------------------------------- December 9th 2007 -------------------------------

Last Saturday, the award-giving ceremony of the Bavarian motor sportsmen took place in the ‘Bayrischen Hof’ in Munich. T

he ADAC of Southern Bavaria had sent out the invitations to this event. Once again, Peter Schöfer was honoured for his outstanding performance in motor sports and for his Third Place in the FIA-European Championship and was awarded a golden plate.

------------------------------- September 11th 2007 -------------------------------

Last weekend was the weekend of the last FIA European Championship Race in Santa Pod, England.

Peter Schöfer came to this crucial race being in the number two spot in the points standing, only a few points behind the number one. 

The crew, consisting of Peter, Wolfgang and Rudi Schöfer, Gittli Koller, Heike Schäfer, Kirsten Krause and Ralf Rowold, were full of hope as one could see in the past races, that the PSR dragster was running well.   
 

Peter was able to qualify in the number three spot, just behind the two leading  English drivers, Wilson and Turner. As always, the ETs in the Top Methanol Dragster field were very close as the competitors are very strong. Very often, there are just about a few hundredths of a second between the different drivers.

In the quarter finals, Pat could win the first elimination run against the newcomer in the European Championship, Derek Flynn from England. In the semi-finals, Pat was lined up against the English driver Rob Turner.  With Rob Turner being very strong at the lights, Pat took too much of a risk and red-lit.

Unfortunately, that meant that Rob Turner could catch up on our points standing so that Peter Schöfer missed the European Runner-Up title very narrowly by just two points.
 

We would like to congratulate Dave Wilson on his win of the European Championship title again and we would like to say thank you to all of our Top Methanol Dragster competitors for a great season.

However, before we are going to retire for the winter season, our dragster is going to be on display on three occasions .... more info is going to follow.

------------------------------- August 28th 2007 -------------------------------

Last Thursday, Pat and Gittli were invited by the Munich radio station Charivari, i.e. the night show of the well-known presenter Ali Khan. From 11 pm to 1 am, Ali asked loads of questions about our team and drag racing in general....which was really exciting ....

On Sunday coming the documentary that was shot about our team at the NitrOlympx in Hockenheim will be broadcast on the Bavarian TV Channel in the programme "Schwaben und Altbayern" between 6.05 pm and 6.45 pm.

Should there be a change to the schedule, then we’ll let you know here ....

------------------------------- August 21st 2007 -------------------------------

------------------------------- July 31st 2007 -------------------------------

Once again, the whole crew had made the trip up north: Peter, Wolfgang and Rudi Schöfer, Gittli Koller, Heike Schäfer, Björn Aldorsson and Kirsten Krause. The expectations were running high and everyone was hoping for a weekend without rain because the first two championship races had been called off due to rain.  This year, there was the highest number of entries in Sweden ever: about 350 teams from 12 different countries.   left to right: Björn, Heike, Peter, Rudi, Gittli, Wolfi, Kirsten Pictures: Remco Scheelings

On Sunday, eliminations’ day, the showery weather continued to interrupt the elimination runs. In the quarter finals, Peter had to race the second German driver, Timo Habermann, who is well known for his quick reaction times. However, Pat won the race and had to face Rob Turner from England in the semi finals who had some technical problems. Being in the final, Pat had to race, like so many times before, David Wilson from England, who had had some problems both in the quarter finals and semi finals. In the end, Dave won with just about 3 hundredths of a second.  

.. look at the Screen in the background ...
 

The next outing for the team is the biggest German Drag Racing Event, the NitrOlympx in Hockenheim on 17th till 19th August.  

------------------------------- July 10th 2007 -------------------------------

Travelling to Finland means 2000 km (1299 Miles) on the motorway to Stockholm, then a 13-hour-ferry ride to Turku and a further 200 km to the race track. So, one can easily see why this trip is always a special one.

After the race in England, the team had made a few changes to improve the performance of its 3500 hp strong dragster, e.g. the old rear axle was replaced by a new and stronger one. The reason for this change was the so-called tire shakes that appear when the dragster’s power cannot be put on the track properly. Then the rear tires start to wrap or wap, causing the wheels to hop and making Pat’s driving even more difficult than it already is.  

However, the exchange of the rear axle entailed various alterations on the dragster and the trailer. As the dragster’s length increased by 5 cm it needed not only new side panels but also its trailer needed to be extended to fit it in for transport.
 

On eliminations day, Peter could win the quarter final against the Norwegian driver Paul-Ingvar Udtian before it started to chuck down with rain so badly that the second meeting was called as well because the powerful dragsters can only be driven on absolutely dry tracks.

