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Two trips around the world and one
European championship title didn't save the ex-Bud car from an ignoble end.
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New car, new beginning. TNT and old
friends Clarion were given signage as a 'thank you' after helping import the
ex-Cory Mac T/F.
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New paint job but team morale was low as
even a pit warm-up could prove costly in 1999.
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Peter Lantz lent a hand to the all-out
effort to get P & G Racing to the 1999 Finals - and then raced Pelle during
qualifying.
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Nitro and night-time were made for each
other. Pelle launches with all guns blazing during evening qualifying at the
2000 Finals..
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With Gunnar and Sören Isaksson standing by, Pelle dons his race helmet for
the very last time. Santa Pod Raceway, 16th September 2001.
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And the very last run. Moments later
Pelle lost his blower belt giving this semi-final to Finland's Anita Makela.
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Retired but not finished, P & G Racing
and Peter Lantz Racing joined forces in 2002 with Lantz driving.
Photo
courtesy of Peter Lantz
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A victorious Peter Lantz relaxes in front
of P & G / PLR super team after winning Piteå's 2002 Midnight Sun Internationals.
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THE EX-CORY MAC McDONALDS CAR
The Acceleration Archive: And for you it was back to the European circuit for 1996?
Pelle Lindelöw: Yes, in 1996 we raced the Bernstein car for the last time. It was one of those years you want to forget, nothing went our way.
In fact I think we blew up all our new parts, destroyed all our spare parts, and the bank account after our two seasons in Japan quickly went into the red! Things like this had happened before, so we said either we quit or make a new start.
Well, Gary found us a car at Robert Reehl's shop. Robert was always wheeling and dealing with new and used stuff and had acquired the McDonald’s back-up car with a 1996 McKinney chassis. So we packed our bags and left for the 1997 Winternationals to take a look at the fueller.
The car was kind of narrow - Cory Mac is quite a bit smaller than me, so we had Hansen’s Chassis Shop raise the roll cage and things then we shipped it back to Europe. The old car was traded in with Knut Söderqvist as a down-payment for a new rear end and Knut cut the old banana car into pieces as soon as he could - he didn’t like it and we didn’t blame him!
AA: But engine problems with the ex-MacDonald’s car took its toll on P&G Racing?
PL: Yes, by 1999 we were broke again and had lost our confidence. It was one of those ‘at the crossroads’ moments in life. We were in Malmö for the last round of the Swedish Top Fuel Tour and realized that absolutely everything was used and/or destroyed. We had scrapped one crank after each
run and one block after every second. Our economy was in ruins and we had achieved nothing. Thanks to the Top Fuel Tour we could still stand up (thanks again to the organizers of the Swedish TFT).
Absolutely everything had been tried and failed, numerous experts had been consulted, we had shipped parts back and forth to Gary but still it didn't work. What made us pull out of competition in Malmö was when we checked the crank after the warm up, it was already hurt. So driving the 650 kilometers back home I said to myself: "our drag racing careers are at an end, but this is not the way I want to finish".
After arriving home I called Gunnar early Monday morning with my plan: "we buy a brand new TFX shortblock exactly the same as Peter Lantz has got, borrow Monica Oberg's clutch, hire Dan Söderberg as crew chief and go racing at the Santa Pod finals in two weeks time".
Gunnar who is just a little more realistic than I am said “How are we going to find the funds for this?” but I had thought of this as well.
“Let's talk to the guys (in the team) and see if they can loan us part of the sum and we can finance the rest ourselves.” After a moments silence Gunnar said, “Let’s do it!”
The next hurdle was to put everything together in just over a week. Gary Burgin didn’t let us down but I ended up catching the ferry to England with all the parts still in boxes and started assembling the motor at Santa Pod with help from Peter Lantz and Ollis, one of his crew guys, while the rest of the P&G crew arrived as fast as they could to carry on with the work.
But all this effort was laid waste when in qualifying a lifter got stuck and literally vaporized inside the motor. Not only had it done a lot of damage, but we were slowest qualifier - which in turn reduced our prize money to next to nothing - and we drew Gordie Bonin in the first round! We gave it our best shot but the car shook so violently off the line that I had to shut off. It was enough to make a grown man cry. But you know what? We were happy because after exchanging that
lifter there was no damage to the crank – we had finally found the root cause to all our problems! That alone was enough to spur us on for another season.
AA: So now it was the start of a new Millennium, and I think you began the season at Alastaro in Finland?
PL: Well we used Alastaro as a test and tune before embarking on the Swedish Top Fuel Tour. We had our new sponsors Red Line Oil and at Piteå I ran a new personal best of 5.15 at 453 kph. Best of all the engine was staying intact! At Tullinge I lost a close race to Alan Jackson who was driving
one of Knut’s cars. I then got revenge on Alan at the FIA Finals at Santa Pod before losing to Switzerland’s Peter Beck in the semis.
AA: And you decided to make 2001 your final season?
PL: Yes, we’d picked ourselves up after the frustrations of the late 1990s but we had decided 2001 would be our final year. Again we joined the Swedish Top Fuel Tour. This time Wittstock in Germany had been added to the calendar - not a happy experience, I still have the promoter’s cheque which
bounced - then at Piteå and Tullinge I got beaten by Micke Kågered and he might have made it 3 in a row if he hadn’t blown his wheels off at Santa Pod which allowed me to skate past all the carnage with a 9 second ET. (In the first round at the FIA Finals Kågered lost an engine which took out both the rear slicks, leaving Micke to cross the finish line facing the wrong way, yet miraculously without rolling the car over or colliding with Pelle). And then, in what turned out to be my final run, I lost
a blower belt against Anita Makela. Not a Hollywood ending but it meant a lot to finish my racing career at Santa Pod with so many well-wishers and friends.
AA: But the story doesn’t quite end there . . .
PL: Well it was meant to! Our intention was to have sold the car by the start of the 2002 season but as we never found a buyer we started to look at alternatives. To run the car as we’d done before was no option as we already decided to finish our career after the 2001 season.
Then we started talking to Peter Lantz and this seemed a workable arrangement: we kept ownership of the car but Peter would run the operation. Working with Peter and Morgan Svensson was a very good alternative to racing on our own. Also our workshop in Stockholm was being torn down for some re-development, so Peter took the car to his place in Borås. When the 2002 season was over we discussed the possibility of Peter buying the car and everything off us but that never materialized. So
we were facing another year of uncertainty when at the beginning of 2003 Andy Carter gave me a call. And do you know, after all the headaches of trying to sell the operation we had just one visit from Andy and the deal was done!
(Andy Carter went on to set a new European ET (4.88) at the 2003 Main Event before later crashing in Norway during the FIA Championship. The ex-Cory Mac / ex-P&G Racing Top Fueller was repaired by John Webster and is now kept as a back-up car for Andy Carter Motorsports.)
© Andy Barrack 2005
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