Thursday 27th August: Maintenance and testing.

It has been almost three weeks since last race in Norway at Gardermoen. We knew in the last rounds in Norway that the bike had started to lose horsepower and speed. We took the week off after Norway and did almost nothing to the bike but then we removed the engine and did a total overhaul of it. In the last qualifying session in Gardermoen I couldn’t get sixth gear in and unfortunately I was on the rev limiter for about 1.5 seconds. That is not so good for the valve springs, which we also found out when we tested them. We have made about 16 runs on this engine now, so we also changed the cam chain to be sure it will last the final races of the season. Of course anything can happen but as long as you do regular service and change the parts within the service intervals, you have done everything you can to prevent things from happening. But we were very surprised after we opened up the engine and even after these 16 runs on it, everything still looks like brand new. These Vance & Hines engines are so beautiful just to look at, and it is really fun to work with them. We have got so much support and help from Vance & Hines this year and we cannot express in words how grateful we are for this. It is so fun to work with all their products because you know that you always get good parts and good support with it.

So now we have changed the valves prings and the cam chain and looked at all the other stuff in the engine and put it together again. We installed the engine in the bike and started it a couple of days ago. It started right away and sounded great so we must have done something right when we put it together again. We have also started to lighten the bike as much as we can to tighten the weight up a bit. We were about 2kg too heavy in Gardermoen and I have lost about 1kg since then and we will lighten the bike about 1-2 kg more before Santa Pod. We are doing everything now to optimize the bike and myself so we can start to run fast. I still need some more experience on the bike to be really fast but I know that we have one of the best bikes here in Europe and the potential to be at the top at the finals.

This weekend we are off to Malmö and Veidec Raceway for some testing before the finals at Santa Pod. One thing is for me to get some more runs on the bike, since it is almost three weeks since last race, and also to get a little more data on the bike. The weather will hopefully be quite good so we can get some runs at least.

Thursday 12th August: Veidec Festival and Sunoco Drag Challenge.

It has been two hectic but enjoyable weeks with a lot of racing and fun. I thought I was going to have time to write something directly after Mantorp but the days just flew away and suddenly I was on my way to Gardermoen and I had not been written anything. So this will probably be a bit longer update than before to cover both events.

We left for Mantorp on Tuesday afternoon since we had to go there in time and put up the tent and so on. I was invited to be a part of the press conference and make a run on Wednesday so that’s why we had to be there in time for that. The press conference went very well, even though it was my first time ever at something like this. We also got the opportunity to make a demo run on the track. We knew that the traction probably would be a bit bad since they just had put new asphalt on the first 150m and just some nostalgia racecars had been on it before us. We went out very soft and I had only full throttle for the first 1/8 mile because that’s the most important part of the track for us to know how to tune the bike for later passes. Even though it spun the tyre a lot, I did 4.65 on the 1/8mile.

On Thursday we had a day without racing, since the qualifying started on Friday but that was good since it rained a lot for the whole day and none of the sportsman classes could get any chance to run. We had a quite calm day until a semi-trailer tried to pass our tent without seeing that there was not enough space. So the back of the trailer took the front of our tent and moved it more than 1 metre across. It bent the big front beam and stretched the tent canvas a lot. Now the trailer was really stuck in our tent and we didn’t know how to solve this without breaking it any more. We tried to disassemble the tent and after a while we finally got the trailer loose from the tent. Now we were standing there with a half broken tent and we could feel rain was in the air. The front beam was totally broken and bent and we just had to try to fix it so it would last the weekend. It was around 6 o’clock in the evening that we started to see what we could do to fix it. The mounting on the bus was damaged and cracked so we had to make a new one of those. We also had to cut the big beam and we had the luck to have our Norwegian friends in the Super Twin teams to help us with some material and we borrowed their welder. Without their help we never could have repaired it. Around 11 o´clock the tent was up again and we could get something to eat. It wasn’t exactly the start of the weekend we expected but we managed to repair it, even though we all got a little wet and dirty.

The first qualifying session on Friday went pretty well for me and I ran a 7.34 on my first round out, making me no.3 in the qualifying after the session. That was actually also my “official” personal best at an UEM round, so I was pretty satisfied with that. The next qualifying session was on Saturday morning and it started quite well but after the 60ft mark it spun so hard that I came out of the groove and started to go right. I tried to work the bike back to the center and it worked pretty well until a sudden blast of wind grabbed on to my helmet and I was almost off the bike for a moment. So I had to shut that run off after about 250m but still ran 7.77. The third and last qualifying session, later on Saturday was going to be a real thriller since Kenneth Vik was not qualified yet, because he had some real problems with his bike and also Ulf Ögge was in 7th place with a not so good a time. My run was pretty ok, despite me having big problems with spinning the tire and I ran 7.38. Only one of the other riders managed to do a better time than me, so I ended up as no.4 in the qualifying. Kenneth still had problems and didn’t get any time, and Ögge had problems again and got towards the wall in the last session. So after this final session Ögge was no.9 in the qualifying which made this event historic as both no.1 and no.2 in the UEM Championship were not qualified for the race on Sunday. Unfortunately they both had very good luck when it started to rain like hell before our first elimination round. As a result of the rain, the event had to be cancelled and none of us had a chance to catch up in the points standings.

I want to thank all the people that helped me and the team this weekend with everything from food to support. It was also nice to meet some of Veidec´s staff that was on site. We had a little seminar on one of the evenings for them, explaining what we do and also how the bike works and so on. It was really fun to see the interest and support we got after our little seminar. We packed the bus and went home to have some days off racing to get re-energised but unfortunately a couple of riders had broken some parts so we had to work one of the days to try to help them with it so they could run in Gardermoen.