At the moment, Peter Schöfer is in the second spot in the FIA-European Championship points standing.

In the end of July, the team is going to travel up to Sweden to the third and hopefully dry FIA-European Championship Race.

------------------------------- June 15th 2007 -------------------------------

Yesterday, Peter’s racing achievements of the last years were honoured by the mayor of his home town Moosburg.

He received a beautiful watch, a pin and a certificate.

------------------------------- June 13th 2007 -------------------------------

Last weekend, there were the Speeddays in Alkersleben, near Erfurt and this time the PSR team consisted of the Schöfer brothers Pat, Wolfi and Rudi as well as Gittli Koller, Ralf Rowold and Kirsten Krause with his partner Christl.

Our team, like 16 other European drag racing teams coming from Germany, Denmark and Belgium, had been invited to do show runs during the quarter mile and the Street Eliminator race.

The quarter mile race is open to everyone to compete in so that one could see not only all the German car manufacturers but also some rather exotic vehicles. So, the field was a mix of very different cars, running very different times.

The Street Eliminator racing takes place on various international race tracks this year again.

The invited drag racing teams were chosen to represent the entire spectre of the international sport, so that there were different bike and car classes.  Our dragster represented the most powerful vehicle, alongside the Pro Mod of Norbert Kuno, the Pro Stock car of Harry Sturhan as well as the Bel Air of Klaus Romahn.

Unfortunately, due to a very tight schedule, we didn’t have the time to do all four show runs. Nevertheless, the dragster was able to impress the audience very much with its show.

Our next big event will be the second European Championship Race in Finland…And for all those, that do not know how far Finland is from here: there are about 2000 km (1200 mls) to Stockholm (Sweden), then there is a 13-hour-ferry-ride to Turku (Finland) ... and then another two hours to the race track ...let’s hope that all that’ll be worth it to achieve new ETs and a good placement in the championship.

vithanks for the pictures to Andrea Kloss and Jörg Amelang

------------------------------- May 30th 2007 -------------------------------

Qualifying:
The two qualifying runs of the first day varied. The first run was quite good so that Pat was the top qualifier after it. However, the set-up for the second run was far too powerful for the track so that Peter wasn’t able to improve upon his first run. Therefore, the team had to keep its hope up for the second qualifying day but, unfortunately, it started to rain.

This rain then determined the first race meet: it wouldn’t stop raining for the next two days, sometimes even deteriorating to a storm, so that the promoter of the race didn’t have a choice but had to announce a rain-out on the third day.

Unlike in the USA, the racing isn’t then postponed to the next weekend.

It’s a real shame because travelling all the way from Aich to England costs a lot of time and effort. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the weather at the second FIA race meet in Alastaro, Finland, will be better as it’s even harder to get all the way up north.

Until then, the Peter Schöfer Racing team has got another show event at a national event in Thüringen the coming weekend.

------------------------------- May 25th 2007 -------------------------------

------------------------------- May 2nd 2007 -------------------------------

With Monday being a bank holiday in Germany and Hungary, we travelled all the way to Kunmandaras, Hungary, to perform two show runs there. Travelling 800 km one way might sound a bit excessive, but as can be seen on the pictures below, it was definitely worth it.

Like at the event in August 2006, there was a huge and very enthusiastic crowd. The events at Kunmandaras, that take place on a former Russian airfield, are mainly bike events. Nevertheless, the spectators were deeply impressed by Pat’s show.
 
 

------------------------------- 22nd April 2007 -------------------------------

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------------------------------- 16th  April 2007 -------------------------------

------------------------------- 13th April 2007 -------------------------------

------------------------------- 10th March 2007 -------------------------------

In the evening, the prize for the most successful German dragster driver was awarded in a great ambiance and during an excellent dinner.

Like last year, Peter Schöfer from Aich received the huge challenge cup as he had been in every final, and won some, of the European Championship with his Top Methanol Dragster.  

The third place went to Patricia Kästner, the second one to Norbert Kuno.

Norbert Kuno and Peter Schöfer are both drivers of the Bavarian Drag Race Club, the biggest German Drag racing Association.
 

------------------------------- 10th December 2006 -------------------------------

Last Saturday, the award-giving ceremony of the Bavarian motor sportsmen took place in the ‘Bayrischen Hof’ in Munich. The ADAC of Southern Bavaria had sent out the invitations to this event. Once again, Peter Schöfer was honoured for his outstanding performance in motor sports and for his Runner-Up FIA-European Championship title and was awarded a golden plate.

