This was the penultimate round of the ACU Championships and with good conditions on Sunday. Super Street Bike put on a superb show for the crowd. Which saw new et and speed records set.
Top Fuel Bike.
Steve Woollatt continued were he left of from the European Finals with an out of the trailer 6.269-201mph. He had to click of early due to his visor misting up. Datalogger figures show it could have been a 6.1sec pass. On a later run there was damage to a piston and that finished the weekend. Nick Milburn finally got his Top Fuel license with a 7.592-149. The next two runs a primary belt broke and then a blower belt broke. Woollatt is the ACU Top Fuel Bike Champion for 2014.
Funnybike.
Dave Peters once again was the number one qualifier with 7.297-178.51. In number two spot, was reigning ACU Comp Bike Champion Lizz McCarthy, who was making her debut in the class on the exDave Bailey, Richard Gipp owned bike 7.629-172.40. Gary Jones the championship leader was in fourth spot 7.769 at 186.66 (top speed). Stefan Schmidt ran his first seven-second pass 7.865. Pete Le Gros ran a personal best of 8.371.
Peters broke in round two against Stefan Hagenstein who then beat Jones and ran his first seven-second pass of 7.990. On the other side of the ladder Thomas Joswig reached his first ACU final and faced fellow German Hagenstein who was also in his first ACU final. Hagenstein took the win light when Joswig had problems at mid-track.
Pro Stock Bike.
Alex Hope did some testing on Friday and ran a superb 7.39 at 182mph, he best figures to date. He went quicker in qualifying and got his first number one qualifier in the ACU Championships with 7.330-177.80. Len Paget was his nearest challenger 7.723-169.80. Making a welcome return to the track was Ray Debben and after some electrical issues ran a best of 12.727.
Hope had a bye run and ran another personal best of 7.322 at 184.30. Paget beat Debben 7.785 to 8.060, but his engine blew in the shutdown area. Leaving Hope a solo in his first final of Pro Stock in the ACU Championships and he ran superb 7.271. His first win and more importantly he now leads the championship.
Comp Bike.
Coming into this event Allan Davies and Phil Crossley were tied in the points table. It was also very close in qualifying with Davies just edging Crossley 7.604 to 7.608. Kevin Osman ran personal bests during qualifying 7.819 and 189.71mph. Davies ran 7.621 at 176.45 (p/b speed) to beat Steve Moor. While Crossley beat Tony Clark 7.753 to 7.911 and then beat Paul Hambridge. He then faced Davies in the final, which was the best race of the day. Davies ran another p/b of 7.512 to take narrow win against Crossley 7.544 and now leads the championship going into the final round.
Super Street Bike.
Steve Venables set a new ACU et record in qualifying with 7.191 backed up with a 7.220. Pete Field ran a personal best 7.225 for number two spot. Points leader Graham Balchin was next 7.295. Daniel Lencses ran a p/b of 7.426.
In the opening round of the eliminations Venables reset the et record again 7.142. Not to be out done Garry Bowe set a new ACU speed record of 205.18 during the eliminations. Another rider to hit the headlines was Richard Hann who ran personal bests of 7.410 and then 7.303-198.01 against Balchin in the semis. Venables was not finished yet and in the final against Balchin he ran a jaw dropping 7.045 (first rider to run 7.0sec in Super Street Bike) at 205.11. Much to the delight of his crew, Santa Pod track crew and the crowd. To win the event and take the lead in the championship going into the final round.
Report by Steven Moxley.