Yeah baby!!! ITS CHEVELLE TIME!!! 🙂

Im on an entry list again, let’s bring out the Chevelle and go back where I belong!

Yes, it’s time for some Outlaw Top Doorslammer Racing, Screw Blower and Big Block Chevys again!

The huge disappointment of the turn the 2024 season took in England really upset me after all the preparation and effort I put into this season… What makes it even more frustrating is that I regret doing it and I should have spent the time on my own car instead… If I did, I at least would have invested the time in stuff that I still would have… And I live to do this, this is my life and that is something some people cannot understand.

So, it’s time to test the things I haven’t tested on the Chevelle for a couple of years now! In 2022 Tierp was the only place to test it but we did have other issues with the car on that event so I never got the chance!..

About a 3 weeks ago I entered the Summit Racing Equipment Internationals at Tierp Arena 8-11 of August! I want to go there and try to use the motor / stuff I got in my head for real and the only goal is to put a 3.7? number on the scoreboard!

Then the weekend after that we will go back home to my home track where my home motor club SHRA Vansbro-Äppelbo arrange the event Dala Street Open at Dala-Järna Raceway 17-18 of August! It was great last year even that the weather made it a one day event, so this year I really look forward to two days of exhibition rounds and trying to go as fast at possible!

So right now me and John the Sneaky Snake are at the ÅBM Shop to start make a real overhaul on the Chevelle!

I haven’t serviced it like it deserve after the 2022 season because I have spent my time on other things!…

Let’s have some fun, it’s time to go into that 3.7? zone!


The rest of the planned schedule for The Pro Mod Parkinson Tour In 2024 is cancelled!

I feel that I need to say something and explain parts of the situation because a lot of people are contacting me and are cheering on us about the race at Tierp Arena next weekend. I have waited to try find a god way to say it, instead of in the probably angry way! Don’t want to offend people even more…

Like I wrote when me and Daniel got back to the shop after the trip from England “The weekend ended in a way I didn’t want it to end and I need to figure out what to do from now on!”

It hurts in my heart to announce this but for personal reasons I decided almost 2 weeks ago when we packed up at Santa Pod after the Main Event that I cannot continue with this after I was told I’m too into what I’m doing! And because of that I’m treating people wrong / offending people. (This is the nice and really short version of what happened) but I do not wanna make a bigger thing of this, everything is destroyed like it is already.

Everyone that have been in a race team knows that all of the people need to work in the same direction, and it won’t work if someone spent their time to find problems with people… Things goes wrong and unexpected situations happens!… That’s called one more day in life!

I can’t accept that someone is telling me that I’m too into what I’m doing like it’s a bad thing when I see this as a job and even more a job when I’m on the race track! (A 24/7 job without a paycheck) I have explained to people over the years that this is a job, it’s A LOT of money involved, it’s even more time involved to make reality of a circus like this. That’s the reason I have had people in the team that I could not work with that had to quit, some people understand this way of life. Others do not!

I have spent my life since August 2023 to make this season possible, and during off season I have messed up my personal life and my job! All because I spent time on this to do it as good as possible.

This could have been a really good start on the season, with some luck we managed to go all the way to the semi finals! And that gave us points to end up in the fourth position in the European Championship after the first event for the year! That felt good but at the same time now it does not matter at all…

And, I did all of this for Jörgen! I wanted to give back as much as possible to him for giving me this opportunity to drive and take care of his car! This year was a once in a lifetime deal for me, OF COURSE I TAKE IT SERIOUSLY!!…

I’m a do it or don’t do it person!

This was also a fun challenge for me to do something I never done before!…

And I want to show my partners that we are in this for real, I’m going to the race track to win not just to be a part of it! Nothing wrong with that if you ask me!

I have talked to all of my partners and they are all on my side in this, they are supporting me and want me to have fun and perform in the way I want! They understand that I’m not doing this as a thing just when I have time for it, I’m living and breathing Drag Racing!

When all this happened my heart said BRING OUT THE CHEVELLE because I’m angry about the situation! I want to go racing! And I feel a responsibility against my partners and everyone that I told we are doing this. And I have never ever before got myself off the entry list after entering an event!… But my brain said “don’t do it, it’s a huge amount of time and work to get the Chevelle ready because it hasn’t got the service it needed after our 2022 championship winning season! And I will not go there to half ass something!… I’m looking for my first 3.7? round in the car so I decided not to do it.