The presenter did not only stress the experiences of many years in motor sports of Peter Schöfer, but he also explained to the audience that the 3200 hp dragster of the team Schöfer is able to accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in 0.87 sec. The people present, amongst them well-known sportsmen and people of the industry, were visibly impressed.

------------------------------- 13th September 2006 -------------------------------

Peter wins in England and is Runner-Up European Champion 2006

Last weekend, the last of the FIA European Championship races took place in England. Peter went into this decisive race being second in the points standing, still within reach of the championship title.   

The team, represented by Peter, Wolfgang and Rudi Schöfer, Gittli Koller, Heike Schäfer and Alfred Sieben, was full of hope as it had proved in the prior races that it was a strong competitor. However, the team did not only have to beat the championship leader by one round, they also had to aim for the low ET of the event, worth five extra points. 

Qualifying: Peter qualified second with a 5.49 sec run, only four hundredths of a second behind Dave Wilson, the English driver who was leading the championship by a small lead. Qualified number three, the other English driver Rob Turner,was just three thousandths of a second
behind  Peter. Once again, the Top Methanol Dragster class, in which the team from Aich competes, proved how strong its field was by running such close times which are much closer than in many other classes. So, being qualified in the second spot, Peter had a very good basis to start from in the uneven number of competitors in the eliminations. Eliminations: In the quarter finals, Pat could win against the new driver in the European Championship, Rickard Persson from Sweden, and due to the uneven number of drivers, he had a bye-run in the semi-finals. So, as so often before, the finalists were Schöfer against Wilson. That meant that the pressure was really on our team as we did not only have to win but also beat Wilson’s low ET of the whole weekend.
Peter had the better start and the set-up of the dragster was better so that he could win the race. Unfortunately, he didn’t make the low ET points, which he missed by three hundredths of a second so that he finished the FIA European Championship 2006 as Runner-Up.

The team is very happy with this result, despite the fact that it missed out on the title so narrowly. Nevertheless, the achievements in this season were tremendous: Peter Schöfer was in every final of the European Championship, he became second three times and he won three races. The team would like to thank all of its sponsors and especially its friends, who are always eager to help and without whom this success would not be possible.

To finish off this busy season, the team’ll be off to Modena, Italy, where it’ll do some show runs during the Italian championship.

Bike and Music Weekend ...

Last weekend we went to the  Bike-and-Music-Weekend in Geiselwind.

The Strohofer Family and the Night-Riders did again a great event and the 20.000 spectators were more than happy.

There have been several Show-Dragster on two and on four wheels.

One of the highlights was, without a doubt, our dragster. And Peter did several burnout demo passes. (pictures soon)

------------------------------- 29th August 2006 -------------------------------

Two shows and winning in front of the home crowd in Hockenheim

Geiselwind:
After racing in Gardermoen (Norway), we travelled straight on to the Bike-and-Music-Weekend in Geiselwind. This event does not only cater to those, loving bikes and US cars, but also to those, loving rock music. Pat was asked to do three burnout shows, which isn’t as easy as it sounds, considering the short and tricky track. However, once again Pat managed not to disappoint any of his fans (the pictures speak for themselves).

------------------------------- 15th August 2006 -------------------------------

Bike and Music Weekend ...

Last weekend we went to the  Bike-and-Music-Weekend in Geiselwind.

The Strohofer Family and the Night-Riders did again a great event and the 20.000 spectators were more than happy.

There have been several Show-Dragster on two and on four wheels.

One of the highlights was, without a doubt, our dragster. And Peter did several burnout demo passes. (pictures soon)

------------------------------- 15th August 2006 -------------------------------

Bike and Music Weekend ...

Last weekend we went to the  Bike-and-Music-Weekend in Geiselwind.

The Strohofer Family and the Night-Riders did again a great event and the 20.000 spectators were more than happy.

There have been several Show-Dragster on two and on four wheels.

One of the highlights was, without a doubt, our dragster. And Peter did several burnout demo passes. (pictures soon)

------------------------------- 10th August 2006 -------------------------------

Twice Runner-Up in Scandinavia ...

Now, we have returned from our Scandinavian Tour because the third and fourth FIA European Championship Races took place in Mantorp Park (Sweden) and Gardermoen (Norway).

Peter Schöfer and his crew, consisting of Wolfgang and Rudi Schöfer, Gittli Koller, Alfred Sieben, Björn Aldorsson and Heike Schäfer, travelled up to Scandinavia full of hope as the team had been leading in the points standing and wanted to extend its lead even further. However, sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way.

Mantorp Park - Sweden
The track in Sweden is part of a circuit and therefore the second half of the race distance (200m) goes uphill. That’s why one can normally not expect amazing ETs at this event. 

