Northland 500 2003

For the second year in a row it was time for the Northland 500 race in Germany. This year it was on june the 28th. Pictures by me if nothing else is stated.

The Payoff for this year "He's coming soon...". Germans loves elks and we had as usual Elk burgers with us for the grill party after the race. And Elk stickers.

But the story begins already months before the race with building the car for the race. I decided to actaually build two cars for this years Northland 500. Starting to read the rules and preparing the parts. All parts where checked and weighted to see what the total weight of the assembled car would be. Since the rules says it is okey to lighten a Profinish kit since they are heavier (the blue Monte Carlo is a Profinish from the beginning), a lot of work was done to get it down to the same weight as the standard kit.

After a lot of work the two cars where ready for track test. The Blue Monte Carlo turned out to be quicker when testing on our club track so I decided that it was the prime candidate for the race.

My 1997 Kellogs #5 Monte Carlo. In a special paint scheme to commemorate the birthday of Tony the Tiger. It ran with this paint scheme at Michigan and California Raceway in 1997.

My 1991 #30 Pennziol Pontiac.

Picture by Niclas Lindblom
Since we where five people going to the race this time, we went by a VW rental bus.

After about 10 hours ride we arrived in Kiel in Germany. There they had the yearly "Kieler Woche" (Kieler week) which is a big sailing festival. We went down to the docks and checked it out.

Lots of sailing boats all over the place.

Picture by Torbjörn Lundkvist
The next day we went to Hamburg which takes about one hour and checked out one of the biggest and best built model railroads in the world. Very impressive and very big. And i mean big! The landscaped area for the railroad covers itself about 500 m² (no, I don't mean the whole area of the place, I mean the area the landscape they built covers!). The track lenght is about 8 kilometers in total! More info here: http://www.miniatur-wunderland.de.

Pictures by Torbjörn Lunkvist
Since this is a race report, we'll leave the railroad here althought it is worth it's own report.

Picture by Torbjörn Lunkvist
After that we went to the track that now had open for practice.

Picture by Torbjörn Lunkvist
The bridge hides the lap timing sensors. Someone has been there and put up some sort of sign. Hmmm, who could that be...? ;-)

Picture by Torbjörn Lunkvist

Picture by Matthias Parke
And who can possible have put this sign on this track? ;-)

Picture by Matthias Parke
The whole swedish team at practicing

After practice we went back to the hotel and checked the cars for the race and made some adjustments. Here Hasse and Torbjörn sits in thier room.

Here are my boxes with all the tools. I had noticed during the training that the yellow Pontiac was actually quicker and better handling at the german track than the blue Monte Carlo so I decided to go with that car instead for the race. Since it was planned to be the blue Monte Carlo that I should race with, I had to put some work on the Pontiac to optimize it for the one hour long race, like making sure all cables where good soldered etc.

I had to do some Dremel and sanding work also at two o'clock in the night and that was probably not so appriciated amoung the other guests at the hotel ;-)

Saturday arrived and we went to to the track. 29 drivers had turned up. Here are all the cars lined up on the track just for taking pictures. It's quiet an impressive sight, isn't it?

Picture by Torbjörn Lunkvist
Jimmys car built by father Torbjörn.

Picture by Torbjörn Lunkvist
Torbjörns car

Picture by Torbjörn Lundkvist
Hans Kihléns car

Picture by Torbjörn Lunkvist
Niclas Lindbloms car

Picture by Matthias Parke
Torbjörn concentrated in the race

Picture by Matthias Parke
Niclas racing

In the foreground is Jimmy, Torbjörns son. He drove well and ended at the 23d place. Not bad for an eleven year old boy!

Some guys prepare themself a little differently for the race!

Here is a picture of our "base camp" where we Swedes had our service stations.

Winner, as like the year before was Matthias Parke who got a big nice price.

After the race, Matthias started to build on a new car. Is this the winning car of 2004?