There is a lot of wasted money and time in this, money is something you can make new of but the time is something you never will get back and that hurts the most!…

Next, the Vette could have been a fast car and it feels really bad because I’m not done at all with it! 14 rounds at Santa Pod gave me exactly what I wanted as a season start and the last round I made is the best on the car with a 3.98 to 1/8 and 6.09 to 1/4 with a speed of 230 mph / 370 km/h, still a really bad round because I went into a shake did pedal, shifted way early.. I started to find the power and the tuning, but not all the way down the track… 60ft is ok around .95-.97 pretty much all the time, would have needed some more rounds in it and it would have been fast!!

Photo by: Trevor Owens!

I want to say thanks to the ones that made the trip to Santa Pod possible, partners, team, family, you know who you are! 🙂

And I want to say a special thanks to Daniel for going with us with a really short notice, when Benkt for personal reasons had to make the decision not to go and stay home! Felt really bad for me because Benkt is one of the main people that made this trip possible to do!

Also a HUGE thanks to Klas, he got Max job during the winter because Max got a problem with his hip and because of that couldn’t be a part of the team in 2024! That’s also the first time in 12+ years that we did go to a race track without Max! And that felt really weird….

Klas that never been in a race team before took his job for real to 200%!! He did spend the winter working on the Lenco and learning it, he even made special tools to make it easier to work with the transmissions! I always find it hard to trust people but with Klas I never felt that once! It’s so easy to tell when a person takes his job for real, and Klas really did this for real and spent the time he needed to make a really good job! So thankful for having him with me during the events at Santa Pod!

Something that I’m really happy for is the attention we got when it comes to Parkinson with the Parkinson Warrior Vette! My plan with having it on the car, shirts, in social medias was to show that Jörgen is strong and that something like Parkinson disease won’t stop him doing what he love and wants, with the right help!

A lot of people bought a shirt just because of the reason that we are doing this for a good thing! Then I must say that I’m happy that so many people have reached out to me and told me that they appreciate that we did this for a good cause!

I even had a person that did call me and wanted to write something about this, but after the things that happened I felt that I’m not that interested in spending more time on this right now.

So, now instead of racing I will spend time fixing the situation at work and spend a lot of time at home with Sofi! Doing stuff in the garden, fix stuff on the house that should have been done for a long time but because of racing it hasn’t… Have a real vacation!

What’s next!? Well, stay tuned for more information!


Was about to warm up the motor for the first test pass today, turned on the power to check Co2 bottle pressure!

And I could see that the Racepak dash started to blink and did turn on the warning lights… Then I started to smell something electrical getting burnt!…

After some troubleshooting we found out that the v-net module for the oil pressure sensor had burned up!… Really strange because last night I did have the power turned on for 10-15 minutes doing some stuff with the Racepak and had no issues! Today it took 10 seconds and we did have a problem!!! 🙁

Dick Koster, our Racepak supplier at the track will soon be here with new parts for us so we can get the Vette ready again!

But first lunch!


And off the throttle at 5.95! Forgot where the finish line is!… 🙂

Now service and out in about 45 minutes again!


We are getting really close for take off to Santa Pod Raceway!

The Scania truck finally got back to the ÅBM shop Saturday last week after the repairs / freshen up that’s been made during the winter! And what a difference it is! Thanks to all involved in this that made it happen!

Then I spent some time messing around with it due to some air leaks, it’s so much fun with an old truck! But I succeeded to repair the valve that caused the leak after some work with it!…

Then I installed arm rests on the “new” drivers seat to make it even more comfortable! And I must say WOW what a difference it is to drive it now, that old park bench that was in it before was junk already when we bought it in 2017! This was money WELL spent for sure!

After that I cleaned out the cabin / dumpster really good, installed the generator on the truck and did put the truck and trailer together again and took the trip to Opus car inspection in Norrtälje for the yearly control of the truck and trailer!

And it looks like the hard work during the winter payed off, because both passed without any problems! Thanks for the great customer service as always at this control station!

Then when I got back to the shop John The Sneaky Snake came by and washed of the rig!

After that I did some last messing around with stuff that needed to be prepared, loaded in the trailer, organized in the trailer to be able to go to Ludvika to load up the Vette!

I have spent about 160 hours in the shop during 8 days trying to get work stuff done and the racing circus ready to leave for Santa Pod on Monday next week, I did finally leave the ÅBM shop way delayed on Thursday evening for Ludvika to drop of the rig and then directly home to Vansbro for something really important!

Celebrate the love of my life and best friend Sofi that’s turning 40 years young on Monday! When I’m in the Scania on my way to England!