We left home on Wednesday evening for Gardermoen and we arrived around 11 o´clock. We had a nice calm day on Thursday to charge our batteries and do some small stuff we hadn’t had time for before. When we woke up on Friday morning, it was really wet outside and there was a lot of rain. It rained the whole day until the afternoon and then the sun came and we could at least do one qualifying session in the evening. My first run was ok at the start, but after about 300m it spun the tyre so hard that the front wheel slipped to the left and I just felt the whole bike was going sideways. So I just shifted through the gearbox and passed the finish line with a 7.41 to start with. I was no.4 in the qualifying after the first session. The weather was much better on Saturday and we got three qualifying rounds in total that day. My runs were pretty consistent over the whole weekend but in the last qualifying session the bike left really good and I had quite good shift points, but when it was time for 6th gear, it didn’t want to go in it. So unfortunately I was on the rev limiter for about one second and that is enough to damage the valve springs. We didn’t know that it was as bad as it was, but I ended up as no.7 qualifier in the ladder. Since it was an 16 bike field this weekend I was up against no.8 and that was my team mate Kenneth Vik. It is never fun to meet your team mate in the first round but that is racing. I knew I had to be very good on the tree and do a good run because Kenneth is a very good rider and his bike is really fast. I took him on the tree and was out before him. The clocks stopped at 7.372 in both lanes but because I was first on the tree I had won my first UEM elimination round ever. I was really happy with this, but it didn’t feel so good to beat Kenneth who was doing pretty well in the championship standings and now I had taken away his chance for second place in the championship. In the next round I was up against no.1 qualifier Jesper Thiel. He is also a very good rider and I had to take him on the tree, since we knew I hadn’t that much power in the engine anymore. We were both a little bit too eager on the lights and both of us redlighted. Unfortunately I did it 0.008 seconds before him, which gave him the round victory.

At first I was a bit pissed off with the redlight, but when I started to think about all the things that have happened this year, I was quite satisfied with my achievements so far. I mean, it is my first year ever on a Pro Stock Bike and I have managed to qualify at all the races and set new personal best on almost every event. Now we will prepare the bike for the Finals at Santa Pod because that is where it’s going to happen. I think that if the weather is good there, it is going to be a really fast track. It will be fun to see what our new engine can do on a good track since we have had a lot of problems with tyre spin in the last few races.

Thanks again to all the people that helped made these weekends happen and for all their support. I can never do this without you!

Tuesday 27th July: Veidec Festival preview.

It has been a quite busy time the last couple of weeks after Alastaro but we also got some time to relax and charge the batteries for Mantorp.

Last weekend we went to Malmö and Veidec Raceway for the annual Malmö Bike Open. We were invited to the event to get opportunity to test the bike before Veidec Festival. It was an all-bike event with about 70 bikes. The weather was pretty good but unfortunately it was a bit cloudy so the sun couldn’t help warm up the track. So the track was a little bit cold and we had some trouble with the traction. Despite the bad traction we managed to run within four hundredths on all five runs and three of those were even better than in Alastaro on my 7.28 run. I also did my fastest time to 100 meters ever. The bike feels really good and I feel pretty confident in my riding. I was very consistent on every test run in Malmö so hopefully I have what it takes to qualify in Mantorp.

The Veidec Festival is going to be a real thriller in Pro Stock Bike, with 17 bikes trying to get into an 8-bike field. The Mantorp surface has recently been ground and new asphalt has been put on the track so no-one really knows how to tune their bike for it. If we look at the weather forecast it looks a little bit unstable at the moment so maybe we won’t get all four qualifying runs in. That means we have to be as prepared as we can from the first run out.

We are leaving for Mantorp tonight because I am going to attend the press conference and photoshoot on Wednesday. If we are lucky we will get a chance to test the track and see how it feels. I have never driven a Pro Stock Bike there before and because the track is really short, it could be good to have one test round to see how much I have to brake after the finish line. We can not afford to do this in the qualifying and lose one important round.

It is going to be a tough weekend, but I am glad to have a lot of people helping and supporting me this weekend. I am really proud to be part of the Veidec family especially now, when everyone can watch me race. Of course I feel a little pressure to perform on this event but, as the plan was when we started this year, I am only focusing on getting experience and as many rounds as I can. The main thing is not to be no 1 this year (even if it would be nice). The most important thing is to have fun and with the team we are having right now we have a lot of fun both during the race and also in the evenings.

I am planning to do some small updates on the Veidec Racing Facebook site during the weekend so everyone can follow us. You will find us on www.facebook.com/veidecracing.

Thursday 8th July: FIA/UEM Nitro Nationals, Alastaro.

We are back home from Alastaro and the Finnish UEM championship round. We knew before we got there that it was going to be very tight qualifying and also the race was going to be really good. My goal this weekend was to qualify and, of course, to run a tenth faster than at Santa Pod. Since I ran 7.48 at the Pod I had to do a really good job in qualifying to beat that time. On my first run I had big trouble with my clutch hand. I released the clutch, but the lever stuck on my glove so I almost fell on the starting line. But I managed to pull in the clutch and fortunately I had not trigged the timing yet, so I made a new attempt to release the clutch and off I went on a 7.49 sec run. I was pretty satisfied with that, especially with the difficulty of releasing the clutch lever at first. In the second session, I made some changes on my way to holding the lever. Also I took some powder and put it on the clutch glove. That made the lever more slippery and a lot easier to release. Since the weather was so hot, the fingers on the glove stuck together and that made it harder to let go of the lever. This pass was much better but I was really eager to do a good run so I redlit big-time. I almost got away before the starter pushed the button but I had some luck this time and managed to 7.39 on that run.

After two rounds of qualifying I was no.6 and everything felt so good. I had already accomplished one of my goals this weekend, but now I wanted even more runs to get even quicker. Om the third session we spun the tyre quite a lot away from the line and had a bad 60 foot time. Despite that, I ran 7.37 and a new personal best. To the fourth round: I was really eager to run quick again. We had some mechanical problems with one of the carbs so we had to shut the bike off in the burnout. When we got back to the tent we found out what the problem was and fixed it. I was not the only one having trouble in the fourth round. I think it was 4 out of 12 bikes that actually left the line. No one did improve their times, so after the last qualifying I was no.6.

