Anderson Returns To Pro Stock Seat, Ålund’s Cinderella Stint Over

Jimmy Ålund wanted another Wally statue to take home to Sweden.

Greg Anderson wanted his NHRA Pro Stock race car back.

An aggressive Anderson, eager to resume his normal routine following heart surgery to correct an abnormal valve, got his wish this week.

His doctor pronounced him fit to return to Mello Yello Drag Racing Series action, a few weeks ahead of schedule. So he’s set to drive his red KB/Summit Racing Camaro again, starting at this weekend’s O’Reilly SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway at Baytown, Texas.

Photos courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

Ålund, who won the Four-Wide Nationals at Charlotte, will attend the suburban-Houston event but will not drive again as teammate to Jason Line in the blue Camaro. He’ll be observing and supporting the KB/Summit team that supplies the engines for his own Jerry Haas-built Camaro that he races in FIA competition throughout Europe. As of this Monday, he was not scheduled to drive, although his name is on the NHRA’s event entry list.

The arrangement was for him to substitute for Anderson at the first six races this season, and he was planning to complete this sixth race, at Houston.

A seasoned professional with the current FIA European Pro Stock championship among his eight crowns, Ålund understood the arrangement. Still, he said he had been hoping to compete at Houston and to earn one more victory in the U.S. before his FIA season begins May 23-26 at Santa Pod Raceway in the U.K.

Two days after being presented his first Wally statue, he teased, “Wally said to me this morning he might need to have a buddy . . . a two-wide buddy.”

Regrettably, this Wally will go across the Atlantic by itself to Norrköping, Sweden.

I wouldn’t hesitate one bit to be out here full-time. I would jump on that immediately if sponsorship money came through. At the same time, it’s got to be with this group of guys.

Ålund said if he were to get the chance to compete in a full NHRA season, he’d be all in.

“I wouldn’t hesitate one bit to be out here full-time. I would jump on that immediately if sponsorship money came through. At the same time, it’s got to be with this group of guys,” he said, referring to the KB team. “I wouldn’t go anywhere else, that’s for sure.”

His stint with KB/Summit Racing wasn’t his first taste of American competition. He entered four NHRA races (the Charlotte spring event; Atlanta, Englishtown, N.J.; and Joliet, Ill.) in 2010, but he failed to qualify at any of them. So this was by far his best, if limited, opportunity to win here.

“I knew I could drive a Pro Stock car. I’ve been doing it for years,” Ålund said. “It’s the same cubic inches, same rules, same weight. But I knew it would be a learning curve over here.”

His European crew is the same he has worked with for about a decade, so their routine is well-established, almost second nature. Getting used to a completely new group of individuals who instinctively meshed with Anderson was another matter, he said.  

So Ålund said he knew what he was up against: “In the U.S., you are running against the best of the best. After all, this is the home of drag racing, so you expect that. This is where drag racing was born. We don’t race full-time in Europe like the pro teams do here, but racing is racing—we are just as competitive as the racers in America.”

He called this fill-in assignment “a great opportunity for me to show that to American race fans.”

By the time he was finished, in just five races, Ålund had done that and more. He became the first European NHRA winner and only the fourth non-American winner in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. Moreover, he did so the hard way, defeating three times as many racers as he normally would have to.

“To be able to outrun nine cars in one day – and against drivers and teams that I’ve been looking up to [while] racing in Europe is pretty awesome,” he said.

Ålund said he was not totally surprised by his triumph. Although he had struggled a bit with the Christmas tree at the start of the year, he had progressed overall by the fourth race, at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He was setting and resetting his career-best numbers – and working up the nerve, he joked, to go ahead and order a plane ticket to the next race:”If I had trouble at the starting line, I don’t think I would have booked a flight. But it all worked out.”

He qualified in the top half of the field (also a career first) at Las Vegas and earned his first win-lights in U.S. competition, outpedaling Vincent Nobile and blasting ahead through significant tire shake, then eliminating Jeg Coughlin on a holeshot for a semifinal effort.

