News 2006
Victory and personal best for Lex Joon in Norway!
Lex Joon raced to his first FIA Top Fuel win of the 2006 season. Lex beat Thomas Nataas in the final with a time of 4.946 sec at 292.21 mph at the Exporama Drag Challenge at Gardermoen Norway.
After struggling the first day in qualifying Lex and Sebastian Visser (tuner) decided to change the complete tune up for the car.
The second day of qualifying was going so much better. After a 700 ft check out pass we already managed to run a 4.98 sec.
This gave us the #4 qualifying position and the confidence to go into race day the next day.
First round we were up against Hakan Fallstrom which we beat with a 4.762/ 296.05 mph against 6.859/ 21.09 mph of Fallstrom. The 4.7 run was a new personal best and the 4th quickest run ever made in Europe. Knowing the blower belt let go at 900 ft we knew there was still more in the car.
Second round we are up against Hakan Nilsson. At that time he was the points leader. We defeated him with a great run. Lex ran 4.849/ 292.21 mph against Nilsson 5.024/ 271.08 mph with a track temperature over 110 F.
By defeating Nilsson we were facing the Norwegian local hero Thomas Nataas in the final. Of course he was the big favourite in this match up on his home track. Lex did what he had to do and won the final! Lex ran 4.946/ 292.21 mph against Nataas 6.717/ 134.73 mph.
This is a tough place to race," Joon said. "This weekend was very hard. The track temperatures were very high. To get through all that and win my first race here in Top Fuel with all 4 second runs it's pretty special."
"It's been a while since I've won. You know you got all what it takes but to prove it can sometimes be really difficult. Sebastian Visser (tuner) and all our sponsors stayed behind me and kept me going. I got to the final in this race and I just decided I wasn't going to let Thomas take it away from me.
Our next race will be the Nitrolympics at the Hockenheim F1 circuit in Germany. At this event we will be racing against the NHRA racer Brady Kalivoda and other European Top Fuel racers. After that we will be going to Santa Pod raceway for the last FIA event.
We want to thank everybody who stood behind us and made it happen to bring us this victory.
Corr leaves MPM TF team.
FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion Lex Joon has announced that Crew Chief Eddie Corr has left the MPM Top Fuel team. Eddie, who tuned Lex to last year's Championship win and previously tuned Andy Carter to two FIA titles, stepped down yesterday having taken a break after the FIA Main Event at which Lex went out in the first round of eliminations.
"Eddie has been a great asset to the MPM Top Fuel team and leaves us on the best of terms”, says Lex Joon. "However, after we won last year's Championship at the expense of a lot of engine-related parts we agreed that certain things needed a different approach for the 2006 season. We did not get the result we expected from the FIA Main Event and so we both agreed that it is better to part ways. Eddie is a marvellous guy and he will always be welcome in our pit, and he has given us an insight into a lot of the little tricks of Top Fuel which no-one knows about, but sometimes things just don't work out."
Sebastian Visser, who first worked with Lex as Crew Chief on his Top Methanol FC in 2001 and then joined the Top Fuel team in 2005, has been promoted to tuner of the MPM Top Fuel Dragster and will call the shots together with Lex. "Bas and I already have experience of tuning the Top Fuel Dragster", says Lex, "as we tuned it last year at events which Eddie could not attend."
Henri Joosten's former Crew Chief Hans Brings has also joined the MPM Top Fuel team as mechanical Crew Chief. "I'm excited about the qualitied which Hans bring to the table", says Lex. "Working with Henri Joosten over the years Hans has proven that he has the ambition, skills and qualities it takes to direct this team to victory. Hans, who started his career more than twenty years ago, is thrilled to step up and start working in the world of Top Fuel."
Lex says that he is confident of retaining his Championship. "We know how to solve the issues we have had with head gaskets, and I know that we are up to getting the Championship again", he says.
The first race of the FIA European Dragracing Championship at Santa Pod Raceway did not give Lex Joon the results he was aiming for. Due to strong different track conditions the team did not find the set up for the 7000 HP race car. Very fast times until the 1/8 mile could not be transformed into the results they wanted because after the 1/8 mile the MPM Top Fueler overpowered the track. 
The first qualifying run gave Lex an excellent time of 4.87 seconds. Especially the low top end speed of 239 mph showed the team there was much more to go for.
The second qualifying run was superb until the 1/8 mile but after the 1/8 the car went up in smoke and Lex had to lift the throttle to save the engine. The engine blew a head gasket and the team had to change the engine for the last qualifying run.
So we all put our hopes on the last qualifying session. Because of the rain we had on Saturday there were only 3 qualifying runs for the whole weekend. And this was the one we were looking for. But the car made so much horsepower it drove trough the clutch and we were qualified nr 3 at the end of the day. 
This put us in eliminations against Hakan Fallstrom. Lex was out of the gate first and had a 60 ft of 0.842 seconds. (His quickest ever!) Things were looking good. But after the 1/8 mile trouble showed up again. The track could not handle the horsepower the MPM Top Fueler was making and the rear tires went up in smoke. Lex tried to peddle it 3 times but just before the finish line Hakan Fallstrom drove by to take the win.
Next race will be June 30 – July 2 at Alstaro in Finland.
Photo's: Remco Scheelings
We are very proud to tell you that we have signed a multi-year contract with B&M, one of the more prestigious companies in the USA, which has been involved in drag racing from day one.
B&M call themselves "A company of firsts", and that combined with the fact that they want to expand their exposure in Europe gave me the opportunity to
get them on board our MPM Top Fuel Racing programme. B&M started their business in the 1950s and are well known for their high-performance race converters and shifters.
One of our targets is to have European Sportsman racers benefit by supplying B&M products to them at the track. More will be announced about this soon.
You can find B&M on the web at http://www.bmracing.com
Getting B&M on board is also the next step in getting our USA programme together. There are still a lot of things to look at and take care of, but work continues and attracting Corporate America to our team is high on our list. Photo: Remco Scheelings Check out our new hero card. Come by our pits and make sure you get it signed by Lex.
Check out the new driversblog which Lex and Eurodragster have started.
