SSB rookie Pelle Lakmaker ends 2015 season on a high
Pelle Lakmaker was one of the new faces in the EDRS Pro Nordic Motorcycle Championship this season. After a few years away from the racetrack, the multiple Pro Street Bike champion made a comeback to the sport and stepped up to Super Street Bike with a Kawasaki ZX-14. “We ended our test season with two personal bests, so we are very happy and are already looking forward to next season, where we hopefully can get our Kawasaki up there amongst all the Suzukis”, says Pelle Lakmaker.
Although Pelle Lakmaker might be new in Super Street Bike, the 41-year old Swede is an experienced and very successful motorcycle drag racer. “I’ve been riding different drag bikes since 1993, and between 2006 and 2011 we won four Scandinavian championship titles in Pro Street Bike. After that, we took a pause from racing for a couple of years. When we decided to make a comeback, we wanted to step up to a much faster class, Super Street Bike”, Pelle says. “We asked our engine builder Mathias Bohlin to build us a new engine. Peter Andersson from Andersson Turbo built a new turbo set-up. We didn’t get the new built Kawasaki ZX-14 ready for any test and tune, so we had to go to the first Tierp event in June, the first round of the EDRS Pro Nordic Motorcycle Championship, without any testing at all. As expected we had some issues, but we got at least one decent run that weekend, with 8.04 seconds as a new personal best.”
The next race for Pelle was the third round of the EDRS Pro Nordic MC at Gardermoen, Norway. “There I started to get comfortable with the bike after some years from racing, and although I lost in the first round of eliminations, the 7.94 seconds from qualifying was another personal best. At the last event, the Scandinavian Internationals at Tierp, we got some tuning help from Ronny Nordgren from NCR Funny Bike team.” It paid off as the Kawasaki went quicker and faster every run. “We started with 8.07 seconds and improved to 7.80 seconds, even though we didn’t increase the boost. We were the number seven qualifier in the 14-bike field.” In the first round Pelle stepped up to 7.69 seconds and advanced to the quarter finals, where he was defeated by Alex Hope.
“We ended our test season with two personal bests, 7.69 seconds and 299 km/h, on very low boost and only sixteen runs on the new built bike. We are very happy with what we achieved in our first season in this competitive class and we are already looking forward to next season. Hopefully we can get our Kawasaki up there amongst all the Suzukis”, says Pelle, who not only wants to look back, but is already eager to start 2016.