I was up against no.3 qualifier Fredrik Fredlund in the first round of eliminations. Fredrik had run a personal best this weekend also, with a 7.21, and I knew it was going to be tough to beat him. We did some small adjustments on the bike and knew that the bike had potential to run faster than 7.37. We had to wait in the line-up quite a long time and when we were starting the bike and I was supposed to do the burnout the bike just died on me. I tried a couple of times but, as soon as I released the clutch, the bike just had no power. So unfortunately I had to shut off the bike and leave the victory to Fredrik. I was really pissed off at first since I didn’t get a chance to at least try to beat him. When we came back to the tent, we started to look for the problem but the bike worked perfectly now. We tested everything but it was perfect. The only solution we have is that since we had to wait a long time in the sun maybe the battery had lost some power. We didn’t have the data logger on in the burnout so we don’t know exactly what happened. So now we have learned to always put the logger on even in the burnout because then we can see if the volt is dropping on the battery.

So, without finding any problems, we made the bike ready again because we heard that we could get a chance to do one test round after the finals. This time the bike worked perfectly during the burnout but the mechanics didn’t put the Shift Counter switch and that made us have full power from start because the retarder wasn’t on. Normally we have to retard on first and second gear since otherwise it just spins the tire. So when I released the clutch, the tyre started to spin really hard and when I shifted to second gear it first started to fishtail but as soon as the rear tire got some grip the bike went really good and straight. I felt that the bike was fast on the other half of the track but I also knew that it spinned the tire a lot from the start. But despite this I managed to do 7.28 with a lousy 60 foot and 294km/h. It was really great to end the weekend with that run, especially since we had some problems on the bike, and now we know that it is working. And we also know that the bike is going to be really quick from now on as soon as we can get some more runs and collect some more data on the clutch. We still haven’t adjusted much on the bike, just some minor adjustments to the power from the start.

I am really satisfied with the weekend overall. Now we are heading for some more testing in Malmö and Veidec Raceway the weekend before Mantorp. The competition is going to be even tougher in Mantorp since it looks like there will be about 15 bikes there and still just an eight bike ladder. So we are going to need all testing we can do lower the 60 foot time, and hopefully we can be in the top eight and qualify in Mantorp. Veidec Raceway is a perfect place for us to test since we only need a good startng line to find a good base set-up for the bike.

This weekend I am going to have some good times with my friends and since it is the Power Big Meet this weekend here in Västerås I hope to see some nice cars. Next week we will do some small things on the bike and also some more work on the bus but this weekend we will take some time off from racing.

Thanks to all the people last weekend in Finland that were helping and supporting me. Christian, my sister, my mother, Mia, Stefan, Lasse L, Lasse E, Magnus, Basse, Calpa, Pål, Atle, Kenneth, Stavros and of course my father/Team Manager. Without you people, none of this could be possible. It's always fun to spend a race-weekend with all of you!

Tuesday 29th June: Preparing for Alastaro.

The next UEM event is heading up real fast and we have a lot of things to do before we can go to the ferry and start relaxing a bit before the race. We are leaving on Wednesday evening and will be in Alastaro on Thursday morning. Fortunately we have a whole day without racing on Thursday so we can prepare the bike and be 100% ready for action on Friday.

We have taken some vacation away from bus building for a couple of days during the first week after the test weekend in Malmö at Veidec Raceway but during the last week we worked a lot on the bus to make it a little bit more finished. Now we are actually doing things that you can see and that is a lot more fun. We have got help from a lot of people and we are appreciating it so much that they now want to help us to get the bus finished. We still have some work to do on the inside but we will take it step by step.

We were supposed to go to Sundsvall last weekend but as we looked at the weather forecast we realized that it was not worth doing. We did some work on the bus and also got some lazy days. It was really good to have some days without everything in your mind and I had some time to realize and understand what I was doing on the track. I watched a lot of videos and this really made me more excited and eager to continue to achieve good results and keep on exercising hard. We are a little bit too heavy at the moment with the 1500cc engine but, with the new 1655cc engine, I think that it will be quite good when I have lost a little bit more weight. I have lost quite a lot already but still I have some extra weight that we don’t need down the track…

Finland is going to be really tight since there are 12 bikes fighting over eight qualifying spots. We have to have everything ready and produce some good times from start of qualifying. I am looking forward to this event and it also looks like the “weather man” should be on our side this weekend with a lot of sun and no rain. The goal for the weekend is of course to get qualified and to lower my personal best, and hopefully run under 7,4 seconds. I just want to thank everybody again for helping us out with everything, but especially for the help this week with the bus to Lasse Långkvist, Stefan, Emil, Carl-Peter and of course my mother and her sister Mia for sewing us some nice curtains.

Tuesday 14th June: Testing at Malmö.

We had quite a busy time in the week after the Main Event. We were supposed to go to Tierp to the new dragstrip they are going to build but we got a phone call from SRIF and Veidec Raceway in Malmö that they were going to hold a Test n' Tune this last weekend on Saturday and Sunday. At first we looked at the weather forecast and it was very uncertain and it looked like it was going to rain all weekend. We looked at the forecast again on Thursday morning and it was a little bit better, but still predicted some rain and a lot of wind. We took the opportunity anyway to go there and at least if we could get two or three runs, it would mean a lot to me to get some more track time and launches in. The track is a 1/8 mile track in the harbour in Malmö and a really nice place to go testing. Unfortunately, it is a little bit short for Pro Stock Bikes since we have to shift twice after the finish line before we can start braking. Anyway, for us it didnt matter since we only went there to do some test launches and get some 60ft and 100m times.

We got there on Saturday morning and the weather wasn't so bad at the beginning, but after a while the wind started to blow a lot and it rained on and off for half the day. We prepared the bike anyway and at least in the afternoon we managed to get two runs in. I have been having some problems with the way I hold the clutch lever to let it go properly and on the second run I finally found a good way to hold it. I have still got some work to do on timing my body so I don't get so much force backwards when I let go of the clutch but it is a lot better than before.