Then 2 days back home in Vansbro relaxing some and having a good time and then back to Ludvika on Sunday and load up the Vette and the missing parts around it, trying to organize the trailer a bit because it’s ha HUGE mess right now….

After that back to the ÅBM shop on Sunday and then leave for England on Monday!

England and Santa Pod Raceway, see you in less than one week from right now! 😀

Stay tuned!


It’s a new year and a fresh start for Berg & Sjödin Motorsport, we hope you all had an awesome Christmas and New Year!

THANKS once again for 2023!

2023 was fun! And that’s all because Sjödin teamed up with Berg! The plan was to do some test rounds in 2023 with the Vette but we fell in love with each other so we will continue this love story in 2024 also!

We will do some FIA Pro Modified Dragracing with Jörgens Corvette -79 in season 2024! How much depends on fundings and help to make this possible!

But we know we will start our season at Santa Pod Raceway and The Doorslammers in May and then continue with FIA round 1 the weekend after at The Main Event!

We are looking for partners to team up with for 2024 to make our plans possible!

See y’all in 2024!

#thankstoallofyou #thankyou #family #fans #partners #sponsors #friends #dreamteam #dragracing #bergandsjodinmotorsport #fia #fiapromod #fiapromodified #fiadragracing #itsalongwaytothetopifyouwannarocknroll #jörgenberg #andreassjödin #corvette #pm #promod #promodified #lookingforpartners #weneedyourhelp #topdoorslammer #abmracing #sjodinmotorsport


Sorry, only in Swedish!

Om ni har missat avsnitten så lyssna på Marcus Mälströms Racerbilspodden avsnitt 93 och 94 på Spotify om Andreas Sjödin! (Jag babblade tydligen på bra så det blev 2 avsnitt! )

Kul grej i en podd jag lyssnat mycket på själv då jag känner till många som varit med i den!

Detta blev av väldigt spontant med bara några dagar från första kontakt till inspelning så det är väldigt oförberett, spontant och ärligt och precis så jag ville ha det!

Vi snackar om mig, från början och varför jag håller på med dragracing och sen såklart om Sjödin Motorsport / ÅBM Racing, då, nu och vad som ska komma!

Tack till Marcus för ett kul samtal som väckte många gamla minnen till liv igen! 🙂

Klicka på länkarna nedan och lyssna vetja!

Avsnitt 1 nedan!

Avsnitt 2 nedan!

#racerbilspodden #spotify #dragracing #andreassjödin #jörgenberg #corvette #promodified #chevelle #topdoorslammer #abmracing #sjodinmotorsport


 

If the Chevelle will leave the ÅBM shop during 2024 it will only be to visit my home track again in Vansbro / Dala Järna Raceway if it works out for us in the team and if my motor club SHRA Vansbro – Äppelbo will continue to be a part and arrange the race Dala Street Open again!

I decided a while ago that we won’t do any events in the Top Doorslammer Series in 2024.

Reason is that the 2022 wasn’t fun like it used to be except for the Tierp race and the one at Kauhava in Finland, they were both fun of course because we won them BUT the main reason they were fun was the amount of teams in the Top Doorslammer class at those 2 events!

When there is something to race for, when you need to work for real to get on the podium on Sunday you are attending a fun event, if you know you are in the top 3 already when you leave the shop and heading for the track it feels more like a waste of time!…

 

We were 14 cars at Tierp and 10 cars at Kauhava, I think it was 3 cars in Piteå and we did not go to that race due to the long distance to travel the week directly after Kauhava and also because of track conditions in earlier years that I haven’t been satisfied with, we were 3 cars in Sundsvall and 4 cars at the finals at Gardermoen.

I said in the end of 2021 that we will do 4 events and win the Top Doorslammer series for the first time in 2022, that was the game plan and so we did! And that’s also the reason why I did continue even that I saw the low numbers of cars in the coming events…. I went to Sundsvall and it turned out to be a really disappointing weekend, tricky track prep just like it have been for many years, its possible to go down slow but I’m not interested in making 4.30-4.50 passes on a race in the series, it must be way better conditions than that!…. Then we went to Gardermoen to secure the 2022 championship win that turned out to be a pretty ok weekend when it comes to the track! But it was way too cold to be able to use the power I wanted, but just like always the weather is the only thing we can’t control during a race weekend, but there is a lot of other things that can be and should be done better many times!

