Monday May 16, 2016 at 2:33pm
The opening round of the 2016 European FIM Championships start at Santa Pod Raceway on the Bank Holiday weekend of the 27-30th May. The four-day event has a good entry list in the four-bike classes.
Top Fuel Bike
Multi-time and reigning European FIM Top Fuel Bike Champion Ian King will try and claim his tenth title this year. Rikard Gustafsson has been building a Top Fuel Bike over the last few years and will make his debut with the bike. It will be a learning curve for Gustafsson this year. Flying the flag for Funny Bikes will be Fillippos Papafilippou who finished third in the championship last year. Multi-time ACU Top Fuel Bike Champion Steve Woollatt is another rider to watch at the meeting. Lorcan Parnell the ACU Funny Bike speed record holder is racing for the first time in an FIM event. Team Warpspeed Stuart Crane and Dale Leeks will debut their new bikes.
SuperTwins
Martijn De Haas won his first European FIM SuperTwins Championship last year and will be facing some strong challengers at this event. Ronny Aasen the three-time champion ran 6.374 last year (et record is 6.404) but didn’t back it up for a record. Roman Sixta won his first ever FIM event here at Santa Pod at the European Finals meeting and is running in the six-second zone. Making a return to the championship is the 2014 champion Samu Kemppainen. He raced in the EDRS Series last year and won the SuperTwins championship. Another rider making a return to the championship is Norway’s Hans Olav Olstad who has run 6.5sec at nearly 220mph.
Pro Stock Bike
Fredrik Fredlund has a new engine built by Vance/Hines and will be trying to win his sixth title. Last years number two-plate Gert-Jan Laseur has new cylinder heads and exhaust system and will be hoping to improve his times and speeds this year. Kenneth Holmberg has improved his performance every year so he is another rider who could will the title is the top two have any problems. UK’s leading rider in Pro Stock Bike is ACU Champion Alex Hope the engines have been upgraded and he will be hoping to run in the 7.1sec. Other riders to watch for are Ray Debben who has now fitted a 1640cc motor. Martin Newbury who ran 7.2secs and former ACU champion Mark Smith has two motors for 2016. 2015 ACU Super Street Bike Championship runner up Chris Reed will make his debut in the FIM Championship on Richard Gipp’s bike. Patrick Kras makes his debut on his V Twin Buell.
Super Street Bike Cup
Gary Bowe starts his defence of his title with top six riders from 2015 all entered. Rick Stubbins had a good season last year and Steve Venables who ran the first six-second pass outside the USA here at Santa Pod at the European Finals meeting. Mogens Lund has been a top five contender the last few years. Pete Field has run 7.1sec at over 200mph. Thomas Granica could be a force if he attends all the rounds. Shawn Buttigieg has run 7.10. Daniel Lencses has run low 7.2secs and with Dave Smith tuning could run his first 200 plus mph this year. Comp Bike riders Eddy Smiley and Mark Hope have entered for this event.
Report by Steven Moxley.