You can view a documentary series about Adam's racing in the USA and in Europe at www.youtube.com/thecaravantube.

Tuesday 8th July: Two for six.

Quite a few things have happened since I wrote the last Blog. After talking to Norsk Dragracing Gardemoen they have now agreed to let us Pro Stock racers arrange a competition for our cars. This is really good news since we need as many runs as we can get (especially me and my team).

Speaking of runs, I just got back from Alsastaro in Finland. Luckily it didn't rain this time and the competition ran smoothly with a nice track crew and good pace.

Unfortunately our team did not do too well this weekend. We ended up in sixth qualifying place and a race against Magnus Hansson in the first round. Of the total six runs we made, we only managed to get down the track in two of them. A few individual mistakes were made but overall it's because we still have problems with the tracks in Europe.

Jimmy Ålund won the competition, and he was a well deserved winner. Looking at his and his team's performance this weekend it seems like they're heading towards their fifth European Championship title in a row.

In the elimination round against Magnus my time slip showed 0.92 at sixty feet and approximately 0.150 reaction time. This was obviously not correct, since the sixty foot time was probably more like 1.02 and the reaction time around 0.050. I thought it felt like I left the start line before Magnus, but when you have to let go after 150 metres it doesn't make much difference.

There are rumours of Pro Stock becoming a part of the TSDS Scandinavian Points next year, and that would be awesome as it's something most Pro Stock teams would take part in.

Saturday 5th July: Two cars for sale.

I have now put ads out for both of the cars, hoping I will get them sold before the season is over. I have talked things through with Jeff Hurst, owner of Hurst Boiler and Welding company in Georgia, and he is willing to sponsor us again if we decide to go to the US this winter. If I don't manage to sell the Pro Stock car, it's not the end of the world, but a trip to the US would be pretty sweet.

When it comes to the Pro Street car and the Scandinavian Points Cup I am doubting that we will manage to get a top score, as we didn't get any points in Sundsvall since our qualifying run was too fast. The plan was to go to the competition in Piteå (which we're probably still going to) but I am bit reluctant to spend so much time and money on it. I have a hard time "feeling" how fast I am going with the Firebird. The 7.51 run in Sundsvall felt like a 8.5 to me. The car is easy to drive and with the Powerglide you sort of just sit back and enjoy the ride. With the GTO it's different, as it's action from start to finish. You change gears four times in about four seconds and leave the start line with a one second sixty foot time. But I think we've found the right settings to run 7.60-times with the Firebird.

Wednesday 2nd July: A Pro Stock racer breaks out.

The council in my hometown is changing all the water pipes in my area, which means that I can't store the bus on my driveway. I now have to keep both the cars and the bus in my storage in Vellinge, and it's pretty tight! The best part is that they are not going to be done with the work until October!

We recently raced with the Firebird in Sundsvall. I haven't driven it that much before and I was a bit unsure how fast it would go down the quarter mile track. When we were down at the track in Malmö a couple of weeks ago I made a pass with 125 hp nitrous oxide and managed to get a 4.88 time. According to my calculations that would mean a 7.61 run on this track. To be on the safe side I reduced the effect a bit by raising the pressure on the fuel injection.

After spending a few hours repairing my Pro-Jacks it was time to make our first pass. It didn't feel like a particularly fast run but the time was 7.51/291 kmh, which meant that I had been driving too fast as the class breakout is at 7.60.

It would soon become evident that this would be the only chance to qualify that day. I like going to Sundsvall and the Club there consists of a bunch of nice guys like Nykan and Tommy, but in my opinion there are way too many teams, classes and set times. I know it's difficult to know beforehand how these things will turn out, but I hope they'll try to plan it a bit better next time.

On the Sunday it rained and there is nothing you can do about that. What you can do something about though is keeping track of your car. To mess up the track three times in two qualifying runs must be some sort of record. When we finally got the chance to make a second qualifying run and were waiting in line at the track with heavy rain clouds above us this certain Corvette driver managed to mess up the track, so that a forty five minute clean-up was necessary. When they finally were done cleaning the track up, our class was crossed off the list.

Finland is coming up soon and there is a lot of work to be done on the GTO. I have the engine back at the workshop and am thinking about maybe disassembling it and look it over. We're also going to put an air bleed-off kit on the bumpers at the back since the track in Finland is quite rough.

I plan to go back to the USA this winter to do some test runs with the car (it doesn't rain as much there). If this is actually going to happen I have to sell the GTO and buy Justin Humphreys' '08 GXP, but a lot of thing needs to fall in place if this is going to be possible, such as sponsorship.

Wednesday 25th June 2008: Sorting the set-up.

With the European Championships in full swing, we recently got back from Santa Pod in the UK, where we competed in Pro Stock. Since this is only our second year in Pro Stock, we've had to put effort into getting some experience quite quickly.

During last winter we went to the US three times. The first time, September '07, we picked up the GTO. After a buying a new motor from Steve Schmidt we did test runs, first in Outer Banks, South Carolina, then Budds Creek, Maryland and last in Richmond, Virginia. After that, we left the car at Kevin and Chester Houghtalin's, and we went home. On the next trip to the US, I went by myself. I met Kevin and his father Chester in Indianapolis. There we spent three days with Steve Schmidt himself, to make updates on the engine. We got even more out of it than I expected - 1425 hp.

