FIM-E Dragbike championship, Euro Finals Preview, Santa Pod Raceway
And so we reach the end of the 2022 FIM-E series which has been a somewhat confusing affair both on and off track, but at least the traditional season closer is back where the season started back in May at Santa Pod.
FIM-E Top Fuel Bike
Top Fuel Bike should be something good to watch this weekend with Rene van den Berg and Rikard Gustafsson separated by substantially less than a single elimination round at the sharp end of the championship chase. The latter brings some form into the Finals thanks to victory at the last FIM-E round at Hockenheim a couple of weeks ago and retaking the King of Mosten at the Danish show race last weekend and setting a new track record into the bargain.
The rest of the field will see Mark Smith and Stuart Crane looking to advance their PBs onboard their Warpspeed Suzuki Funnybikes, with Eric Richard also in shakedown mode with his new chassised turbo Suzuki entry. Rounding out the field are the nitro bikes of Al Smith and Neil Midgley, with Smith looking to get some untroubled runs onboard the PBR Rocket triple and Midgley getting back comfortable in the saddle of the quickest fuel bike on this side of the Pond.
FIM-E Super Twin Bike
Just the three entries in Super Twin means that Marcus Christiansen is pretty much champion elect for the third season in succession which represents something of a bounce back after the catastrophic engine failure that marked the Dane’s season opener.
Martijn de Haas will move into second spot and the Dutch team will be looking to avoid disappearing like a comet as they managed to comprehensively torch a head at the round in Sweden in mid August.
FIM-E Pro Stock Bike
A four bike field in Pro Stock makes current points leader Martin Newbury favourite to pick up his first FIM-E championship after what has been a somewhat crazy season for the UK Suzuki rider. If Newbury falls early then there is a mathematical possibility that Aswin Le Noble could round him in the points (although we’re not 100% sure we’d trust our maths at the moment!).
FIM-E Super Street Bike
The fifteen entries in SSB are littered with very strong runners that could really shake the championship order up and knock current leaders Daniel Donat Lencses and Mathias Bohlin off the top two spots respectively although both used the test session yesterday to get decent tune-ups (Lencses in the 6.7s and Bohlin in the 6.9s) for the weekend ahead.
However, on home turf it is never a good idea to count out the likes of Jake Mechaell and Steve Venables et al from the event win at the European Finals. Although the championship may seem out of reach for Ven, Jake is certainly in with a shout as is Mogens Lund if the top two stumble.
FIM-E Junior Dragbike Cup
The 2022 Cup is pretty much settled in Hollie King’s favour after winning at the Main Event and then repeating at the Hockenheimring a couple of weeks ago. The remaining Junior trio of Meg Talbot, Marie Madleen Rosen and Anouk Burgering will be trying to prevent a season’s clean sweep.
Exhibition
The Event will also mark the farewell appearance of Eric Teboul onboard his hydrogen peroxide fuelled rocket, so this will be the last chance to see the quickest and fastest two wheeled drag bike.
Words and photos Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes
Free web stream available via Santa Pod’s Youtube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/SantaPodTV and Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/santapodraceway
Live ET slips available here:http://etslips.co.uk/Home.html
Qualifying sheets and eliminations ladders will be available here: https://santapodresults.com/2022/
