Mr Whippy and Kalanc Racing Team take Europe by storm

Last year Joe Carabott owner of Mr Whippy Racing team and Monty Bugeja (driver) with their team started to work hard on the Dragster, Engine and container to get prepared and compete in the 2011 FIA Main Event. This was a very hard year since they had to start from scratch, although they had a very good experience in 2000 and 2001 when they first competed in Europe placing 2nd. Last year they decided to only compete in May and September 2011 to get comfortable the new Dragster and Engine capability. After only doing one race Monty Bugeja managed to race the car to the finish line in only 5.500 at 263 MPH.

This year Joe Carabott decided to take this to a larger step and do the whole league. This includes 6 events around Europe. England, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Sweden and England respectively. The first tournament commenced on Friday 1st of June and ended on Monday 4th June with Mr Whippy Racing Team placing second. Below you can find the qualifications and eliminations rounds played at Santa Pod raceway in England.

Friday 1st June 2012:  Practice run to test the engine and set up logging with a 5.48sec in a 1/4 mile.

Saturday 2nd June 2012: Qualification round where the team was very happy finishing with a 5.35 seconds at 265 miles per hour placing first and also we would like to congratulate Chris Polidano driver of Kalanc racing team placing 4th with 5.400 seconds at 266 miles per hour.

Sunday 3rd June 2012:  Qualifications were cancelled due to rain

Monday 4th June: This was the most important day of the tournament where it included the eliminations and final rounds. Mr Whippy Racing team ended up in the finals against Dave Wilson from England. Monty Bugeja in the semi final ran against Timo Habermann, finished with a 5.2920 at 259 miles per hour. This was the best record time ever done in Europe in the class of Top Methanol Dragsters. This is still not official since it has to be done twice in the same day but still, Mr Whippy racing team are very happy with the time and with a comment made by a commentator "5.29 WOOWWW...This could be the quickest car in the world...." "....there are only a handful of supercharged Top Methanol Dragsters in the world that have done that". Kalanc racing team did very good with a 5.39 considering that this is the first time competing in Europe.

Usually after every run there are some maintenance that needs to be done but sadly after the semi finals, when achieving a new record, the car needed to be checked by the FIA members to confirm that the car was up to standard according to the regulations. The team was held back for maintaining the car therefore there wasn't enough time to run the final with Dave Wilson since there was less than an hour  between the semi finals and the final run. The Team is still happy placing 2nd and will try their best next in Sweden from the 15th June till 17th June and in the remaining countries.

First round classification
Dave Wilson             England - 97
Monty Bugeja           Malta - 83
Dennis Habermann   Germany - 56
Timo Habermann     Germany - 54
Chris Polidano          Malta - 35
Krister Johansson     Sweden - 34
Esko Raisvuo           Finland - 33


A big well done to the whole crew: Joe Carabott (owner), Monty Bugeja (Driver), Remic Arapa (crew chief), Arnold Farrugia, Mervin Cassar, Vince Carabott, Sammy Ciantar, Emanuel Pavia, Larry Mangion and the Junior team Matthew Carabott, Keith Carabott, Vasliy Popov, Andre Bugeja and Mikael Carabott

This could not be done without the help of the sponsors from: Mr Whippy, Powerhouse racing, Torco oils, Empav Engineering, Fahrenheit Transport and UV Print.