The next trip was in March 2008. This time we were going to do test runs in Valdosta and then try to qualify at the Gatornationals. The whole team came again and it was also first time the film crew travelled with us. I didn't really have any expectations of qualifying, but we made some good runs and learnt a lot. In Valdosta I managed to do a 6.69 run, which was one of my goals with the trip, so overall I was very pleased. Another big reason for going to USA this time was to learn more about Pro Stock and to prepare for the European Championships. We got some great help and advice from Steve Schmidt, Justin Humphreys and Gary Chomiski, together with a bunch of other people there as well.

When we got back I took a break from Pro Stock for a little while and focused on work and my family. I also worked some on my other car, a Firebird, in which I will compete in Pro Street this season. Pro Street is a local class here in Scandinavia and which has a break-out of 7.60 seconds.

In the meantime I had some problems organizing the shipping of the GTO from the USA to Europe. There were no containers available, and for a while I was worried that the car wouldn't get here in time for the start of the season. Fortunately my friend Kent Trennaman managed to help me to find an available container and the car arrived in Sweden just in time for the first Test'n'Tune of the season, at Meca Raceway in my home town of Malmö. This was an important weekend, as we needed to do runs with the new motor after converting it to the European fuel regulations. We were still waiting for new parts for the motor from the US, but managed to get the wrong stuff sent to us. After a lot of hassle with delayed deliveries, we finally got the parts and assembled the motor late on Friday evening. We drove it straight down to the track and mounted it in the car that same night. Very tight, but that's how they do it in the US.

The test session at Meca did not go as I had hoped. We had some problems with the chassis and in some gears the car was shaking a lot. We only had time to do two runs and I felt a bit worried about going to Santa Pod, not having solved the problem first. It didn't help that I was swamped at work and couldn't make it to Podington the day before the race to do test runs.

Since we had been in the States earlier this year and made more runs there than we would do during the whole season in Europe, we had set the car up according the tracks in the US. It now became evident to us that this set-up wasn't working the way we wanted to on the tracks in Europe. All the tracks in the US are mostly made of concrete, which makes them smoother and therefore can take a much harder set-up on the car. We tried to adjust this, but not knowing exactly at which end to start. Everything we did seemed to have an opposite effect.

Because of bad weather, there were only two qualifying runs and no race at Santa Pod. We really would have needed more runs there, as we had the same problem with the car as in Malmö. It started shaking uncontrollably in third gear and I had to let go on the second run. None of our terminal speeds were anywhere near what I had hoped for. This was very frustrating, as I know the car has so much more in it.

The next weekend we tested again here in Malmö and managed to do a couple of good runs. I now think we've fixed the problem and I'm really looking forward to doing some good passes at the Nitro Nationals in Finland at beginning of July. I know that both the team and the car are capable of it.

Thursday 11th June 2008: An introduction.

I thought I'd start a Blog about my hobby and part time work, drag racing.

I have been racing for about fifteen years with different cars in different classes, but the goal was always to compete in Pro Stock, which I have now achieved...

It was around 1998 when we decided to really try and become more serious about racing and we started the Glueharbor Dragracing Team. At the beginning we were competing in the Super Small Block class and managed to do quite well. To get closer to competing in the Pro Stock class we bought a new car to be able to up the game in Competition Eliminator. After a few more years we finally ended up in the class we'd been wanting to compete in all along: Pro Stock. We've got a tight team made up of:

Myself, Adam Flamholc: 36 years old. Part owner of Malmö Motorrenovering, Motorenova and I am also run a trucking company in Malmö. I'm the one driving the Pro Stock car and also in charge of the engine.

Michael Carlsson: 45 years old, part owner of Malmö Motorrenovering and Motorenova. Great knowledge in engines, both technically and theoretically. Always eager to learn more. Micke is the one in charge of the clutch on the Pro Stock car. Micke and I have been good friends since the beginning of the 1990s.

Fredrik Akesson: 36 years old and working as a top class metalworker. "Ake" and I have known each other for thirty years. We went to school together and Ake has been there since my first day of racing. Back in the 1990s we hung aroung the docks in Malmö at night time where the kids used to race. Ake is in charge of the rear end of the car.

Robert Broden: 90 years old (OK, 40 years old) "Robban" works with computer programming, which is something he enjoys a lot . Robban and I are cousins, which means we've pretty much known each other all our lives. Robban is incredibly analytical and likes to ponder over things. Robban is in charge of the electric and computer related stuff with the Pro Stock car.

Johan Pripp: 42 years old. Johan owns his own motor company in Motala (JPR). Johan had his own career as a driver. He competed in the Super Comp class for many years and finished off with a season in Competition Eliminator. We got to know each other a few years ago. When we found out that Johan wasn't competing anymore we persuaded him to join our Pro Stock team (which wasn't too hard). Johan always keeps a cool head, which is good as it can get quite hectic out on the track. On the Pro Stock car, Johan is in charge of the transmission and the motor.

This is the "core team" that work together on all the competitions. My father Peter Flamholc usually tags along too. He doesn't really have a specific task, but mainly helps out by making coffee, looking after my kids etc etc. Also, Petri Nagy (Karlstads Bilforsaljning AB), who is a good friend of mine, is usually around to give advice and thoughts on the car and that kind of stuff.

In the last few years we have had two Americans join our team: Kevin and Chester Houghtaling, but more about them later.

For the last couple of months Caravan Film have been filming our team, cutting together short episodes which can be seen on YouTube. The filming started on our last trip to the US where we raced at the Gatornationals and they will continue to film us during the European Championships this year. All of the episodes can be found at www.youtube.com/thecaravantube.