Rain makes early end to EDRS Pro Nordic MC round at Alastaro
Rain made an early end to the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro, Finland, the second round of the EDRS Pro Nordic Motorcycle Championship. After the first round of Super Street Bike and the Pro Stock Motorcycles in the line-up, a thunderstorm interrupted the programme. The track crew almost got the Alastaro dragstrip in racing condition twice, when at 3.30 PM another heavy shower left the race director no other option than to cancel the event.
After two sunny days and great conditions, the weather was not with the racers on race day at Alastaro, Finland. That was a pity, as qualifying was close and saw some record setting numbers. In Pro Stock Motorcycle number one qualifier Kalle Lyrén recorded his first ever 6-second run in Europe with 6.985 seconds, while in Super Twin Motorcycle Samu Kemppainen was closely followed by countrymen Vesa Lipponen and Harri Piensalmi. And then of course there was Super Street Bike, with a 16-bike ladder and Richard Stubbins and Alex Hope as the number one and two qualifiers and Henri Kolehmainen, winner of the first round at Tierp, in fifth.
Race day for the EDRS Pro Nordic Motorcycle Championship started with the first round in Super Street Bike. Reigning champion Björn Friström had some technical problems and the number four qualifier was defeated by number thirteen qualifier Nils-Ola Andersson. All other top eight qualifiers had no problems and won their round and so Richard Stubbins, Emil Őstlund, Henri Kolehmainen, Alex Hope, Mogens Lund, Anders Blanck and Vesa Ruhanen advanced to the quarter finals. Especially Hope and Lund impressed with 7.34 and 7.37 seconds elapsed times.
Next class to run was Pro Stock Motorcycle, but then the rain came in and racing was over. And so Kalle Lyrén (Pro Stock Motorcycle), Samu Kemppainen (Super Twin Motorcycle) and Jan Sturla Hegre (Top Fuel Motorcycle) couldn’t take any further advantage of their number one qualifying positions.
In Super Twin Motorcycle Kemppainen is the leader in the championship, with Greger Johansson in second position and Vidar Ravnsborg as the new number three. In Pro Stock Motorcycle Lyrén is the provisional leader with Thomas Olsen in second position. In Super Street Bike Kolehmainen is still in the lead, with Stubbins second and Lund third, while in Top Fuel Motorcycle Rikard Gustafsson is the leader.
Super Comp Bike had one elimination round on Saturday. Bianca Nilsson, Anders Gerdtsson, Kathrine Wagenius and Tomas Jonsson, the top four in the championship, all won their race. In Super Gas Bike Alastaro number one qualifier Janne Koskinen is leading the championship, with Magnus Pollack in second position.
The third round of the EDRS Pro Nordic Motorcycle Championship will be at Gardermoen, Norway, August 5-7.
Qualifying results: http://www.fhra.fi/keskustelu/threads/7-10-7-2016-fhra-em-osakilpailu-nitro-nationals.485/ (scroll down the page to see the results)
Text and photos: Remco Scheelings