be changed, both national and international. This will in the long run, when hopefully other investments will follow, also lead to a change in how a team is governed.
I honestly think that drag racing has a really bright future, and with hard work we could reach levels much much higher than today. We will probably not reach the popularity of F1, but if we reach halfway And to reach higher there has to be more really great events. In the future maybe 10-12 events in the European Championship... We also need to create the heroes that make fans spend money, buy merchandise, drink bears, eat food and so on. And you Wicked Fish is one of the guys that for sure could be one of these heroes.

[wicked fish]

Tierp Patrik said:

Hi again.
Sometime during today the right lane is going to be finished, and the work with the left lane will continue the coming week.

One personal comment about some of yours concerns regarding dates for the races and economics running a racing team...
Just the fact that someone is willing to invest close to 5'000'000 pounds in the first step in this multi arena project, need to be all positive for the sport. Tierp Arena is totally unique in Europe and will change European drag racing for ever. This will of course lead to that dates need to be changed, both national and international. This will in the long run, when hopefully other investments will follow, also lead to a change in how a team is governed.
I honestly think that drag racing has a really bright future, and with hard work we could reach levels much much higher than today. We will probably not reach the popularity of F1, but if we reach halfway And to reach higher there has to be more really great events. In the future maybe 10-12 events in the European Championship... We also need to create the heroes that make fans spend money, buy merchandise, drink bears, eat food and so on. And you Wicked Fish is one of the guys that for sure could be one of these heroes.

Patrik this is not a dig at you or the track,
this is simply me pissed off because the date for your race and the date for the santa pod race have affected my years racing, if i miss two fia events there is absolulty no point in doing the rest,

Do you understand that i must support our MSA event at santa pod???

Im sure in the future things will be worked out, and as i also said im sure that track will be an asset to european drag racing,

but right here and now iv had to tell my team that we will not be contesting the fia rounds in europe next year so they can arrange their annual hollidays ect,

as i also said that is more to do with santa pod changing their dates than anything to do with Tierp motorpark,
all your event does for me is mean i miss two rather than one event,

on another note the superbird is loaded ready to be transported to ICE atomotive tommorow morning for the turbo system to be fitted to the BAE hemi (another reason i cant miss santa pod rounds) as we will use these to develop the car,

Ok as Devils advocat

tell me this,suppose we end up with a 10 round fia championship,
how do you see racers managing to do this many rounds, how do you see the average racer funding the tour, Or will it no longer be for the avarage racer, will it be for a super elite group of racers that have managed to get corperate sponsorship to pay for this??
and the avarage racers just swim around feeding off the leftovers

your a prety smart media guy how do you see it??


if you prefer to answer privatly [e-mail]

Edited by wicked fish on Friday 29th October 11:18

[MotorPsycho]

Double edged sword, without more exposure and expanded racing series the corporate support won't be forth coming. Without the corporate support it's a very valid point that many racers can't afford the larger series.

Also, think of all the Scandinavian's who can't afford to come and race at the Pod twice a year and plenty of Brit's who can't do Finland and Sweden, there's always going to be a band of racers who can do the whole tour and those who can't.

[Tierp Patrik]

wicked fish said:

Patrik this is not a dig at you or the track,
this is simply me pissed off because the date for your race and the date for the santa pod race have affected my years racing, if i miss two fia events there is absolulty no point in doing the rest,
Do you understand that i must support our MSA event at santa pod???

It's ok. I didn't take it as something against us. I just wanted to give my vision of the future. It's an interesting and worrying question.
It's further fully understandable if you'd like to support MSA. My hopes and thought is that the dates should be adjusted to fit the reality. But I think that now in the beginning of the process of changing that dates will collide and probably make quite some mess for allot of racers.

wicked fish said:

Im sure in the future things will be worked out, and as i also said im sure that track will be an asset to european drag racing,
but right here and now iv had to tell my team that we will not be contesting the fia rounds in europe next year so they can arrange their annual hollidays ect,
as i also said that is more to do with santa pod changing their dates than anything to do with Tierp motorpark,
all your event does for me is mean i miss two rather than one event,

I can't say anything else than it will be a shame if we won't be able to see you guys the coming season. So there is no way you can make it? If it's of any help, we will have safe room to park and work on cars and trailers at the arena.

wicked fish said:

on another note the superbird is loaded ready to be transported to ICE atomotive tommorow morning for the turbo system to be fitted to the BAE hemi (another reason i cant miss santa pod rounds) as we will use these to develop the car,

First of all, it's to bad that European teams have to use races to sort out our cars. But hopefully if the development of the sport will give us more and better tracks and arenas, we could be able to test and tune without the pressure of competing at the same time.

wicked fish said:

tell me this,suppose we end up with a 10 round fia championship,
how do you see racers managing to do this many rounds, how do you see the average racer funding the tour, Or will it no longer be for the avarage racer, will it be for a super elite group of racers that have managed to get corperate sponsorship to pay for this??
and the avarage racers just swim around feeding off the leftovers
your a prety smart media guy how do you see it??

