The opening round of the 2015 European FIM Championships kicks off at Santa Pod Raceway over the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend of 22-25th May.
Top Fuel Bike.
Ian King will start his defence of the title with a rebuilt motor (new crankshaft, rods and repaired cases) and a complete rewire of the bike. The motor was damaged at the final round of last year’s championship. Rikard Gustafsson will be competing with his Funny bike this bike has run 6.367. He has been building a Top Fuel Bike in recent years and is hoping to test the machine later in the year. Otto Knebl had his best season last year finishing third on the ex Brian Johnson Imperial Wizard bike. Johnson recently passed away. ACU Top Fuel Bike Champion Steve Woollatt will be hoping to continue the form he shown at the end of last season. Filippos Papafilippou has a stunning new paint job on his bike this bike has run 6.549. Rene Van Den Berg won the first round of the ACU Top Fuel Bike Championship at Easter here at Santa Pod. To newcomers to the class Nick Milburn riding the ex Van Den Berg bike and Funny bike competitor Bob Brooks who will be trying to run his first six-second pass.
SuperTwins.
Last years European Finals winner Martijn De Haas will be hoping to continue his winning form after running personal best figures 6.623-214.92mph here last year. Former champion Ronny Aasen is on the Zodiac bike of the Pels family and hoping the engine improvements will see him in the winners circle again. Job Heezen found a tune up right for his bike at the end of last season, resulting with a best of 6.702. Roman Sixta has a new bike from the States. He has sold his old bike to newcomer Peter Ceska.
Pro Stock Bike.
Reigning FIM Pro Stock Bike Champion Fredrik Fredlund has recently return from the USA were he competed in the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. Fredlund is going for his fifth Pro Stock Bike title and will be hoping to run his first six-second pass in Europe this season. Gert-Jan Laseur has changed the cylinder heads and pistons on his Buell and will once again be challenging Fredlund. Klaus-Heinz Weikum is another rider to watch out for having run 7.148 at the European Finals last year. Kenneth Holmberg fitted a new Vance/Hines motor (1755cc) late last year and knocked just over 3/10ths (7.619-173mph) of his personal best to 7.297 at 182mph and another rider to watch out for. The Brits have Martin Bishop who has been our best rider in the class the last few seasons. Reigning ACU Pro Stock Bike Champion Alex Hope will have his big motor (1755cc) in the frame for this years championship. Reigning ACU Comp Bike Champion Allan Davies also has a bigger motor for 2015 an ex Dave Beck motor. Likewise former ACU Pro Stock Bike Champion Mark Smith has a new Warpspeed motor (1640cc) in his bike.
Super Street Bike.
Reigning FIM Super Street Bike Cup Champion Steve Venables (at the time of writing this article) will be hoping to have his new motor from the States in the bike for this event after destroying his number one motor at Easter. Garry Bowe won the Easter event and ran a personal best in the final of 7.16. The former champion will be hoping for more success at this event. Other riders to look out for are Mogens Lund, Pete Field who is starting to run low 7.2secs at over 200mph. Likewise Richard Hann is running consist. Former et record holder Dave Holland and former ACU Champion Richard Stubbins on his new bike.
Report by Steven Moxley.