Richard, Christiansen, Morrison Jnr, Lymant and Siersema win the NitrOlympX

With some nervous glances at the sky, eliminations day at the NitrOlympX ran through all of the fields with some shocks, some surprises and some championships pretty much decided.

When low qualifier and championship leader Rikard Gustafsson was a no show for eliminations, thanks to clutch damage in the Night Show, eliminations was opened wide up and the FIM-E Top Fuel Bike points title wasn’t decided as early as anticipated. Gustafsson’s opponent was due to be Mike Olie, but he was also unable to make the call after damage sustained on Friday. So then there were six. It seemed that Rene van den Berg might move in with a good shot at the event win when the Dutch Shark Attack rider opened his eliminations account with a 6.054 (new PB) to defeat Mikko Rajaniemi. In the semi-finals van den Berg slowed to a 6.315 but just was able to ride around Stuart Crane’s better leaving 6.364 while on the slightly vacant top half of the ladder Eric Richard was handed a freebie in the opening round when Mark Smith was too eager by some margin and Richard was also able to stage for the solo into the final. There was quite a bit at stake in the trophy match-up, not only the fate of the NitrOlympX event win, but also to keep van den Berg’s faint championship hopes alive. It was a pretty sharp final, with Richard slapping a tenth of a second holeshot at the startline and the yellow Hayabusa FunnyBike held on with a 6.611 to van den Berg’s 6.522 (the latter seeing a rod deciding to make a bid for sunlight). Richard thus took his first FIM-E event win and in doing so pretty much sealed the deal for Gustafsson’s fourth championship with the Euro Finals at Santa Pod to come.

FIM-E Super Twin saw some very tight match-ups across the ladder (aside from anyone facing that orange bike from Denmark). With a degree of inevitability, Marcus Christiansen seemed to ease ahead of the field with a 6.373 accounting for Vesa Lipponen in the quarters and then dropping a low ET/top speed of the event 6.283/221.85 in the semis after scheduled opponent Juha Hintukainen lost fire after the burnout. The event win came with a 6.590/214 over Finnish opponent and first time FIM-E finalist Marko Lantto who put up a game 6.913 in his runner-up effort. Christiansen thus celebrated the NitrOlympX event win, the 2023 points championship and his birthday all in one go.

So often the FIM-E class of the NitrOlympX, Super Street Bike really hit it’s straps on eliminations day with a slew of PBs adding to those coming out of qualifying, but at the end of the day it was the incoming top two in the points that emerged as the finalists from the four rounds of eliminations. From the top half of the ladder Daniel Donat Lencses opened his account with a 6.767 in first round of eliminations but dropped off a bit in the quarters and semi-finals into the 6.9s but booked his spot in the final pairing after defeating low qualifier Jake Mechaell in the penultimate round. Lower half of the ladder had Alan Morrison Jnr make his way through the field improving at each stage with a 6.944, 6.830 and a 6.758 in the semis to defeat Mathias Bohlin. The final and Morrison Jnr really was on his metal, taking a tenth advantage off the start line and then disappearing off with a new PB 6.711 @ 218.69 to take low ET honours, the event win and maintain his points lead at the same time.

A first time winner in FIM-E Pro Stock Bike gave something for the German crowd to cheer as Jorg Lymant rumbled his way to the winner’s circle on board one of his S&S Buells, and the 7.283 in the final round to handily Bertrand Maurice’s Suzuki lowered his PB as well as setting low ET of eliminations. Maurice also had something to celebrate as we think he has provisionally locked up the championship by going rounds at the Hockenheimring.

The FIM-E Junior Drag Bike Cup has a habit of ripping up the form book from qualifying and this year’s NitrOlympX proved to be no exception as Geeuwke Siersema takes home the event win back to the Netherlands having eased through the field from the number eight spot.

Text and photo: Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes

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