The weather on Sunday was a little bit better but a little bit colder. The good part was that the wind had slowed down somewhat. Unfortunately the cold weather had made the track more slippery and we had some problem with spinning the tire too much. We got four more runs in on Sunday and it was worth so much for us, both for me as a rider to get more experience and to get to know the bike and a little bit more on the tuning. We tried a lot of different tuning setups and I think we will soon have a good baseline to go from. I ran about the same times as I did on my 7.48 run at Santa Pod and that was really good for my self confidence to know that I can do it again. We are still using the small 1500cc engine with the weight a lot over the minimum, so when I get more experience on the bike and with the new 1655cc engine in, I think I can start to compete more with the other guys in the top at the championship.

There were not so many teams attending at the test, so whenever we wanted to make a run, we just got to the line and within five minutes we could start. I was confused that there were not any more teams attending. The track is really good and in terms of track time, this weekend was worth more than two UEM rounds for us at least.

Now we have to strip the bike down for some service and look over the engine just to see that everything is ok. On Thursday evening we are leaving for a national race in Sundsvall here in Sweden. It's also a really good track and hopefully we can test some more things, so we are really prepared for the next UEM event in Alastaro, Finland. The competition in Finland will be really hard, since it will only be an eight bike ladder. Right now there are eleven bikes on the entry list, but I think it will grow some more. It would be nice to get some more data from the clutch and the bike so we can be more prepared than ever before.

Pictures from the Main Event courtesy and © Ivan Sansom.

Wednesday 2nd June: Santa Pod Main Event.

I'm back home in Sweden after the Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. It was a very successful weekend for me, with a new personal best in both speed and E.T.

I arrived at Stansted Airport on Tuesday night and was supposed to be picked up by the team but, unfortunately, the ferry from Trelleborg to Travemunde had already left the harbour when they arrived, 45 minutes before the booked departure time... So they had to take the next ferry the next morning, which meant I had to find a hotel near Stansted somewhere. I looked on the internet for some cheap rooms near the airport and found one that looked ok. What I didn’t know was that it was out in the woods in some small village that the GPS on the bus couldn’t find at first, so the team had some trouble finding me. After a lot of phone calls trying to explain to the team where I was, they finally found me. It was a big relief for me when I saw the bus since we were already late for the testing on Wednesday. We arrived at the track and started to unpack the bikes and tent. We prepared the bike and went out for the first test run. Since we had a new engine in the bike I took it real calm and slow first run. This was also my first time riding at Santa Pod so I wanted to take it slow on the first run to see how the track felt.

Since we were a little late, we only managed to get one more run on the first test day. On the second run I managed to improve my personal best from 7.85 to 7.73. Not a very good run, but still my best ET ever.

On Thursday, we got only one more run, since a bolt on the engine got loose and sprayed the bike and the rear wheel with oil. I still did a 7.70 for another new personal best with oil on the rear tire, and you could see on the film that the bike was spinning the tyre for the whole of the first 60 foot. I have had some troubles with my hand releasing the clutch lever, but this was the first time I made a better release. It felt good taking small steps down in times, and I felt pretty confident for qualifying. My goal for the weekend was to get qualified and to run one tenth faster than I did in Hungary, and I had done that already in testing.

Friday was no racing at all for the Pro classes, and so we had some time to do things on the bike that we hadn’t had time for before. We had a nice time on Friday evening with good food and a lot of nice people to hang out with. I got to bed early to be prepared for the qualifying that was supposed to start on Saturday, but the weather was really bad and it rained the whole day. So we missed one day of qualifying but got a lot of time to do some things on the bus and the bike that we never would have had time for if this hadn't happened. So you have to take the good with the bad and just prepare for next day.

The weather on Sunday was better, but it was a bit windy in the afternoon. I was really keen to make a good run in the first qualifying session since I knew I had to make one to have a chance in the eliminations. The bike left very nicely from the start and I had good shift points in all gears but I couldn’t get the sixth gear in. So I was on the rev limiter for almost a second over the finish line. It felt like it could have been a 7.6 run or something, but when the other bikes came down they told me I had run a 7.48. At first I didn’t believe them but when they all started to congratulate me on the good run, I was so happy and it felt really good. Before I had even sat on a Pro Stock Bike I never could have imagined myself going 7.48 in my first year. My first goal was to run under 8 seconds and now everything is going really fast. Still, I am using the small 1500cc engine so when I get more experience on the bike with this engine we will put the bigger engine in. So after the first session I was qualified at no.5. This was unbelievable for me and it took a long time to realize that I had done a good job.

After some problems on the track with oil downs and a Pro Mod car ramming the Christmas tree, we got one more run on Sunday. Unfortunately the wind was blowing like hell and almost every bike was going towards the wall. I pointed the bike to the right and got away well but got a little too close to the centre line and tried to get the bike back to the centre of my lane, having some troubles with the shifting again but then the wind drifted me towards the wall and I shut off early. Only one of the bikes managed to improve their ET so I ended up as no.6 qualifier in a 15 bike field. I was really satisfied with the result and confident. I got to bed early to be prepared for the eliminations on Monday.

I was the last pair out, against the Buell rider Jesper Thiel. A good rider with a very fast bike, but he had some problems on qualifying, so it was not impossible for me to beat him if I had a good reaction time and a good run. But unfortunately Jesper pulled a really good light and I was a little late, since the bike didn’t respond as we wanted to. We have had some problems with the clutch cable being a little slow on the launch so we did some service on it on Sunday evening which made our clutch switch setup totally wrong and the rear wheel spun one turn even before it even started to move. Also, since the bike didn’t respond correctly, I didn’t get my hand off the clutch lever and it ended with double clutching. Still I did 7.67 with a 1.20 60foot time with a double clutch, and also a new personal best in speed, 282 Km/h over the finish line and now the gear shifting worked perfectly. At first I was a little sad that I hadn't done a very good run but after a while I started to think of everything that had happened this weekend and, after all it has been a great weekend for me and also I got more experience on the bike.

Great thanks to my team for being there and helping me this weekend. Without their help and support, this weekend never would have been this successful. A very special thanks to my sister Sara and cousin Ida who took care of the food and everything else this weekend. They are very professional and worth so much to me and the team so we could focus on the racing and know that everything else is being taking care of.