Maybe I'm to positive here. And if so it's probably because of the excitement over everything that's is going on around me right now, with the arena and all. I'm not very familiar with how it works in UK with MSA and so on. But here in Sweden we have the pro mod-like class Top Doorslammer. No team in Sweden even tries to do full seasons in both the national TD and the European PM. They have to choose. And no one that I know in TD see their racing as feeding of the leftovers. They give a fantastic show every time and the spectators fills the stands every time they race.
I think that the sport need racing in different levels. National, European, and in a future even worldwide. In five years we maybe have about 35-40 active teams in TD nationally in Sweden. Additionally about 6-8 go for the full PM European Championship, and 1-2 for the world tour. The higher the more money it will cost, and the teams will have to choose witch level to race at. The higher the team wishes to race, the more the team need to give back to the sponsors.
I guess the answer is that I don't see it being possible for a non sponsored team to be able to race the whole 10 race championship in Europe. But is that a reason to not work and fight for the sport to develop and grow? At the same time as the sport grows i'm sure that it will be easier for a team to get sponsors, and I don't se why allot of these teams shouldn't come from UK.

[wicked fish]

Good answer Patrik
the only downside to your answers is the bit about you dont see why a lot of the cars shouldnt be from the UK,

I guess you know this already but the UK is the home of world wide F1 most of the cars are built here most of the teams are located here most of the F1 technology is British technology,

that is not the case in your, or many other countries, so a major motorsport is looked on as something spectacular and you only have to look round the pro pits to see that most of the heavily sponsored teams are Swedish with Swedish sponsors,

Unfortunatly we have to go head to head with F1, Standards are judged by F1,
The british racing pedigree is going round corners, Drag racing is looked upon as a cheap nasty american
sport,
read quote from a post further up regarding Bernie Eccleston, he is the owner of F1



"He knows alright, it was he (when CEO of Brabham) who said that if Dennis Priddle did a burnout at Silverstone at an F1 event he would load up his race cars and get the rest of the paddock to do likewise"

Nice Vision Patrik
I hope there is some small chance of some reality attatched

Edited by wicked fish on Friday 29th October 13:40

[Tierp Patrik]

wicked fish said:

Unfortunatly we have to go head to head with F1, Standards are judged by F1,
The british racing pedigree is going round corners, Drag racing is looked upon as a cheap nasty american
sport,

This makes sad sense... F1 is hard to compete with. Hopefully UK drag racers can gain allot if other european countries manages to step forward. I'll get back to you when I have the solution on this!

[wicked fish]

Tierp Patrik said:

wicked fish said:

Unfortunatly we have to go head to head with F1, Standards are judged by F1,
The british racing pedigree is going round corners, Drag racing is looked upon as a cheap nasty american
sport,

This makes sad sense... F1 is hard to compete with. Hopefully UK drag racers can gain allot if other european countries manages to step forward. I'll get back to you when I have the solution on this!

Ok Patrik ill wait on your solution
maybe changing my name and moving to Sweden is the answer

[Tierp Patrik]

wicked fish said:

Tierp Patrik said:

wicked fish said:

Unfortunatly we have to go head to head with F1, Standards are judged by F1,
The british racing pedigree is going round corners, Drag racing is looked upon as a cheap nasty american
sport,

This makes sad sense... F1 is hard to compete with. Hopefully UK drag racers can gain allot if other european countries manages to step forward. I'll get back to you when I have the solution on this!

Ok Patrik ill wait on your solution
maybe changing my name and moving to Sweden is the answer

You're always ahead of me! Yes move over here!

[Tierp Patrik]

Here is a preview of the outside of the Tierp Arena.


A view from inside. Can you hear the Top Fuelers roar? ;-)

[wicked fish]

looking good...and ill miss it ...Damn

no houses for sale near there...i checked

in fact there dont seem to be many houses for sale in sweden at all !!!

[Rat_Fink_67]

Looks like Bristol or one of the other big American tracks, impressive.

[BennettRacing]

Looks cracking...really professional

[robc3303]

Setting a new standard. Exciting prospect.

[Taximan]

More talk about Tierp drag strip and its FIA status on www.nitroz.se
Click on webb-TV and then see the Motorsoffan #41 movie, in English from 08:15 sec

[wicked fish]

I was at tierp today
Looks like there is plenty of space available
Easy to get to as well. 5 mins from the motorway
Looks prety covered in snow

[Tierp Patrik]

Hi.
Here is a more detailed digital view over the arena.
There is really cold and allot of snow at the arena right now, but the work still goes on.

[robc3303]

Thanks Patrick. Looks superb.

Will the facility offer a site for camping during a large racing event ?

Thanks

Rob