Qualifying:
The qualifying runs went quite well and the team was satisfied with it being qualified second. Like so many times before, the top qualifier was only in the lead by a few hundredths of a second.

Eliminations:
Pat could decide the quarter final for himself and met the British driver Rob Turner in the semi-final. Pat was the first to cross the finishing line (with a 5.46 / 259 mph) and so, he had to face the other British driver, Dave Wilson, like so often before, in the final.

However, this time the team was unlucky because the bolts of the blower of the 3200-hp-strong dragster broke. That’s why the race, although having had the better reaction time and having been in the lead until then, was lost and the English driver could decide the race for himself. With that win, Wilson was able to just about take over the lead in the championship, ahead of Peter Schöfer.

 After the race is before the race
At least in this case, because the two Scandinavian races take place on two consecutive weekends and that’s why Pat and his crew, after having completely overhauled the dragster, left Sweden to travel on to Norway. 

Nevertheless, there was some time to relax for two days on a campsite in Karlstad, together with many other central European teams.

Gardermoen - Norway

The track in Gardermoen is a very good track, allowing for record times. Unfortunately, at this weekend a lot of teams had to fight hard, trying to find a good set-up. The temperature was over 30°C and the track was sometimes 50°C hot, which didn’t help in the attempts of trying to find the right tuning.

Qualifying:
The dragster didn’t run as well as we had hoped and we had to fight severe tyre shakes. Thus, we were only able to qualify third.

Eliminations:
On race day, Pat was lucky, especially in the semi-final, when his opponent was the British driver Rob Turner. Pat had a bad tyre shake and slid across his track from left to right. However, Rob Turner had to fight even worse problems and so, Peter managed to get through to the final. Once again, this meant driving against the Brit Dave Wilson.

Unfortunately for us, the Brit could decide this final for himself as well. Pat had an ingenious reaction time of 0.02 sec. and took over the lead but the Brit had found the better tuning for his car and won the race, extending his lead in the FIA European Championship points standing even further.

Nevertheless, we are still in a position to decide the championship for ourselves, on the last FIA European Championship Race in mid September.

Until then, the team has been and will be very busy indeed. Last weekend, we went to the Bike-and-Music-Weekend in Geiselwind and at the end of the week, we’ll be off to Kunmadaras, Hungary, for another show run, before performing at the NitrOlympX in Hockenheim from the 25 - 27 August.

------------------------------- 20th July 2006 -------------------------------

Chimay (Belgien) "King of Europe"   -  Fotos and copyright by Pixeleye Dirk Belau

Alastaro (Finland) 2. FIA EM-Lauf  -  Fotos and copyright by Heikki 'Heiniken' Malinen
 

----------------------------7th  July 2006 -------------------------------

Only 0.008 sec. behind the winner ...

Last weekend, the second European Championship Race took place in Alastaro (Finland).

Peter Schöfer and his team had already left home a week beforehand, in order to do a show-run in Chimay, Belgium. At the event "King of Europe", there were not only street legal cars from 11 countries but also more than 20 000 fans, that were enthusiastic about the 3 200 hp strong dragster of the Schöfer team.  

Following the weekend in Belgium, the team travelled on to Finland to defend its leading position in the championship at the second European Championship run of the season. The journey went via Germany, Denmark and Sweden up to Stockholm on the road, then a 13-hour-ferry ride to Finland followed. One way, the team had to cover more than 1500 miles (one way), not counting the ferry crossing. Nevertheless, the journey through the amazing Scandinavian landscape is always very enjoyable.

Having won the first European Championship Race in England, the team, consisting of Wolfgang and Rudi Schöfer, Gittli Koller, Alfred Sieben, Björn Aldorsson and Heike Schäfer, was optimistic. The Finnish track is extremely difficult and demands a lot of skills from the driver and the tuner of the dragster as its state and surface are not ideal.

Qualifying:
The dragster ran smoothly and that’s how Pat managed to qualify first with an excellent 5.49 sec. run.

We were very happy about being top qualifier as the Brit Dave Wilson was only a few thousands of a second slower than us.

Eliminations:
In the semi final, Pat had to race against the Swede Krister Johannson. Pat could win this race so that he had to face the Brit Dave Wilson, like so many times before, in the final. In the semi final in England, Peter had been able to beat Dave Wilson with a narrow lead. This time, however, the English driver was the lucky one so that Pat lost the final with 0.008 seconds (8 thousandths of a second).

Nevertheless, the team Schöfer is still leading in the points standing and will try very hard to defend, and possibly extend, its lead in Mantorp, Sweden, in three weeks time.