Next up is some testing here in Sweden at Sundsvall Raceway in about two weeks. I will compete in a national class called Top Eliminator Bike. Hopefully the weather should be good and we can get some more rounds and data from the bike, so we can be ready for the next UEM championship event in Finland. It will only be an eight bike field in Finland so I have to run much faster than before to even get qualified there.

I will post some pictures from the event later when the bus comes home and I get some time to go through the pictures from the weekend.

Tuesday 18th May: Main Event preparation.

Finally we got the bus home from Hungary with all the bikes and parts. We have lost a week of preparation for the Main Event and we have a lot of things to do this week. The bus is leaving for Santa Pod on Monday and I am flying on Tuesday evening.

We had an old 4-valve 1500cc engine at the first race and testing, but for the Main Event we will put in the bike a new 1500 2-valve that we have been building. We are planning to change the engine this evening and do some dyno runs on it on Wednesday to see that everything is working properly. With a new engine and some more horsepower I hope to get qualified at the Main Event and, of course, break my personal best of 7.85. If I can just find a good way to let go of the clutch properly, I don’t think it will be a problem to run faster and, hopefully, get in the ladder at the Main Event. My goal is to run under 7.6 during the weekend and of course to get qualified.

We are going to test at the Pro Peak test day on Thursday and we will also do some testing on Wednesday at a private test session. Hopefully the weather will be good so we can get a lot of test passes in. That is the most important thing for me right now, to get as much as time on the bike as I can. I need a lot of driving practice before we can start to tune the bike more.

We have ordered a new 2-valve 1655cc engine from Vance & Hines and, if everything goes well, we will have it before the bus leaves. If that is the case, maybe we will put the 1655 in the bike after the first test day if the bike and, of course, I are making good passes. More horsepower means more trouble and a much harder to ride bike.

Unfortunately the Greek guy blew his new engine at the test session in Hungary, so we also have some repair work to do on the motor before we leave for the UK.

Wednesday 5th May: Home from Hungary.

Home after the first UEM race at Kunmadaras in Hungary. At least I am home since I flew back on Monday morning. The rest of the team was supposed to go home in the bus but the gearbox broke when they got to Budapest. So they are still stuck in Budapest but the bus is at a workshop and they have found the problem. It will take some days for the shop to fix it so they will have to fly home as soon as possible and then fly back when the bus is ready.

The first UEM race in Hungary was a real success for me and Team Veidec Racing, I have to say. It was going to be the first UEM race for me and also my first ever time on the new bike. Since I didn't have the opportunity to make any full passes at the drag school this was technically my first real pass on a Pro Stock Motorcycle. We had a whole test day on Thursday just to see that everything worked on the bike and that it was going straight. The bike felt really good to ride and after three test runs on it I felt really confident.

Qualifying started on Friday and my first round wasn't really good since it moved a lot to the right and I had to back off the throttle early. The second qualifying round was really nice. Although the sixty foot time wasn't the best I managed to go down the quarter mile in 7.85 seconds. My first pass under eight seconds and both the team and I were very satisfied with the pass. Unfortunately there were no better times in the qualifying rounds but I got some more riding experience, and we found some stuff on the bike we had to do and also some set-ups that we needed to change. Anders Abrahamsson had bought me some champagne to celebrate my first UEM race but I got it after my first qualifying day since it was a real success.

So I ended up as number fifteen qualifier in the ladder and I was against Ulf Ögge in the first elimination round. I knew that it was going to be really tough to beat him since he has a lot more power than me. I also ran on an old four-valve 1500 Suzuki engine since my new two-valve engine wasn't finished. I took Ulf on the tree with a reaction time of 0.008 seconds...but after sixty feet he was ahead of me and I didn't have a chance to catch up.

Since the bike is still on the bus in Budapest we cannot go to Norway this weekend for more testing. We were supposed to put in the new engine this weekend to get it tuned with the new carburettors and such but instead we will aim to get the bike ready for the test days before the Main Event at Santa Pod.

Wednesday 14th April: Time to meet the public.

The weekend in Stockholm at the 75th Anniversary Meeting of SVEMO was a real success. The bike was displayed right in the middle of the stage at the meeting and in the hotel bar afterwards. We got a lot of attention both for the bike and for the drag racing. There are a lot of people who don't even know what dragracing is and especially not how extreme the bikes really are.

Now I am working hard to get the bike ready so we can do some testing on the dyno and maybe do some burnouts on the parking lot. There are not so many big things left to do, but a lot of small things so it takes a lot of time to add the last final touches. The electrics should be finished today or latest tomorrow. The engine will be finished at the end of the week and hopefully we can do a little burnout before the weekend.

We got some new leathers from Berik which look really good. Right now they are at Tonyz PR-Look to make them look even better with all the sponsor logos and names.

The bus is in Kungsäter for the mounting of the awning. If everything goes well we will pick it up on Friday. The back of the bus is starting to near completion but we have still got a lot of work to do on the inside with the kitchen and beds. As long as the back is finished so that the bikes and stuff can be transported it is OK. We might be sleeping on the floor in Hungary but we will at least try to have some beds!

Thursday 8th April: Race against time.

We have had a busy time last couple of weeks. We are working day and night to get everything in order for the first event. A lot of things have happened with both the bus and the bike. We delivered Timo´s bike and he was very happy. We got the bus from paint last week and yesterday I picked up the bodywork from paint. It looks really cool but I will not show any pictures before the bike and bus is completely finished. This weekend we will be showing the bike at SVEMO annual meeting and 75th anniversary. We need to work day and night to get the bike ready.

We are heading to show up at the test session at Mosten in about one week. Since we took a lot of parts from my bike to get Timo´s bike ready in time we have to redo everything on my bike.

Hopefully we will have some room to breathe on Saturday at the SVEMO meeting and get some new energy for the last week before the bike runs for the first time.

No more time to write now since I have to go back to work with the bike.

I will try to write a little bit more after the weekend and then I will post some pictures on the bike…

Wednesday 17th March: Recovery and progress.

