Stockholm street action from late last night (30/4-06) + some history

[Mefirst]

DISCLAIMER... The post and pics are Illegal Street Racing related. If you do NOT accept illegal street racing, DO NOT continue to read the post... I will not take part in any moral discussion about it.. This illegal race is highly organised and many steps have been taken to see to public and the participants safety.. -Please do not try this yourself, take care and drive safe...

A little history...

Street Racing has been raced here in Stockholm since the late 70´s. The first real organised race went under the name "Ropstens Racet" back in 1982, this first race was won by a 440 Challenger. In 1983 the race got its new name that has stuck ever since, "Stockholm Open". The race was one night only, winner takes it al. The race was run on the street until 1993 when it was moved to an old airfield. Then it was again back on the street in 1995 cause the airfield was no longer open to the racers. In 1996 the race was again back on a prepped race track, run on a couple of different close down airfields over the following years. Then in 2003 politicians decided to close down the race track that had more or less already been promised to remain as a permanent track, reason was "noise pollution". Again the racers took to the streets. This event saw the birth of a new illegal Cup, the Birka Cup. This cup consists of 5 race nights during the summer months. Stockholm Open is still around, but more or less a "one night only" The Birka Cup is mostly raced by local racers with a couple of racers further away. Stockholm Open draws participants from al over Sweden...

The name Stockholm Open is said to be related to the Tennis Tournament with the same name, reason is that the tennis court where the Stockholm Open tennis tournament is played, is located close to where the racers compeeting in SO first meet.
The largest number of competitors was in 1984 with 64 racers ready to do battle on the street.

30.04.06 at Zulu-time
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

First Birka Cup race for this season. Weather is cold (what else is new). About 26 racers show up to do battle and race for points.
My buddy decided to take part, so me and another buddy joined in as "crew" for him. First race was against a 69 Camaro.

We met up with the Camaro guy and decided where to race.



At the spot, tires are warmed up and getting ready to beat the Camaro..





Well lo and behold, the 4spd Camaro was a quick b..turd. Then again grip was a problem due to the cold weather. Buddy in the Cuda could not hit the N2O cause of traction problems, so the cars where neck and neck at the finish line (race is driven 1/8mile). I also have to say I never seen anyone hammer a 4spd like the guy in the Camaro did.. (Note! In the pic the Camaro has the lead, but the Cuda is hunting it down with vengeance)



In the right side of the pic you can see a person in a red jacket, this is the finish line judge. She could not say which one of the cars won, they were so close. Well the race is run again, this time at a different location cause the local law inforcement people have decided to show up.







Right after this pic was taken the sneaky law enforcement people showed up and put the heat on everyone at the site. They were able to sneak up in an unmarked police car, reason was that there was not enough block cars, so the police car could sneak up on us (everyone was looking at the race cars, with no idea what was about to happen behind our backs) Well the race cars got away, but my buddy got a ticket cause his car was the car parked right in front of the unmarked cop car making it impossible for the cops to go chase down the race cars.
Well another thing also happend, time had run out. Racers have 1.5h to compleat the race and winner has to report in his victory before this time is up. With time running out the guys decided to just flip a coin, so at least one of them could continue. My buddy won the flip of the coin, but sadly his call was 2 minutes to late according to the race official, so both of them were out of the race....

Personal wiev on this topic..

I do not condone illegal racing as long as it´s driven organised and out side city limmits on roads with a divider between traffic and organisers who see to that the crowd is held back and under controll. This you can clearly see in the pictures I posted. Speed is also kept down cause the cars only race 1/8mile (201meters). Then again speed is becoming a problem these days, many of the top cars are full blooded race cars capable of low 9sec 1/4mile times. Also I don´t agree with the organisers point of wive, that the cup is for street cars, there is nothing "street" about the top cars competing anymore. The cars are like I already wrote, real balls to the wall race cars. Me and my buddies had a long discussion about this later the same night and I know allot of other people feel the same way that the Birka Cup has become something that it was not meant to be. Personally I think it´s time to step back from it and start over with real street cars compeeting and in a much smaller scale than it is today. Then again on the street the rule is simple -Bring what you got, and hope you got enough! But the top cars driven in the Birka Cup today have just gone over the top..

[greenpigs]

Yep, looked like fun.

[RD]

I just think its awesome that american muscle rules the streets globally!

[Charger_Fan]

I can see your point that the "street car" thing has gotten out of hand. It sounds like it would be hard to talk those guys in the Cuda & Camaro (and others) into not racing their cars though, since there's no track to run them at. That would effectively render them as garage queens.

I am impressed however, that you guys have taken appropriate safety measures regarding spectators & other traffic. You even have an ambulance waiting there! In most cases around here, there would be little or none of that.

I just think its awesome that american muscle rules the streets globally!

 

[derailed]

cool pics   

[Silver R/T]

nice shots, wish they would allow that here