------------------------------- 31st May 2006 -------------------------------

New season and a win in the first race ...

The Bavarian Thunder lived up to its name and thundered towards victory

Last weekend, the first FIA Drag Racing Championship Race took place in Santa Pod (England) in which Peter Schöfer from Aich took part again.
The team, namely Wolfgang and Rudi Schöfer, Gittli Koller, Alfred Sieben, Alfred Widmann and Heike Schäfer, had tried to prepare itself as well as possible for the new season, starting it with a lot of optimism.
Once again, the European elite of drag racers was present and some more new racers are going to join the championship later in the season.

The qualifying rounds were continuously interrupted and influenced by the bad weather in England. In the end, Pat could qualify in the third spot. However, in all qualification runs the dragster and Pat were hit by brutal tyre shakes that we had to get under control.

Eliminations:
The elimination runs took place on bank holiday Monday. In the quarter finals, Pat had to compete against the Swedish driver Krister Johansson who is, without doubt, one of the strongest drivers in Europe in his A-Fuel dragster. Nevertheless, the Schöfer dragster was faster and that’s why Pat had to face the acting European Champion Dave Wilson from England in the semi-finals. Peter could

decide this exciting race for himself with a holeshot. The Brit wasn’t able to catch up on him in the course of the quarter mile, although being the faster one. So, Pat reached the finish line first, ahead of Wilson by 0.006 seconds, which are the equivalent of about 39 inches. 

For the finals, the team hoped to be able to step up even more and tuned the 3200- hp-strong dragster accordingly. To change the set up is always difficult because one has to pay attention that one is able to put the power onto the track. But the team took the right decision and beat the Brit Rob Turner by a dragster’s length with a terrific time of 5,460 seconds and running 258 mph. This time is just 3 hundredths of a second slower than the European record.

The team is thrilled with this outcome and leads in the FIA points standing for the coming four weeks. Then, the second FIA European Championship race is going to take place in Finland. Beforehand, the team will head to the ‘King of Europe’ festival in Belgium, where street-legal cars from all over Europe will compete against each other, providing a lot of entertainment and fun for their spectators.

Finally, we would like to say thank you to all of our sponsors, fans and friends that help us and to everyone, who is as happy about our first win as we are.
 

------------------------------- 20th May 2006 -------------------------------

New season  --  new design ...

Finally .... the new desigh of the "Bavarian Thunder" is finished. We really like the new colours and ... you shold see the new T-Shirts as well .....

But we will show them at the first race in Santa Pod  ... and ... they look fantastic -- they are hand drawn and designed by Kiesi Calwer ... special thanks for that, Kiesi  ...

here is at least a picture of the dragster .....
 

------------------------------- September 20th   2004 -------------------------------

Now, the calmer winter season with some more exhibitions will start.
And next year, we'll be back, with 3000hp, a strong crew and the objective to be amongst the top qualifiers again.

------------------------------- August 26th 2004 -------------------------------

After this slightly disappointing weekend, the team will travel on to a drag racing event on the EuroSpeedway Lausitz (3rd till 5th September), called "Werner, das Rennen" (Werner, the race). The event, organised by the main sponsor, does not only offer drag racing but also 20 bands on two stages and a Werner-village for the fans of the German cult figure Werner (a cartoon character).

Once returned from the EuroSpeedway, we are travelling straight on to England, where the sixth and last Championship run will take place. Still holding second place in the Championship, we are in with a reasonable chance to become runner-up again in this year's Championship.

------------------------------- July 26th 2004 -------------------------------

You can follow the race in Mantorp   click here

------------------------------- July 14th 2004 -------------------------------

Wednesday, 28 July 04       at         20.30         and
Sunday, 1 August 04             at          07.05         on N-TV.

 There will be further replays but we don't know the dates yet.

------------------------------- July 8th 2004 -------------------------------

This time, there were no incidents worth mentioning on the way up, apart from never-ending rain. So, we arrived in Alastaro, which is situated about 100km to the west of Helsinki, without any problems.

Qualifying:
On Friday, the team could gather important data in its first qualifying runs. It was quite tricky as new tarmac had been put down on  the race track so that the traction there was different to that of the rest of the track. Therefore, a lot of sensitivity was needed in the set-up of the dragster as well as excellent driving skills on Peter's part. But here, we can rely on Peter who seems to work as well as his dragster and who will celebrate his 20-year-drag-racing anniversary this year. Unfortunately, we were not able to have any further qualifying runs on Saturday as it didn't stop raining. That meant that we were in the number two spot for the race on Sunday.

Elimination:
On Sunday,