We have had a busy time in the last couple of days with everything that needs to be settled in such a short time. Almost the whole team is helping out with the bus to get it ready for paint and construction of the canopy. The inside is far from finished but, as soon as we get the outside done, we can all focus on the inside, as it doesn’t take as much time as the outside.

I have been working on Stavros's bike to get it ready and the only thing left is to put his new engine in it and start it up to see that everything is working properly. I have not been able to work as much on my own bike since all the aluminium is in anodising and we still are waiting on some parts to arrive. Hopefully we will get the aluminium from anodising today and the rest of the missing parts at the end of the week.

Timo's frame is finished and we will start mounting everything as soon as we get the last parts.

Yesterday we visited our main partner VEIDEC in Uppsala for a small seminar to learn more about their products. It was very nice to meet their marketing manager Lube and the sales manager Pär. VEIDEC is producing extreme performance products for both maintenance and repair. All of their products are at another level of performance. It was very interesting and they are great products to work with since they are so good. I am very proud to be a part of VEIDEC and to represent them as their official race team this year. We have got a lot of cool things going on this year and we have to keep working hard to get everything ready in time. We are working on a new web site that will be up shortly. If you would like to get in contact or interested in VEIDEC and their Extreme Performance Products please visit www.veidec.com.

This weekend it is time for me to go to Bosön again for some more tests with SVEMO and Topp & Talang (SVEMO's central elite investment in fifty promising Swedish motorcycle racers, providing the opportunity to develop their physical and mental capacities in order to compete at the top level internationally). Since the last meeting I have been sick a lot and I trained when I still wasn’t 100% well. That made me sick again, so the last couple of weeks I have been working out a little bit harder and hopefully the tests will show this. I am happy as long as the test results are not worse than last time.

Luckily, Paul Watson from England is coming to help us out with some of the building this weekend. He is a very good mechanic and he will help us mount the bikes and get everything in its place. I will be home on Saturday evening and working on the bikes on Sunday.

Since we have been working so hard on everything in the last week, we don’t have any pictures of anything funny to show. Hopefully the body is going to be ready before Easter so we can present it at the SVEMO annual meeting in April.

Wednesday 3rd March: Down to the anodisers.

Back from the banquet and prize ceremony at the cruise. It was nice to meet all the racers again and hear what their plans are for the season. Many racers knew all about my trip to US and have also read this blog. That was really fun, to see that a lot of people actually read this. That makes it even more fun to continue to write about our projects and everything that is happening right now. The time schedule is very tight and I am working almost every evening on the bikes and Roger works on the bus and takes care of all other things that need to be fixed.

Both mine and Stavros's frames have now been painted and they look really good. You almost don't want to touch them. Also all the controls have been painted to get all the things in the same colour.

We are sending all the aluminium parts for anodising today so I have to wait for that before I can start putting my bike together again. So for now, I am working on Stavros's bike to get it ready. We got his last parts from polishing today so this evening I can put these parts in their place. Then we have some wiring to do since we are changing his Dyna Datalog for a Racepak instead. We are also going to replace his big battery with the new type of lightweight battery and batteryholder and move it to get more weight in the front.

Hopefully I will get my parts from anodising next week and then I will start to put things together again.

Roger and Lasse are working hard on the bus and will continue to do that tomorrow and also this weekend.

Emil helped us out with preparing the pitbike-scooter for paint. All the cowlings have been removed and also the wheels. We have not decided yet what colour paint it is going to be but I can assure that everything is going to look super nice this year.

The Swedish Motorcycle associations are holding their annual meeting in April and have asked me to be there to show the bike. So we have to work hard together to get the bike ready for this.

Tuesday 23rd February: A bus and three frames into seven makes...

Last weekend was really good and we got a lot of things done. We still have got a lot of things to do before the season starts but with everybody’s help we think we can do it in time. We are treating every beam with epoxy-paint to keep it from rusting. We have almost replaced the whole frame on the back of the bus and all the sides also. We got some team members from Norway to visit and help us out a little bit. They were working on the interior in the front and started to build the benches and beds. Also Kenneth Vik from Norway came by to prepare the body for paint.

Thanks to Lasse Långkvist, Atle, Pål, Emil, Lasse Eriksson and Niklas Långkvist for the help this weekend. Without you this was impossible.

I am going to pick up my and Timo´s frame today from UCC. Later this week we will start to paint the frames. After that I will focus 100% on getting all three bikes ready for the season. I will leave the bus project to Roger and the other team-guys. In seven weeks we will do the first testing (hopefully) in Malmö here in Sweden. So we have for now three empty frames that are going to be finished in about seven weeks.

This weekend I am going for the Prize ceremony for last year’s Scandinavian Drag Tacing Series. I was the runner-up in the total score with just 4 points behind. Roger and Lasse will continue to work on the bus and when I come home I will continue with the bikes.

Wednesday 17th February: Back in Sweden.

It has now been a couple of days since we came back home from the trip to USA and Frank Hawley´s School. I am storing all the information gained and I am very eager to start driving my new bike.

Right now I am working on the Greek guys' bike. We are going to move some weight and fresh it up a little bit. We will also mount the new Racepak Computer. He has got a lot of work to do so we are helping him out to make his bike better.

This weekend we are gathering most of the team members and we will do a lot of work together on the bus. Time is running away and we still have got a lot of work to do on it before painting it so now we really have to work harder and harder.

The frame for Timo (the Finnish guy) is planning to be ready for pickup at the end of this week so we are planning on start working on that next week.

My frame will also be ready for paint at the beginning of next week and as soon as we get some wheelie bars we can do the last mountings. The body is already at the painter's and hopefully he will be finished in time for the first test.

We are working on a new website that will be ready in a couple of weeks.

I have not taken any pictures during the last few days but after this weekend I will do a recap of the work days on the bus and also some pictures.

Tuesday 9th February: Frank Hawley Drag School.

I was supposed to write every day on our trip but I realized that it was not possible since every night I was so tired I didn'?t have the strength to write. So instead I have tried to record a little recap of the trip.

Update 1 - Tuesday 2nd February.

