Bengt Ljungdahl is Sweden's distributor for VP Racing Fuels. Always competitive, Bengt's passions have been football, from which he was deprived of a career when he suffered an injury as a youth, and drag racing which he raced competitively for a number of years, winning the FIA Pro Stock Championship in 2017 and 2018.

Bengt's relationship with VP Racing started in 2016 at the same time as he acquired Chevrolet Camaro from Gray Motorsport. He has built the business based on his track and racer contacts, unrivalled customer service and expanding into lines that were in demand, including lubricants from 2022.

The interview with Bengt took place during a rain delay at the 2023 Summit Racing Internationals at Tierp Arena, Sweden.

Eurodragster.com: What is your background in motor engineering?

Bengt Ljungdahl: I've been working with VP Racing since 2016. I have worked with Stock and Pro Stock cars and love American cars as a hobby. I started racing in Stock Super Stock in 2010 when I raced a '69 Camaro with a 396ci engine. I had no racing experience before, when I was young I competed in football, my biggest dream was to be #1 and I broke my knee when I was 16 and was supposed to go to a football academy. As I couldn't go I decided I wanted to be #1 in something, I'm not good at golf so I wanted to be #1 in Pro Stock.

Bengt at Summit Racing Internationals, Tierp Arena, August 2023

I was runner-up in the Stock Super Stock championship in 2011 or 2012, and third place in the following year. I didn't like the sportsman tree and preferred a pro tree. I went straight from Stock to Pro Stock, a big leap 3 or 4 seconds quicker. I bought Michael Malmgren's Pontiac and built up a team. I knew that if I was going to win I had to be with the people who are the best.

I then got Marcus Svensson to work with me and we created a strategy. I wanted to go to America, buy the car from the best people and the best engine and gearboxes, and learn about it over there so I went over with Marcus and got the car built at Gray Motorsport. I worked with Steve Johns on the engine and with Ken Finney who was in charge of the shop. Markus got the contacts.

We went to Bradenton with Shane Gray who did some testing as well on his new car with EFI. We were there for four days, testing and learning to drive a Pro Stock. I did 15-20 passes, Shane Gray came to me and asked me to drive, and I said "You're a professional, you make sure this car is ok when I get into it and make sure it's going to work". He was struggling a lot at the start and then he got the car to go down the track and Shane came to me and said "The car is ready". He had driven a 6.50/208. I got into the car and drove a 6.512, the fastest time the car had made with that engine.

VP Racing Sweden marketing image

I brought that car back to Sweden and we prepared to start competing with it in January 2016. I started to do well in 2016, we won some events and I set the European record at 6.491 for the quarter mile and also ran 4.16 in the eighth mile. I was championship runner-up in 2016 and won the championship in 2017 and 2018. We sometimes didn't qualify very well in 2016, the car was new and was not good at every race and that cost me the championship because I won more races than Jimmy Alund.

From when I started with the new car in 2016 I worked with VP Racing. I had never had a motor engineering company, and only worked with my own cars. I taught myself my mechanical skills, also learning from my brother who had worked a lot with engines. I take care of all my own engines but am not an engine builder. There are people who are good at doing that.

Eurodragster.com: When did you come across VP Racing Fuels and Lubricants?

Bengt with (from left) Freddie Turza, Eurodragster editor Simon, and former VP Racing sales exec Alexej Borscs

Bengt Ljungdahl: My first contact with VP Racing was in 2015. There was a problem getting VP Racing Fuel then, it was not easy. And I decided I can do something about it. There was a lack of availability of the product from America, you had to pre-order it, people selling it didn't have it in stock, it was just too hard to get. I needed it but couldn't find it. It wasn't good for anyone so I decided to contact VP directly and after a while, I started to work with them which I've done ever since.

I started talking to VP just before getting the new Pro Stock car. Steve Johns had called Freddie Turza and said "Do you know Bengt, he's going to be working on a new Pro Stocker with Grey Motorsports for European competition."

As a friend of Steve and of Marcus who spent time working in Pro Stock in the US, Freddie who had deep roots in the class, knew who the people in the class in Europe were and Marcus advised that he should get to know me. Several others were looking to be distributors but Marcus and Steve introduced me and Freddie got comfortable with me.

Eurodragster.com: What is the nature of your current business, when was it established?

VP Racing's popular Madditives

Bengt Ljungdahl: I started importing and distributing VP Products for myself and for other racers in 2016. I had used VP Products before when racing Stock Super Stock and when I started they didn't have a warehouse in continental Europe, there was one in England but it was expensive to take it from there. At that time I suggested to Marc Wexler "You need to do something because it is a big market" and the business started to grow and it became clear VP needed storage in Europe to speed up deliveries.

Eurodragster.com: How have you met your major customers?

Bengt Ljungdahl: My customer base started as fellow STock Super Stock racers, who were already close to me. I then talked to motocross race teams and those in north Sweden racing snowmobiles. There were a lot of brands, however VP Racing Fuels products were in demand, teams wanted SV05 RX 16 and Traction Compound and the demand got wider and wider.

