Day one of qualifying for the 2026 NitrOlympX was severely affected by rain which came in the first class of the first Pro session. After a very long spell of rain the track crew set to and dried the track to allow the qualifying to continue, until it too was curtailed by rain with the two last two cars of the day ready to stage.
FIA Top Fuel Dragster is led by local favourite, Switzerland’s Jndia Erbacher at 9.077/128.60. Jndia launched with nitro flames above rear wing height but quickly hit vicious tyre shake and had to get off the throttle. Norway’s Øyvor Jacobsen did not record a time after rolling through stage. Regining Champion, Sweden’s Susanne Callin, and Scotland’s Colin Millar were shut off by the Chief Starter as rain started to fall as they prepared to stage. The Top Fuel session is therefore still open leaving race officials with a decision either to annul the session, or to continue it in the morning which would potentially mean three runs tomorrow for Susanne and Colin.
Germany’s Timo Habermann leads FIA Top Methanol qualifying at 5.396/427.59 ahead of Sweden’s Tony Bryntesson’s 5.463/428.94 in a thrilling match-up which proved that the nominally-temporary track could take however much power it was given. Johnny’s fuel tank cover, usually removed before running, went for a ride with him for the first five hundred feet or so before peeling away and going for a flight of its own. The first pair of the session, Belgium’s Sandro Bello and Sweden’s Johnny Lagg, were shut off for spits of rain; Johnny and team elected to return to the pits to reset the injected-nitro dragster and drew applause and cheers from the crowd when they returned whilst the session was still officially active. Germany’s Silvio Strauch suffered the loss of a blower belt at half track leaving him with no choice but to freewheel to a ten-second pass. Isak Lagg’s rear tyres went up in smoke at the hit and he idled to an eighteen-second time. Sandro and Johnny returned after the track had been dried; Johnny stormed to a 5.587/423.83 for third spot whilst Sandro hit tyre shake and had to pedal and ultimately backed off the throttle to 6.519/258.79 for fourth.
Norway’s Stian Rusånes set the latest in a string of Personal Bests with a 5.825/387.41 to take the lead in FIA Pro Modified. Estonia’s Andres Arnover took second spot at 5.882/394.30 in a gutsy drive, he really had his hands full in the second half of the track as the Mustang was making moves left and right. A fantastic match between The Netherlands’ David Vegter and Marck Harteveld decided third and fourth spots with a 5.986/383.37 and 5.977/384.26. Eleven cars are currently qualified with Swiss contenders Peter Wacker and Marcus Hilt not recording times after parachute deployment approaching the burnout and a shut off for a fluid leak. Sweden’s Mats Eriksson did one of the driving jobs of the day as his Crown Victoria made a hard move left towards the guardrail, but he had it covered and it was probably a minor inconvenience after a similar move at Tierp put the car up on two wheels.
Multiple European Champion and record holder, Sweden’s Jimmy Ålund leads FIA Pro Stock at 6.660/335.90 outpacing Robin Norén’s 6.752/332.71 and Simon Ekengren, winner of the last round at Tierp, at 6.821/325.48. Germany’s Henry Reihl is fourth in his Mercedes-bodied car at 7.288/244.36 and Sweden’s Michael Malmgren is fifth at 7.376/221.31 after driving through tyre shake.
Pro Comp, which caters for Doorslammers running as quick as 6.00 seconds, is led by Julian Bayer whose two-litre billet motor-powered VW Golf 2 clocked an entertaining and far from straight 6.835/320.25. The UK’s Jack Williams clocked a picture-perfect 7.400/302.59 in his blown-alcohol Corvette only to get out of shape in the shutdown area and nose into the guardrail. Jack did a good job of missing Manuel Kreiter in the other lane and of slowing the car down as much as possible before impact, and he is quite OK. The team are working on the car’s body and chassis damage.
Lucas Pothoff leads Super Pro ET +0.050 on dial-in at 7.660/281.71 from Italy’s Enrico Bailo +0.081 at 8.981/240.78 with the top four qualifiers of twenty separated by 0.092 seconds. The UK’s Chris Todd in his Ford Fiesta, which only just has a longer wheelbase than some shopping carts, drew cheers for a double wheels-up launch and a storming 8.897/245.49, +0.147 on dial-in good for 8th spot. Also appreciated by the crowd were Alex Halter and Pascal Czieschowitz who pulled huge burnouts at the start of the session. The thirty-car Pro ET field is led by Rilana Dold whose Corvette was +0.025 on dial-in at 11.655/186.29 ahead of Frank Kraus in his 1941 Business Coupe +0.042 at 11.302/198.12.
Both Super classes had two qualifying sessions. The UK’s Ronnie Mercer leads Super Comp at 8.906/241.26; Janine Petzold’s now-second placed 8.913/262.55 had been good for top spot in session one. The top three qualifiers are separated by 0.024 seconds. It was a similar story in Super Gas as Daniel Vetterl’s 9.957/214/26 in session two just edged out Philip Daud’s 9.959/224.28 which had been top of the standings in the first session. 0.098 seconds separate the top five.
Lenny Fässler holds a clear lead in Junior Dragster qualifying with a Reaction Time of 0.006, the next closest being Emily Schaupp at 0.038.
On two wheels Thomas Joswig leads the Funny Bike field with an early shut-off 7.677/218.44, so more to come from the longtime racer. Leon David Weikum is second at 7.882/254.13.
Lars Günther currently holds Best Burnout honours for the bikes raising a cheer from the crowd during Super Comp Bike qualifying, but the nineteen-bike class – with entrants from Belgium, Finland, Greece and The Netherlands as well as Germany – is currently led by Greece’s Panos Charchalakis at 8.512/241.45 from Torben Frahm at 8.613/255.50. Falk Odenthal leads ET Bike +0.135 on dial-in at 9.635/229.90 ahead of Stefan Graff +0.205 at 9.955/220.03.
Tomorrow’s qualifying action is scheduled to commence at 09:15. Tickets are still available via https://tickets.hockenheimring.de/p/nitrolympx.