We arrived in a rainy Florida on Sunday night after a long wait at the airport, which made us miss our connecting flight from Newark. We finally got on a connecting flight and found our hotel in Orlando. We had a good night's sleep since we had been up a long time. On Monday we went to Universal Studios to have some fun. It is a really awesome theme park with a lot of great attractions. We rode a rollercoaster that was so cool. I have it on film so hopefully I can put it on Youtube so you can see how cool it was. After the day at Universal we went to Sears to buy some tools and stuff. Everything is so cheap compared to Sweden. I was looking for a Sports shop to buy some running shoes since they are very cheap here. We found a big Sports Authority at one mall and I found the shoes I was looking for. I also found some exercise equipment I have been looking for in Sweden but couldn'?t find there. After this we went to Wal-Mart to buy some food. We were at the mall about two hours and had so much fun there. It is so cheap at this kind of mall so it is really fun to go there. We were only supposed to buy some breakfast but we ended up with a trolley packed with stuff.

Today we have been to the world?'s largest Harley-Davidson dealer based in Daytona Beach. An awesome place with a lot of bikes and accessories. On the way up to Daytona Beach we stopped by MTC Engineering to visit their shop. To our big surprise we met Dave Beck from Great Britain there. He was there to pick up some stuff for his new bike. After that we went to buy some stuff for our ladies. You have to collect some extra points when you are away at a trip like this. Tomorrow we are heading to Gainesville to get everything ready for the school and hopefully the weather should be fine. The forecast says it is going to rain on Friday but we hope that is not going to happen.

Update 2 - Friday 5th February.

Another couple of days in Florida and we have done so much during these days and I have been so tired every evening I haven'?t had the energy to write about everything.

On our way from Orlando to Gainesville we stopped by Don Garlits Drag Racing Museum. An awesome place with a lot of cool cars and bikes.

The main thing I should be talking about is the Drag School. We have completed our two days at the school and I am so happy and satisfied with the results. I have made my first four launches ever on a Pro Stock bike and now I realize that there is some pretty big power in these bikes.

To my big surprise NHRA Pro Stock rider Karen Stoffer attended the same school as us. She was there to learn to ride the bike in a new way. She is a really professional sportswoman and it was a real honour to go to the same school as her.

We started to learn the staging process and the burnout first. After that we learned how to launch and in the first session we just did it to 60 foot. IN the next session we did the same procedure but we shifted to second and third gear to 330 foot. Then we went into the classroom and watched the films of all the students. It is really good to see everything on film and also to get feedback on what is happening. After this we got out and did one more session to 660 foot. Since I am used to a street bike clutch I like to slide the clutch a little bit too much instead of just flip it right out. Then we went in to the classroom again and watched our last run. We got feedback and also we talked about how we work both mentally and physically. Everything made so much sense when George Bryce tells us how it is and he explains everything so well.

That was it for the first day and we just got to the hotel and ate some food and then went to bed straight away since my brain was really full of information. We started day two with more theoretical sessions and learned more about how humans work. The weather forecast wasn'?t so good but we hoped that the weather gods were wrong this time.

We got out in cloudy weather and we started to run the bikes. Right before it was my time to run (I was almost last) I felt some drops of water on my head. But the rain waited just enough for me to make my run. Now it was time to make my first 1000-foot run and I was really keen to do a good run. On my last run I flipped the clutch good but I didn?t rev it so much. This time I reved it good but I did a little double clutch. Despite that, I got away from the start really well and did a nice straight run and shut off at 1000-foot mark. I really felt that the bike was going straight and I did my first eight ever on a 1/4 mile despite shutting off before the 1000-foot mark. I ran an 8.62 and that is almost one second faster than my personal best on my GSXR. When I heard the number I was so happy and got a lot of good feedback on that run.

Unfortunately the rain came just after my run and we couldn'?t do any more passes. So we just had a couple of hours in the classroom talking about our rounds and got some feedback.

The school is the best investment and the coolest thing I have ever done in my racing career. I can truly recommend it to anyone that is thinking about racing a Pro Stock bike. For more info about the class and Star racing visit their website www.starracing.com.

Update after homecoming.

On Saturday we went to Daytona Beach again since we heard that it was the Daytona Speedweek this week. We got to the track on the morning to see if they had some tickets left and it was no problem. They had the NASCAR Budweiser Shootout on the evening and we got some really nice tickets in the main grandstand. I was impressed with the NASCAR racing. It was my first time on a NASCAR event and I have never realized before how cool it is with 300km/h average speed and with more than 20 cars fighting on every lap.

The week went really fast and we had a great time with a lot of memories and laughs.

Since we couldn´t finish our two last runs we can come back at any time and do those at a later time. Maybe I will go back next year. Time will tell what'?s happening after this season?.

You will find some more pictures of the trip on www.lyrenmotorsport.com at the end of this week.

Tuesday 26th January: Time to get serious.

Last weekend we were in Örebro for the Speedgroup meeting and also the UEM/FIA prize giving. The prize giving was part of the Swedish Bilsportgala and I was really impressed with how professional the Gala was. I picked up the third prize for Martin Bishop in Pro Stock Bike since he couldn't come to the Gala and Roger picked up the third prize for Rikard Gustafsson in Top Fuel Bike. Nice food, and a lot of drag racers were there.

The last couple of days the focus has been on the Finnish guy's bike. They are having a show in Finland this weekend and he is going to show the bike there. The bike will not be finished but we will get the frame from UCC on Wednesday and the plan is to have a rolling chassis without engine but with the bodywork on. They are coming to pick up the chassis on Thursday morning so we have a lot of work ahead of us. We got the last part of the fairing today and will start with that this evening.

So the trip to US and Frank Hawley Drag School is heading up really fast and I am starting to get a little nervous. It will be my first time on a Pro Stock Bike but I think I will quickly learn how to ride it. I have watched a lot of drag racing movies on the Internet about Pro Stock Bike riders so I already know how to drive the bike mentally. There is just the practical left...