To be able to outrun nine cars in one day – and against drivers and teams that I’ve been looking up to [while] racing in Europe is pretty awesome.

 

He lost to teammate Line in the semifinal, but beating Coughlin was a coup, he said.

“I’ve been watching what he has been doing over the years as a driver, and I know he is one of the best out here. Putting him on the trailer for the team made my day,” Ålund said, knowing a KB/Summit car would be in the final.

Wife Anna joined him at Las Vegas, and he was motivated to do well for her and a contingent of Swedish fans and followers.

Anderson was there at Las Vegas, too. Ålund said he was happy to see him, too.

“It was better to have him [there],” Ålund said. “From my point of view, we work well together. We have the same thoughts on a lot of things on the car and on the set-up, too. I would say that working with Greg was making me even more comfortable than I was before.”

But surely he sensed that the closer Anderson got to the action, the more he longed to be back in the seat. Nevertheless,Ålund said, “Everything is going good with the team, and it’s starting to work. In Vegas, I could feel it coming all together for us.”

His hunch was right. He went to Charlotte and again qualified in the top half of the order en route to the victory.

“This means a lot,” Ålund said of his achievement. “I have a lot of wins in Europe, but this is something special.”

If not before, he knew then that yielding the seat back to Anderson would be as hard as it was for Anderson to see somebody else driving his red Camaro.

“It will be hard to climb out of the seat,” Ålund said. “We have a really great group of people in Pro Stock, and I’ve had a great time. The Summit Racing guys are awesome, and everyone is laughing and having a good time. I think that’s a key ingredient.”

 Anderson told the media, “For the first time in my life I’ve had to sit on the sidelines, and it’s been tough. Now it’s time to get back in the car. When you’re a racer, you’re a racer. And when you’re away from the racetrack, life isn’t right.”

His life is bounding toward the familiar again. Ålund’s is, too, in a different sort of way. For Anderson, he’s living his passion again. For Ålund, he’s still living his passion, too. He’s returning to the turf where he dominated, where he was No. 1 qualifier at all six of last year’s races and won five of the six events. At the same time, he’s recognizing that his passion is deepening and that he’s leaving behind some of his greatest accomplishments. And he doesn’t want the memories to be as far away emotionally as they are geographically.

Ålund won’t have to commute more than 5,000 miles each way and won’t have to worry about juggling his racing interests with those of his repair shop for American cars in Sweden.    

“We repair both newer style American cars and older cars, like muscle cars. I am also a distributor for KW Parts, which is my main sponsor over there. It’s like a small speed shop,” Ålund said. His business partner of about 20 years deals with day-to-day operations when he’s gone.

“It’s great, but I’m sure he’s had his hands full since I’m gone so much,” he said. But he indicated he was more than content with the crazy logistics of his American adventure.

Just after winning the Four-Wide Nationals – cause for celebration in Sweden, as well – Ålund said he loved Anderson’s Camaro. And he enjoyed what it could do. He happily signed more autographs than he could count: “I put my name on everything!”

Greg told me in Pomona to ‘drive like I stole it’ — and I’m actually thinking about stealing it right now.

He and that hot red Camaro were beginning to be an item, headed for a drag-racing sort of love triangle.

The speedy Swede said, “Greg told me in Pomona to ‘drive like I stole it’ — and I’m actually thinking about stealing it right now.”

But Anderson “stole” the car back sooner than expected. He did some testing Monday in his red rocket, and with that, the caretaker of the Camaro was back on the sideline.

“It’s been a pleasure,” Ålund said of his Cinderella stint. “I hope I left a mark.”

He certainly did.

About the author

Susan Wade

Celebrating her 45th year in sports journalism, Susan Wade has emerged as one of the leading drag-racing writers with 20 seasons at the racetrack. She was the first non-NASCAR recipient of the prestigious Russ Catlin Award and has covered the sport for the Chicago Tribune, Newark Star-Ledger, St. Petersburg Times, and Seattle Times. Growing up in Indianapolis, motorsports is part of her DNA. She contributes to Power Automedia as a freelancer writer.
Read My Articles

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