Thursday May 12, 2011 at 10:31am
The Easter “Thunderball” at Santa Pod Raceway enjoyed Hot dry weather which saw records being re-set for the equally record weekend crowds of supporters .
This California type of weather aided traction and some amazing season opening performance.
We mentioned that the 2010 Top Fuel Bike Champion Rene Van Den Berg whist waiting for a new Bike has loaned his bike to 2009 Funny Bike Champion Kev Charman.
This is obviously a superb opportunity for Kev Charmen to step up to the premier class of Drag Bike where he was to meet Top Qualifier Steve Woollatt in the final .A fortunate Bye run allowed Kev Charman to deal with a gearbox problem .
Steve Woollatt with a new Fuel system was back to the great consistency of 6 second laps that gave him 13 previous Championship Titles and he was now in the Final with the newest contender against Kev Charman.
Steve was away first by 0.1035 secs and powered straight through to take the win in 6.34 secs / 218 mph but huge crowd support for Charman on his second gear only 7.314 sec/205 mph runner.
Super Street Bike was to deliver a surprise to everyone ,not least the competitors themselves ,as Graham Dance after 12 months of development of his new Turbo in place of Nitrous Oxide Injection started to show how he had been able to take 3 previous Championship Titles.
His Title wheelie battles with Tony Clark are legiondary but the time taken was to establish a new level of consistency which could be seen as he started to plough through the 16 Bike field.
The demon tweak Graham Dance has developed is to retain Nitrous with the Turbo for 5th gear which will be set to auto for 4th & 5th gears soon.
With Steve Venables setting Top Qualifier on 7.292 sec/195mph the No 2 qualifier was taken by Graham Dance on 7.375 sec/ 192mph where his slowest run of the weekend 7.554sec/198mph gave the first round win over Mark Watkins 8.12sec/147mph. For his place in the semi final Dance took out Dave Holland in a superb personal best and low ET at 7.277sec/192mph over the slower 7.931asec/157 mph.
Steve Venables expected performance was cut short losing to Wayne Saunders quicker 7.542sec/197 mph in an ultra close 7.581sec/196 mph.
The Super Street Bike performances just continued in the Semi final as Wayne Saunders win over Pete Field set a marker for a Top Speed Record attempt in 7.42sec/199.76 mph and a Personal Best for Thomas Granica on 7.586sec/188mph with Dance through to the Final on 7.399sec/193mph.
The Final was a classic return Win for Graham Dance in 7.471sec/185mph noticing that Wayne Saunders troubled lap had not helped the record speed attempt at 9.441sec/93mph.
Pro Stock Bike had a reduced field of 4 prior to the UEM Main Event but it was great to see Dave Beck the 2010 ACU Champion with his new Bike back to the original Red & White Team Colours set Top Qualifier in 7. 106sec/186 mph which from his 1st Round of Elimination win over Mark Smith in 7.067sec/188mph meant he had set a New UK Elapsed Time Record of 7.067 seconds and Record Speed of 188mph.
Len Paget was to meet Beck in the Final where his new Slipping Bar and four Link Suspension System was giving a boost to the his Pro Stock Bike performance but problems meant a No Show..
Dave Beck then ran a solo full lap for the Title in 7.169sec/167mph.
Funny Bike winner Steve French 7.013sec/1890mph
Competition Bike winner Stu Crane 7.268sec/179mph.
Copyright
Dick Parnham