And then in the beginning of 2023 when the EDRS Top Doorslammer series came out I wasn’t so satisfied with it because it did not fit us at all, we can’t be away from work for more than 3 weeks to make Piteå, Kauhava and Sundsvall that were 3 weeks in a row that also include a lot if traveling that means it’s not possible to make time for work more than maybe 1 day per week, next thing is if we hurt something we will miss the next race! July is a typical vacation month for most people in Sweden and my team can’t spend 3 whole weeks on the road just for racing…

Drag racing in Sweden is still not a work that you get payed for, it’s just spending money! And the price money is not enough to pay for what it really cost, of course more partners would make it possible but still it’s too much time away from everything back home!

Then before the season started they added one more event in Piteå the weekend after that also is the same weekend as the TD race at Kauhava and that is a really strange thing to do if you ask me… And remember that today like it is it won’t be more than 2-3 cars at the race in Piteå so is it really a good thing to have two events two weekends in a row there? NO is what I say about that!…

Today there are too many teams that have ended their racing circus, cars have been sold or cars are stuck in the garages at home and haven’t seen the daylight for many years.

I felt that it will NOT be a good thing to bring more teams, but let’s see what happens during the season. Top Doorslammer was once a really fun and great class many years ago but for the last 5 years or so I really don’t know what is going on, for every year there is less cars competing in the class and I have said for many years that this will change, or I really hope because I live for the class and my car is a Top Doorslammer car and nothing else! But I’m starting to wonder if it ever will change to the better again…

 

Then what really happened during the 2023 Top Doorslammer season? First race at Tierp Arena it was only 8 cars in the class and if I remember correct 1 or 2 of them went into TD because they could not be a part of the class they should have due to some problems during the scrutineering, so in 2023 Tierp is enough to bring cars anymore… This is the track that everyone have been complaining and arguing about that TD is not welcome there for many times / years in the past and now it’s not good enough for the teams to go, I think it was 6 cars on the entry list and that must be a record in low numbers of cars at a TD race at Tierp….

 

Next was the first event at Piteå, 2 cars were there… The weekend after and the second event at Piteå, 1 car!…. Come on, a total of 3 cars on two events? And what’s even worse is that you are getting points in the series to be alone at the event, I think that is really wrong because Speedgroup have a minimum number of cars to attend an event for them to pay out money to the winners, I would like to see a minimum of cars to attend the event rule to give points in the series!

Same weekend as the second Piteå event it was a race in the series in Finland at Kauhava, they did have 9 cars and that’s pretty normal in the Finnish TD series and it was only Finnish teams like it usually are because there are no Swedish teams that are traveling to Finland to be a part over there.

Next should have been Sundsvall, but they decided in June to not have TD on the race, kind of sad because they did resurface parts of the track with new asphalt in the end of 2022, and one of the things that TD teams have been complaining about is the track surface and track preparations, after and during the race I heard that people wasn’t happy about the track and preparations but I was not there myself to say anything about that.

Anyway something positive did happen instead and they added one more race at Tierp Arena to cover up for the missing Sundsvall race and it was 9 TD cars at the event which is way better than the one in June, then for the finals at Gardermoen Raceway it was back down to 3 cars again in the class, and I think one switched over from Pro Mod to TD so it should have been just 2 cars… I don’t know if it is just me but this is not good and I think it’s killing the class, it must be better to have less events with more cars instead of 3 events with 2 cars, 1 car, 3 cars..? And it must be a minimum number of cars at an event to be able to get points in the series!

 

I don’t know for sure, but I have heard / seen some stuff about the 2024 TD series and it looks like it will be pretty much the same thing as it was in 2023, the real dates it not set but there is a plan. And with that said it’s not interesting for me and I’m afraid that it won’t be to many other teams either that will follow the series except for the Tierp race / races eventually as it looks…

Something that also is strange is that I’m always complaining about stuff, asking about stuff, wondering why things are like they are, I’m writing about it on social medias and want to have some kind of change. Everyone else are doing the same but are quiet about it…. If you are quiet no one will ever know and make a change!

I understand that its hard and a pain in the ass to arrange a series and work with all the classes, teams, people, organizers and tracks! It’s not easy to be EDRS / Speedgroup and the people behind it, but it would be a good thing if they checked with and worked together with the drivers, teams and the monkeys that makes the circus be a circus instead of adding events that no one will attend..?! Or am I wrong? This hurts the class, that’s how I see it. I really don’t understand how it can end up with so many events in the series when so few are going to the events, and it’s been like this now for many years.

This is my thoughts about the situation and hopefully this can start a discussion to make the class better and more interesting in the future for other teams.

#thatsjustthewayitis #notd #notopdoorslammernextyear #dragracing #topdoorslammer #abmracing #sjodinmotorsport

 




 

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