NitrOlympX in Hockenheim: Top-Fuel Dragsters Firmly in Girls' Hands

Text and photo: Roman Klemm

Well, I wasn´t at a drag strip since 1988 (they tried a race at the Österreichring back then), but 2026 was the time of my „comeback". I went to the famous NitrOlympX at Hockenheim - and left the event absolutely smashed in the most positive of ways...

47,000 paying spectators came to see the third round of the European Dragster Championship in Hockenheim and all the additional show on offer. In the premier class, "FIA Top Fuel Dragster,” the reigning champion Susanne Callin from Sweden and the 2024 season champion India Erbacher from Switzerland made it to the big final. 

Yes, drag racing is in decline in Europe. The number of events in the continental championship - only four - speaks volumes about that. However, this kind of entertainment is still very popular in the USA, holding the 4th position among the most popular motorsport classes. So it's no wonder that the whole scene is heavily oriented toward America. In Hockenheim, they showcased the sensational 'US-Car-Treffen' for owners of genuine (and sometimes slightly 'tuned-up') American cruisers.  
In the area around and inside the famous Sachskurve, fans could admire hundreds of these 'cruisers' from a time when aesthetics and a designer's creativity still had the final say. Here's a small selection of cars you rarely see on the roads anymore, even in the USA (where the reign has been taken over by SUV-boxes and just about any product from Vietnam).

Back to the sport: According to the organizer Hockenheimring GmbH, the annual NitrOlympX is regularly the most financially successful project of the year, so it wasn't surprising that the Germans once again made their mark this year for the thirty-ninth time on the fairly smal FIA and FIM European Championship calendar: the season kicked off at the end of May with the classic event in Santa Pod, UK, after a long break they raced again at the beginning of August in Sweden's Tierp Arena, and the 2025 season will end just 3 weeks after Hockenheim's "Rico Anthes Quarter Mile" at the famous Santa Pod Raceway.

In the top class FIA Top Fuel Dragster (the cars have around 10,000 horsepower and reach speeds of over 500 km/h at the end of the quarter-mile after a 4-second sprint!) in the semifinals, blonde Swede Susanne Callin faced off against her teammate from RF Motorsport, Brit Colin Millar. In the second semifinal, Oyvor Jacobsen actually crossed the finish line first. However, the experienced Norwegian had a false start, so the win went to the scene's superstar India Erbacher, whose engine exploded during the attempt.

Fans and experts were therefore rightfully looking forward to the duel between the two "queens" Callin-Erbacher. But the final runs were spoiled by one of the drag motorcycles, which, after a blowout, oiled almost the entire "strip." The organizer had to admit after an hour of effort that completely cleaning and preparing the specially "rubbered" track would take longer than the time limit allowed. In fact, there's an agreement with the city of Hockenheim that it must be "quiet after 6:00 PM." The final runs had to be canceled, much to the disappointment of both participants and the audience—just at the moment when the exhausted mechanics of Erbacher pushed the dragster with its freshly rebuilt engine onto the pre-grid after three hours of work…

Top speeds of the classes at Hockenheim:

Top-Fuel-Dragster: Susanne Callin, 480,13 km/h

Top-Methanol-Dragster: Tony Bryntesson, 435,56 km/h

Top-Methanol-Funny-Car: Juergen Nagel, 398,93 km/h

Pro-Stock-Car: Jimmy Alund, 339,15 km/h

Pro-Modified-Car: Jere Rantaniemi, 401,96 km/h

Top-Fuel-Bike: Luke Farrugia, 356,34

Super-Twin-Top-Fuel-Bike: Marcus Christiansen, 357,74 km/h

Pro-Stock-Bike: Bertrand Maurice, 300,54 km/h

Funny-Bike: Markus Laur, 323,16 km/h

Super-Street-Bike: Daniel Lancses, 354,19 km/h