Tether car racing Sweden

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John Goodall
Orebro Vartavling 2025

My last visit to Sweden and Orebro was in 2023 when I was picked up from Gothenburg’s Landvetter airport where Ryanair fly to by Martii Tavast a good friend of both Kjell-Erik Odelius and myself who I first met back in 2005. Ian Harper had agreed to join me this time and offered to do the driving and a lot of the logistical organisation too, arranging flights and car hire. I arranged accommodation with long time friend Kjell-Erik where we would stay for the first two nights and the last in his garden cottage as he calls it. Kjell Lives in Fjallbacka, an old fishing village close to the harbour and it is up near the border with Norway and much closer to Oslo, than Stockholm. Kjell also booked the Sanna Kroa Motel room for us where I have stayed many times previously and it is still good and very cheap at £35 night each for B&B, just 1 mile from the Orebro Tether Car Circuit, so very convenient too.

We left Barton under Needwood early on Wednesday the 14^th May with Ian staying the night here to facilitate the 5.30am leaving time as we had to call on his daughter in Bedford to leave Ruby, his aging pet dog, before driving on to Stansted for the Ryanair flight. We arrived at Landvetter and went to pick up the hire car a Volvo P40 estate booked from Hertz. We were surprised when Ian was told the P40 was not available, but they would give a free upgrade to a V70 hybrid electric Estate with all mod cons and near new, very lucky as it turned out? A complete contrast to the car hire experience we had together last February in Germany.

The drive up to Fjallbacka was without any mistakes or incident with Ian’s route programming skills of the satnav making things very straightforward skirting around Gothenburg city. Why don’t all hire cars have satnav as standard? They wanted to charge extra in Germany for its use on the downgrade VW Golf?? We got an emotional reception from KEO with hugs for us both and shown the cottage accommodation with wine and beer provided in the fully contained facility with shower, cooking facilities, fridge etc., plus two bunk beds in a separate room. We retired early being very tired.

The next day was spent looking through Kjell's collection of tether cars, model boats, model planes and engine collection, which filled the upstairs floor entirely. Ian spent some time loading Kjell’s zimmer frame, large bag and sticks ready for the next day and were thankful for the upgrade as the V40 would have been too small.

Right: Kjell-Erik and Martii

We had an early start for Orebro on the Friday, the first day of practice, as we both needed this. Kjell had given us some diesel fuel selected from several glass bottles with glass stoppers and rubber washers in his loft. We arrived at Orebro about mid day as there were a lot of road works causing diversions and slow single lanes round them. We prepared both Slabang’s my 100mph non standard, but with standard engine and the ex John S. Oliver car run once by him in 2015 which I lent to Ian to run. I introduced Ian to all those I could remember in the rather depleted attendance from my last visit. Starting the engine was not as easy as normal, but I did not think too much about that, I should have? I got my engine running and had to reset compression and needle still no concern. The first run was poor and after three more it got very little better and Ian could not even get a start, damaging the front suspension twice in attempts. Then Ulf Ek offered us some of his fuel, a vast improvement, but no time left to fine tune and reset the engines again as it was time to pack up and check into the Sanna Kroa room 6. After a quick shower we went to eat in the restaurant. I had meat balls and Ian Steakburger at a cost of 134 kroner about £11 with all the trimmings plus a bottle of red stuff between us.


Last of the side exhaust cars	John and Ian's sale table	Two Slabangs and 'iffy fuel' left

After dinner we had to take Kjell up to Kolback near to Vasteras approx. 100km away, one of the Stockholm satellite airfields, where he was staying with Martii Tavast and another experience for Ian. We were both guided around Martii’s garden of which he is very proud. He built an underground cold room in one corner which works very well for storing household items. After cake and a drink of Martii's home made whisky we went to explore his collection. He lives on his own and so things are slightly disorganised shall we say? His basement covering the whole house outline is filled with model engines, a lot home made, a collection of torches, oil cans, Geiger counters and nuclear items from visits to Russia. There are motorcycle parts, headlamps off cars, magnetos and all manner of things. His vast machine shop is crammed with two mills, a large centre lathe, a Myford ML7, a capstan lathe and all the usual drills, hand tools including a four spindle drilling machine, grinders etc. Martii used to make a living through manufacturing many household items for supplying local supermarkets with useful goods.


Mats Johanssen	Boris Astrom	FEMA cars ready to run

His house is heated from a 70 meter deep bore hole pumping water down and back heated, heating to a nice toasty level. He has backup wood burners and solar panels, being very efficiency and ecology minded. The living area is surrounded with books, toys and many artefacts from WW2 shells to a tether car. We reluctantly left just before 11.00 pm and got to bed at midnight. Whacked again.


Wonderful selection of 'old timer' tethered cars

After a good breakfast of bacon and hard boiled egg with lovely bread we left for the track at about 9.00am. Martii and Kjell joined us for breakfast and evening meals. The Old Timer event is a regularity run where you have to declare your average speed over eight laps and the nearest to it wins, so a good chance for those who know their cars well with regular fuel. With settings way off we stood no chance at all, I did manage three runs after trying a few tweaks to no avail and Ian again could not get a start at all. Jan Erik Falk, multiple World and European Champion, came to give Ian some help, backing off the compression where things started to improve for him, eventually getting a good clean run, still slower than expected, but good enough to come fourth overall, I was fifth. We each got a diploma recording our runs plus a couple of SMRU stickers, the diploma’s nicely hand scrolled in script by Rickard Helander a nice gesture and a good memento for Ian’s first visit and probably my last. Back to the Sanna Kroa, a shower, meal and bed exhausted once more.


Jan-Erik Falk	Ian, Jan Erik & Kenth Jansson	Rickard Hellander	The Diploma


Ake Ekestrand	Lovely 10cc car with Yellow Jacket motor	Boris on horsing duties

Old friend Ake Ekstrand visited both Saturday and Sunday on his electric buggy being transported from his nursing home, he was pleased to chat with us both, a lovely man sadly no longer involved with his past passion and a founder of the Orebro track. He wished to be remembered to all of his old friends in England. For Kjel-Erik he also declared it would be his last visit and he made his own farewells emotionally.

We waited to see Torbjorn Johanesson from Norway run his two cars as he had made over 280KMH in practice with a 2.5cc car, both exquisitely and completely made him. (Torbjorn, 2023 European Champion, World and European record holder in Class 2 was making an attempt on his existing record)

We left to travel back to Fjallbacka calling at Mariestad for drinks, but most cafes were shut this being Sunday, so we ended up in a Macdonalds for refreshment. Mariestad is a fishing port on the shores of Lake Vanern the largest inland lake In Sweden. It is the home of Boris Astrom a dynamic horser and Tether car enthusiast, as was his late father Leif. Boris makes a living fishing on lake Vanern. The lake is that large that if you are in the middle you cannot see land in any direction.
Right: Torbjorn from Norway and Lars Wahlund from the Gavle club

We had a meal with Kjell and Lena and went to bed early, for an early rise and run back to Landvetter for the flight back to Stansted. Arriving about mid day on the 19^th May, with no problems either way at customs. We got home to Barton under Needwood near to tea time after a diversion on the A14 up the A6 to Bedford and picking up Ruby, mission accomplished.

My sincere thanks and appreciation go to Ian for his friendship, his organisation, his patience with elderly gentlemen and excellent driving skills. John Goodall.