BikeWeekend in Västerås is one of Swedish motorbike dragracing's yearly highlights. Last year it was cancelled so this year expectations were high.
Us Vmaxers had kindly been offered our own class and 8 of us came that Saturday to race.

After the briefing and a quick breakfast we were chatting in the "pit area" awaiting our turn

Kim wasn't allowed to use his open helmet...	Morning exercise?	The riders briefing	Our flag hoisted in the pit area. They wouldn't allow it on the strip...

Saturday was qualification runs only. You get a couple of try runs and the times are used to put the ladder together, the idea being that the fastest riders during qualifications will meet in the finals...
After each run we got our time slips which we compared and shared our experiences. It was a short 1/8-mile track and we ran mostly around 7.5 seconds 155 kph top speed. Everyone had a really great time.
We met a Danish Maxer, Rene Hansen, who rode a chain converted, flatslide and NOS equipped Max. Luckily for us he wasn't competing in our class but in "Pro Street Bike".
We got a a couple of short showers but the sun quickly came back and dried the track so the racing could continue.

Rene Hansen's Pro Street Max	Rene warming up	Maxes on the strip	Kim and Per

An all time record of sixteen different classes were racing, from the fastest and most spectacular professional and semi-professional classes like Super Twin Top Fuel and Funny Bike, to snowmobiles and ordinary street bikes. A huge crowd of spectators, speaker, stunt show and a generally festive atmosphere.

Between the runs our Maxes were lined up for the next. Beside us were the crotch rockets from "Street Bike Shoot-out", behind us the cruisers from "Custom Twin Drag" but our Maxes stole the backstage show by attracting noticeably more attention from people coming up to have a look.

We got four runs during the day and we would have had another one if it hadn't been for that last afternoon shower. When it dried up they decided that only the fastest classes would get a another run.

Jens and Erik smoking tyres	Jens and Erik opening throttles	Anders	Burgers for lunch
The Snowmobile ran low fives... The Maxes in the background	Lined up on the strip	Lined up in the pit area	Charley Karling and his Super Twin Top Fuel bike Movie clip (2 Mb mpeg)

For the Sunday eliminations our starting field was pretty even, with the exception on Jens Gran who consistently had ran almost half a second faster than his closest competitor. But the first run would show that nothing is for granted in dragracing. After a bad launch with a slight wheelie he found himself beaten by Kjell Nilsson who this time around got everything right and improved his qualification ET by 0.2 seconds.

Sunday morning before eliminations	Happy Maxers: Gustav, Stefan, Jens, Kjell and Kim	Semi finals. Gustav v/s Kjell	Per v/s Anders

At the finals Anders was on the right track and Kjell on the left. Anders rode slightly faster but got a slow start. The reaction time made the difference and Kjell was ahead by 0.063 over the finishing line.
At the prize ceremony the both got cups and Kjell also got engine oil, a gift certificate and some flowers.

Finals. Kjell v/s Anders	The prize ceremony	The restaurant by the harbour

Before parting and riding our separate ways we went to a restaurant by the harbour. Slightly exhausted but very happy after a really fun weekend.

Results, times and a couple of additional pictures at the official site here

Lots of more pictures here: Saturday Sunday

Thanks to:
Jens Gran for organizing the weekend
The BikeWeekend management for granting us our own Vmax class.