I established a warehouse facility for myself. I also recruited retailers and now have 15 around Sweden including tracks. I have to store product but it is safer, cheaper, and more convenient for the customers to have retailers store it. I work with deliveries to tracks, for instance if a racer here wants oil or fuel we have an outlet at tracks such as Tierp Arena, Mantorp Park, Malmo, Kjula Raceway, and Sundsvall every Wednesday before races at 15:00. This means we can make sure that racers get what they need. For other tracks such as Pitea, we can get racers to make deliveries on my behalf. The next step is to have a retailer up North to handle the local tracks.

Eurodragster.com: How do you network to gain additional customers or raise the profile of your business including VP distribution?

Bengt's first competition car, a Stock/Super Stock Camaro in 2011

Bengt Ljungdahl: Some of my retailers are motorcycle shops, then there are parts-selling firms like Persaker, Jimmy Alund acts as a retailer. I have tried to build a network so that racers can easily obtain products. Retailers are not exclusive VP stockists, when a customer comes in to buy engine parts he can also pick up a drum of fuel. But maintaining a warehouse is essential to the flow of a wide range of products.

I do get inquiries from other countries, we had one customer with an issue with a track in another country, they were supposed to have a big race, and they had no traction compound seven days before the event. They called me to say they desperately needed some but didn't have any. They came over to me I sold them the traction compound and they saved the race. It helped the track and helped VP Racing.

It was sad that the distributor in Norway Odd Erik Fossum passed away, Alex is working hard to fill the gap. But if someone needs help I will help, we've done it before and will do it again. Some motocross racers from Estonia will come to Sweden tomorrow to pick up MGB race fuel because they don't have it there. I have no problem in helping other countries, I have products for sale.

Everything is a work in progress, VP Racing doesn't have full coverage but we have Bengt and others who help across borders.

Bengt's publicity portrait

Eurodragster.com: Do you have sponsorship deals with teams, who are the major teams you support through sponsorship?

Bengt Ljungdahl: A number of vehicles are sponsored by VP Racing, usually, I ask myself if it's something that will benefit us, if it does then take it up with Alex, and Freddie at VP Racing in the US and then clear it. They always have the final say on what VP Racing branding goes on.

Marketing is something I handle locally. I do social media including Facebook and Instagram but I am at race tracks more or less every weekend if it's not me it's someone else, I have a team that I ensure is at the tracks. We have two people who help me at Tierp sometimes it's just me. I phone or e-mail customers regularly, if racers want some technical information whether or not they are customers, I obtain information from VP Racing in the US and forward it to the enquirer so they get what they want.

Eurodragster.com: Do you use social media to raise your profile? What in your view is the most effective use of social media?

Bengt Ljungdahl: Facebook is important for communicating the brand and for getting to know those racers at the track who use it and reminding them of who we are. My biggest tool for communicating at the track is seeing people, we have a gazebo as a central meeting point for marketing.

Pro Stock burnout, Hockenheim 2018

Eurodragster.com: What lines of products do you sell?

Bengt Ljungdahl: The products I deal in include several types of fuel. I started only with fuels and then additives, oils, clothes, cans and so forth. For next year I am adding car care products. They all help the branding. I have a larger range of types of fuels than others, I have 10 different fuel types. MS109, SV05 and RX 102 race fuels are my biggest sellers in drag racing, I need to have them in stock. In rallying R5 is the most popular line, I found out I had to have that all the time, as I sell it a lot of the time.

Eurodragster.com: What are your most successful VP Racing lines in fuels or lubricants in terms of turnover and customer loyalty?

Santa Pod European Finals, 2018

Launching at Hockenheim, 2018

Bengt Ljungdahl: The split between fuel and lubricant turnover is predominantly fuel, I started with lubricants over a year ago and it's starting to grow, it takes a while for people to change their preferences, and the brand VP Racing Lubricants helps. I also sell a lot of traction compound, it's used by most tracks in Sweden and I supply them all apart from a couple of no-prep tracks.

I'm extremely proud to work with VP Racing, I'm proud to represent it and it's a very good brand. I work with Freddie every day, my warehouse is open every day of the year - except New Year's Eve after 18:00! I deliver every day of the week because racers have other work to do, other things, they might be out racing so if they want fuel delivered, I make sure that I can deliver that day. Today when I go home I will deliver fuel to Uppsala and then I will go to Knivsta, you have to do this to take care of the customers and sell these excellent products.

Freddie added "Now that we have a VP Racing European team of distributors, our collaboration is growing much closer and tighter. We're tackling a lot of interesting topics and projects that we couldn't in the past, and are getting closer to individual distributors like Bengt and are working with tracks and racers. Bengt is the type of distributor that's hands-on, we like to refer to him as 'boots on the ground', without that type of support from his side it makes it difficult for us to get to achieve the results that we are now seeing.

Eurodragster.com: Thanks for your time Bengt, and I'm looking forward to meeting up with you in the future.