Winners and champions crowned at the FIM-E Euro Finals
The 2024 FIM-E Dragbike season came to a close after a long and spectacular eliminations day at Santa Pod Raceway. Overnight heavy rain and then some unwelcome delays caused by more rain and oildowns pushed the event completion right up to the local curfew, but with all eliminators decided wrapped up in the gloom and champions crowned.
It’s been quite a year for Rikard Gustafsson and the RG Engineering Puma, and the Swede put an emphatic full stop on his fifth FIM-E Top Fuel Bike championship, running low ET of each round of eliminations (a best of 5.916/245 in the semis to defeat Eric Richard – Richard had earlier demolished his PB with the Hayabusa funny with a 6.306/216.13) and taking the event win with a 6.0786/239 in the dark.
His opponent was Neil Midgley who managed to get into the raceday field as an alternate, and then produced his weekend’s best with a 6.345 on a very early click-off to with the first round, and then another short pass to defeat Jiri Lukes (in his FIM-E debut on the PBR Rocket) in the semis. A seven zero in the final wouldn’t be enough to challenge Gustafsson, but a welcome return to action for the Cannon Motorsports team.
Eliminations for FIM-E Super Twin boiled down to a heads-up between four time champion Per Bengtsson and Marcus Christiansen who had earlier secured his fifth straight, when the Belgian pair of Chris van Nimmen and Marc van den Boer had both suffered terminal engine damage on their last qualifying pairing.
Christiansen rumbled to a 6.1415/223.39 in his first round single and, after a long wait, the final between Christiansen and Bengtsson saw the former repeat with a 6.1433/226.67 while the veteran Swede kept things honest with a 6.3240.
The championship in FIM-E Super Street Bike was still up for grabs heading into eliminations, but Alan Morrison Jnr got the job done early in the knockout phase to seal his second title in a row. The Brit would also work his way through to the event trophy match-up against Jake Mechaell, who was continuing his hot streak having qualified low off the back of the event win in Germany two weeks previous.
Mechaell wouldn’t budge from the 6.7s (best of 6.7155) through the three preliminaries and stayed true to form in the final with a 6.7572/212.93 to get by Morrison Jnr’s holeshot (RTs of +0.0826s and + 0.0583s respectively) and a slowing 6.9574/179.25. The whole class has been spectacular this season, and Mechaell is looking to get the funds to run a full tour in 2025 which will sharpen things up even further.
Having tied up his first championship, Jorg Lymant took his fourth FIM-E Pro Stock Bike event win of the year (missing out on a complete set thanks to a runner-up finish to outgoing champ Bertrand Maurice earlier in the season) over a returning Alex Hope’s Suzuki, the German Buell heading to the finish line in 7.3557 seconds and riding around Hope’s holeshot.
The destiny of the FIM-E Junior Drag Bike Cup was undecided until the second round of eliminations when Hollie King defeated Richard Wilcox to pick up her second title. The eliminations final would be an all family affair as Hollie’s younger brother Jaxon had earlier defeated last year’s Cup holder Leah Morrison earning a bye through the semis to the trophy run off. In the event Jaxon left too soon leaving his elder sibling with bragging rights.
And thus that’s the end of the 2024 series, the 2025 calendar is due to be finalised in the next month or so, whatever’s it’s shape it will no doubt be another spectacular year.
Words and photos Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes
