Gustafsson, Christiansen, Mechaell and Maurice hold on to FIM-E top spots, while King bumps up at the Main Event

Another long day at Santa Pod for the second day of qualifying at the FIM-E Main Event with a deluge delaying the start, a stiff headwind and a bit too much spillage on the track pushing the final round of FIM-E qualifying back further and further. In some ways this helped as the wind slightly eased for the final qualifying session which saw improvements for a number in the fields.

In the premier FIM-E Top Fuel Bike category Rikard Gustafsson continued to reign supreme, taking low ET honours on three out of the four sessions carrying yesterday’s 5.7971/234.93 into eliminations as the number one qualifier, a final session moon shot proved to be too much for the conditions to hold.

FIM-E Super Twin Bike remained the realm of Marcus Christiansen who improved on yesterday’s best with a 6.1519/228.90 in the final session (accompanied by another three ninety at the eighth mile).

Possibly the most relieved rider on site is Vesa Lipponen as ‘Mr Five’ had been kept in the pits up until the final session and only made it to race day thanks to a 27.3923/16.05 coaster (just under three seconds away from being timed out). Having a ticket of any sort will make the trip from Finland more worthwhile than it was looking.

The FIM-E Super Street Bike didn’t quite make the record sixteen bike that was anticipated, but the final session saw a lot of movement lower down the field with the bump spot changing on numerous occasions to end up with a 7.5945 with Dan De’ath making it in. The top spot remains in Jake Mechaell’s hands with a final session 6.7459/220.37 keeping him just ahead of Daniel Donat Lencses’ 6.7535/224.41 in the last pairing to go down the track.

Bertrand Maurice was another to continue to lead his class, this time with a 7.1734/185.07 from the third session to keep the French rider on top of the FIM-E Pro Stock Bike sheets. Maurice was another to pick up a healthy array of little points by leading three out of the four qualifying sessions.

The tricky wind and the lightweight nature of the FIM-E Juniors seemed to militate against significant improvements over yesterday’s efforts, but reigning Cup holder Hollie King dropped an astonishing +0.0093 on a 9.20 dial-in to lead the field. Kudos is due to the rest of the field which, despite being an all run affair tomorrow, sees the top six qualifiers less than 0.08 seconds off their dial-ins.

Text and photos: Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes