Huge crowds turned out to witness record breaking performances at the opening round of the European FIM Championships over the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend.
Super Street Bike were the stars of the event with the et record being reset four times during the event. There were many personal bests set by the riders in all the classes.
Before the start of the bike eliminations, there was a minute silent in memory for legend UK rider Brian Johnson who recently passed away. Two of Johnson’s bikes were competing at the event and were on the track with members of Johnson family and all the riders competing at the event.
Top Fuel Bike.
Reigning champion Ian King sent a warning shot during test day (Thursday) before the event started, with a speed of 236mph. Then during qualifying he ran a personal best speed of 237.62mph. In the next qualifying session he tried to back the speed up for a new record, but only ran 232mph but set a personal best et of 5.830 to lead the field. Rikard Gustafsson rode his Funny bike into number two spot with 6.388-215.84mph. ACU Top Fuel Bike Champion Steve Woollatt qualified third 6.602-197.97mph. Nick Milburn ran a personal best of 7.184-185.07mph.
King suffered traction problems in the eliminations and lost to Filippas Papafilippou 6.759 to 8.613 in the semi-finals. Milburn had a bye in round one, but didn’t show for the semi-final (was repairing his motor) leaving Gustafsson a bye to the final.
It was a bizarre final, which saw Papafilippou leave the start line and then a flash of flames from the carbs and rolled to a stop at the 100ft mark. Meanwhile Gustafsson couldn’t get the bike in gear and eventually found a gear and slowly went down the track and waved to his opponent as he went by.
SuperTwins.
There was a small field of four bikes. Martijn De Haas dominated the event from start to finish. He was the only rider to run in the six-second zone with a best of 6.735-208.04mph. Job Heezen had some handling issues and managed a best of 7.397-202.55mph. Ronny Aasen suffered piston ring troubles during qualifying 11.203. Roman Sixta debut his new stunning bike the ex John Beckenrich. He only got to the 200ft mark when the bottom end of the motor blew, he was out of the competition.
De Haas had a bye to the final and ran 6.627-210.82mph. In the other semi Heezen beat Aasen 7.365 to 7.579.
De Haas turned the wick up and ran a personal best of 6.605 at 212.81mph to win the event over Heezen 7.353-205.24mph.
Pro Stock Bike.
Karl-Heinz Weikum had both of his motors rebuilt by Paul Gast over the winter. He shocked everyone when he ran a personal best 7.056 (previous best 7.148) to lead the field. Reigning champion Fredrik Fredlund was next 7.077. Another rider to record a personal best was Gert-Jan Laseur 7.146 but broke a con rod and he was out of the show. There were also personal bests for Kenneth Holmberg 7.276 and Allan Davies 7.625.
First alternate Martin Newbury came in Laseur and Ray Debben third alternate for Davies. Holmberg wasted a new p/b 7.157-184.36mph when he red lit against Alex Hope. In the first semi-final Fredlund ran low et and top speed of the meeting 7.048-189.01mph against Martin Bishop. Hope took a holeshot win against Weikum in the other semi 7.320 to Weikum’s quicker but losing 7.236. In the final Hope put a holeshot (rt017 to 047) over Fredlund who powered around Hope to take the win light 7.202-186.66mph to Hope personal best 7.255 at 180.66mph.
Super Street Bike.
Record setting performances start on day one of qualifying with Steve Venables the reigning champion setting the et record at 7.184 and was part of the first side by side 7.1secs in Europe when he ran against Garry Bowe. On the second day of qualifying Dave Holland ran 7.096 on Saturday and backed it up the next day with 7.155 for the record. He then reset it again with 7.068 at 205.19mph. Bowe was his nearest challenger to Holland with 7.170. Followed by Venables 7.184, Pete Field 7.220, Richard Stubbins with a p/b of 7.307 and Richard Hann also set a p/b 7.336.
Jemma Venables ran a jaw dropping 7.301 at 199.90mph personal best to beat Mogens Lund. Mark Wells ran a p/b 7.624 against Hann in the eliminations. Bowe ran back to back p/b 7.138 and 7.129 in the opening two rounds of competition. But it was Holland who raised the bar to another level with 7.038 to set the et record again and went to fast to set a new speed record with a speed of 207.90mph. Steve Venables took a holeshot win against Bowe 7.184 to a losing but quicker 7.161. In the other semi Stubbins ran a jaw dropping best ever of 7.113 at 201.46mph (first 200mph plus). The final was decided on the start line when Venables red lit leaving Stubbins to ease off to take the win 8.024-139mph.
Report by Steven Moxley.