The plane leaves Stockholm on Sunday morning and we will arrive in Orlando in the evening (local time). We are planning to go visit some other places like Universal Studios and the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing. Since the School is on Thursday-Friday we will have some time to do some other stuff too, like shopping for tools and so on.

Wednesday 20th January: Filling in on filling in.

Last weekend we made the last touches before paint on the bodywork. On Thursday we are going to put the primer on it so we can leave it for paint as soon as possible. A lot of reinforcement and filling has been done to make it strong and also look good. You have to be careful not to put too much filler on it since the body will get heavy very fast. It is a fine line between a strong heavy body and a light weak body. You want both the light one and the strong one so you should not just fill every little hole on it with filler since it probably will be very heavy.

This weekend Roger and I are going to Örebro to attend the Speedgroup meeting and also the FIA/UEM banquet. I am going to collect the third prize for Martin Bishop in Pro Stock Bike since he cannot make it this weekend and Roger will collect the third price for Rikard Gustafsson in Top Fuel Bike.

We are planning to leave the body with Jensen on our way to Örebro since Kungsör is in the same direction. Hopefully he will be finished with that quite fast so we can continue the work to get the bike race ready.

I am going to the doctor on Thursday to get my medical certificate for the Drag School and also for the UEM licence. It shouldn't be a problem for me since I am still young and don't have a long medical history. This is the last piece of the puzzle before everything is set for my trip to the USA and the Drag School.

Wednesday 13th January: Waiting for the bus.

Saturday we had the work day on the bus. As you can see on the pictures it is far from finished. Soon we will hopefully be back to where we started before all the tearing down. The big difference now is that everything is replaced and strengthened up.

Friday 8th January: A Work Weekend beckons.

Time is running away but we are working almost every day with both the bike and the bus. We took a little trip to the guy who is going to paint the bike and looked at some suggestions. His name is Bo Jensen and is a very famous bike and car painter here in Sweden. When we arrived to his big old house in Kungsör he was painting this big painting of a wave with watercolour. We have told him a little bit how we want the bike to look, but otherwise he has free hand on doing something really special. You can see more of Bo Jensen and his work on his web site at www.bossejensen.com.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we have a big work day on the bus. Many of the team members are coming to help us out to get the bus ready in time. After the weekend I will write a little bit about that project and now that we finally bought a new camera I can take some pictures to show you.

I just bought myself a motocross bike to have for exercise and to play with on the days I need to get away from working on the bike and bus. I have not ridden motocross bikes since I was twelve years old so I am very excited to start riding again. The plan is to take a ride on Sunday if it isn't super cold, as it was a couple of days ago.

Monday 4th January: Back to work.

In the last couple of weeks we have taken some time off from building the bike and bus but this weekend we started again. We worked on the bike the whole of Saturday to straighten the bodywork and the Dzus fasteners. I also mounted the side and the bottom panels.

The chassie is nearly ready for paint so now we are going to strip it down completely and send it to Unique Custom Cycles so they can measure and build another frame similar to this one. They have made this frame from the beginning and they will also do the next frame that a Finnish guy will ride for 2010. Roger and I will be building that bike also along with our own bike.

Yesterday (Sunday) we did some work on the bus. Fortunately we had the luck to find a garage with big doors so we can store the bus and have a place to work on it. It is a little bit cold to stand outside and work on it since it is about -20 C here right now. We have a lot of hours left to do there since we had to tear the whole inside and replace almost all the beams.

It is just one month left until my trip to US and Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School and I am very excited. I think it is going to be a very cool experience and it will be the first time I ever ride a Pro Stock Bike ever. We will be leaving Sweden on 31st January and we will be back home on 8th February. The school is for two days with both theoretical lessons in classroom and also a lot of riding on the bike. They are using four-valve 1500 cc engines with about 250 hp and 15" tires. It is a little different from my new bike but I think it is good to start with. My old bike had only 175 hp so it will be a little bit different feeling I guess... The bike is also equipped with Racepak computers so they can record every run.

Unfortunately I don't have so many pictures of the project right now but I will take some new pictures and show more on the next Blog update.

Tuesday 29th December: Introducing Kalle.

As announced earlier the Veidec Racing Pro Stock Bike Team will be fielding two bikes for 2010. It is going to be me, Karl Lyrén, who is one of the riders. With Roger Lyrén as my father I have almost been raised at the race track. I am twenty two years old and have raced in the Toyo Scandinavian Series in Super Gas Bike for two years. I ended as runner-up in the series for 2009. The other rider will be the European Champion from 2006, Anders Abrahamsson.

We are very proud that Veidec are giving us the opportunity to run the Veidec Pro Stock Bike Team in the coming years. There has been a lot of interest among other companies and we have a few other partners who will join us this year as MotoSpeed, Shoei, RK Chain, Pro Imp (Mickey Thompson), Performance Machine, Dynatek, Vance & Hines, Psycle Workz, Volvo Din Bil, Swecomposite and many others. More partners will be presented continuously.

I don't have any experience as a rider of a Pro Stock Bike so for me the 2010 season is going to be learning how to handle the bike. I will be travelling to Florida in February to go to Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School.

The bike is going to be all new and built in Sweden. UCC has made the frame and we have done all the other things. The bike is almost done with some minor things left to do such as paint, side panels and wheelie bar mounts. We are working almost every day to complete the bike as soon as possible.

We have invested in a new bus to transport the team around Europe. It is an old Formula 1 Boat bus. Since the bus didn't have enough beds and sleeping areas we have to rebuild the whole inside of the bus. Right now we are strengthening the rear end and soon we can we will start to build up the new interior.

I have been chosen to be a part of a Swedish élite team for young motorsport drivers. There is a total of about forty drivers from all Sweden and many different sports as Speedway, Trial, Enduro, Motocross and Supermoto. Drag racing got one spot last year and I was chosen to fill that spot. We will meet three times a year to do physical tests and we get mental help to improve our results at the track. I am very proud to be a part of this and will do everything to keep my spot.

I want to thank Eurodragster.com for this opportunity to be a Blogger here. You can find a lot of pictures and more information about the construction of the bike at www.lyrenmotorsport.com.