Here are the final result. The swedish team members in bold:

Platz	Fahrer	Fahrzeug	Gewicht	Qualification	Spur1	Spur 2	Spur 3	Spur 4	Spur 5	Gesamt
1	Matthias Parke	Pontiac Grand Prix, Home Depot	218 gr	7,1	99	100,86	99	99	98	495,86
2	Christoph Vennbur	Chevy Montecarlo, DuPont	217 gr	7,162	95	98	96	96,14	96	481,14
3	Jens Badenkopf	Pontiac Grand Prix, Inter State Batt	224 gr	7,29	93	95	96,84	95	96	475,84
4	Manfred Geue	Chevy Montecarlo, Coca Cola	236 gr	7,27	93	97	97	95	92,81	474,81
5	Anders Lattermann	Pontiac Grand Prix, Penzoil	224 gr	7,418	94	94	96	94	92,13	470,13
6	Björn Skottke	Chevy Montecarlo, Loewes	221 gr	7,319	93	95,1	94	93	93	468,1
7	Stephan Wiesel	Pontiac Grand Prix, Blues Brothers	222 gr	7,245	89,7	94	98	92	93	466,7
8	Torbjörn Lundkvist	Chevy Montecarlo, de Walt	218 gr	7,472	92	93	96	93,68	92	466,68
9	Tommy Spieker	Ford Taurus, Mobil	230 gr	7,41	91	93	94	93,65	94	465,65
10	Achim Kreigenbrinck	Ford Thunderbird, Remington	216 gr	7,505	91	92	92,66	94	93	462,66
11	Thomas Springer	Chevy Montecarlo, Square D	223 gr	7,461	91	92,68	92	91	91	457,68
12	Andreas Fehn	Chevy Montecarlo, Kellogs	219 gr	7,482	90,55	92	90	93	90	455,55
13	Jürgen Jahnke	Chevy Montecarlo, DuPont	219 gr	7,487	87	94	92	90	90,23	453,23
14	Kai Ossenbrüggen	Chevy Montecarlo,	233 gr	7,597	87	92,51	91	91	91	452,51
15	Beate Schulz	Pontiac Grand Prix, Blues Brothers	222 gr	7,623	88	91	93	90,71	89	451,71
16	Niclas Lindblom	Chevy Montecarlo, Goodwrench	223 gr	7,658	88	90	91	90	85,76	444,76
17	Hans Kihlen	Pontiac Grand Prix, Miller	220 gr	7,435	88	90	90,19	87	87	442,19
18	Volker Drkosch	Chevy Montecarlo, Kellogs	235 gr	7,691	85	88	88	89,53	90	440,53
19	Eldert Hedden	Chevy Montecarlo, Pennzoil	223 gr	7,683	85	88	92,33	88	86	439,33
20	Ralf Rieger	Oldsmobile, Kodak	223 gr	7,414	89,87	91	91	81	85	437,87
21	Gerd van de Weil	Chevy Montecarlo, Sunnoco	233 gr	7,646	76,53	90	91	89	86	432,53
22	Stefanie Drkosch	Ford Thunderbird, Zerex	218 gr	7,758	84	88	87,65	85	86	430,65
23	Jimmy Manström	Chevy Montecarlo, Ryder	219 gr	7,727	83	90	88	85	84,07	430,07
24	Peter Panke	Chevy Montecarlo, Firefighter 112	225 gr	7,771	80	84,64	89	88	84	425,64
25	Thomas Kosolowski	Chevy Montecarlo, Crayola	232 gr	7,921	87,67	87	88	73	81	416,67
26	Holger Preisig	Ford Thunderbird, Quality Care	233 gr	8,109	82	86	82	85	81,08	416,08
27	Stephan Schulz	Buick, Miller	222 gr	7,716	76,64	79	85	78	77	395,64
28	Bernd Haufe	Chevy Montecarlo, Kodak	228 gr	7,684	89	91,24	93	58	53	384,24
29	Dirk Stapelfeld	Chevy Montecarlo, Loewes	218 gr	7,785	62	54	87	91,1	81	375,1

Picture by Niclas Lindblom
The swedish team ready for the trip back to Sweden

Picture by Niclas Lindblom
In the bus on our way home again. We plan to be back in 2004. See you there?

Picture by Torbjörn Lundkvist
Home again. The good thing is that you can buy tax free on the ferry as you can see here ;-)

..wieder!