Monday June 10, 2019 at 11:53am
The opening round of the 2019 European FIM Championships took place at Santa Pod Raceway. The weather on the Saturday of the bank holiday weekend was warm and sunny, but conditions changed on Sunday and Monday overcast and showers on and off. There were a few personal bests and a new et record set in Super Street Bike. Top Fuel Bike Rikard Gustafsson dominated the event with a stunning 5.836 at 234.97mph during qualifying. Both the second and third qualifiers Steve Woollatt and Rene Van Den Berg damaged their engines and were out of the competition. Reigning European FIM Champion Filippos Papafilippou was fourth qualifier 6.316 with his new high gear only set up. Mark Smith debut his ex Paul Gast chassis. Gustafsson beat Stuart Crane and Papafilippou en route to the final. On the other side of the ladder Glenn Borg had a bye run in round one of the eliminations and knocked out Eric Richard to reach his first FIM event final. Borg put a holeshot over Gustafsson who powered around to win the event 5.955-242mph to 6.907-201mph. SuperTwins. Reigning European FIM Champion Marcus Christiansen continued were he left off last year dominating the event with a number one qualifying run of 6.386. Former champion Samu Kemppainen was the nearest challenger 6.552. Neil Midgley was in third spot 6.607 with a personal best speed of 194.63mph. Both Gert-Jan Laseur 6.721 and Allan Davies 6.806 recorded their first six-second passes. Marc Van Den Boer ran p/b et 7.286 during the eliminations. Former champion Martijn De Haas debut a new bike. Christiansen beat Boer and Laseur and Kemppainen beat DeHaas and Midgley to reach the final. Kemppainen broke off the start line in the final, Christiansen took the win light. Pro Stock Bike. Former multi-time champion Fredrik Fredlund made a welcome return to the FIM Championships and qualified in number one spot, but at the expense of a damaged transmission, and was out of the show. Reigning European FIM Champion Bertrand Maurice ran personal best figures of 7.270-179mph. Ahead of newcomer Janne Koskinen 7.378 with Reigning ACU Pro Stock Bike Champion Len Paget 7.438. Martin Bishop damaged his number one motor during test day. Other newcomers to the championship were Kevin Fuez and David Simon. Bishop hurt his motor in his win over Paget and had a bye to the final. Koskinen ran a p/b 7.125 to beat Maurice in the semi-final. Bishop was a no show in the final, so Koskinen won his first FIM event at his first attempt. Super Street Bike Steve Venables reset the European FIM Championship ET record twice over the weekend 6.876 and 6.854 en route to winning round two of Super Street Bike. Mogens Lund was Venables nearest challenger with back to back personal best ets 6.97 and 6.964. Mathias Bohlin ran a p/b of 6.98 during test day. There were p/b for the following during qualifying Alex Hope winner of round one in Hungary, ran 7.139. Rudi Zorzi 7.071, Ida Zetterstrom on her new bike 7.281and Yannick Richard 7.850 on his debut to Super Street Bike. Erich Gruber took out some big names to reach his first European FIM event final. Beating Mogens Lund, Stephen Mead and Alex Hope to face Venables. It was all Venables from start to finish taking the win light 6.854 to Gruber 7.847. Report by Steven Moxley