Rain defeats the FIM-E Dragbike fields at the Main Event
Almost inevitably, the rainmaking combination of a British Bank Holiday weekend and a drag racing event caused the early termination of eliminations day at Santa Pod Raceway’s Main Event. Delays due to on track incidents, periodic showers and a curious running order meant that all of the FIM-E classes were terminated before the semi-final stage when the final deluge rolled in.
In FIM-E Top Fuel Bike Rikard Gustafsson continued to look odds on for the event win running low ET of the first round with a 5.8335 at an early click off 222.23 mph terminal. The odds were shortened with a trio of Funnybikes making the semifinals, with Stuart Crane being the only one to be within half a second of Gustafsson with an opening round 6.2978/221.13. Crane would have faced Eric Richard while Gustafsson was scheduled to run Glenn Borg who was in PB territory with a pair of 6.5s in qualifying and the first round of eliminations.
FIM-E Super Twin Bike delivered a shock in the opening round of eliminations when Marcus Christiansen wasn’t carding low ET of the round. That honour went to Per Bengtsson who matched his final qualifying session 6.3 from yesterday with a 6.3890/208.20 to put The Beast parallel twin into a scheduled semifinal match up with Roman Sixta who had earlier helped out Bengtsson with a new computer, just a small demonstration of the camaraderie in the FIM-E ranks. Whither Christiansen you may ask? Well he’d have ended up in the final despite an abrupt engine cut out with a 14 second run earning a spot in the semi-finals where he’d have had a bye into the final.
FIM-E Super Street Bike was able to complete two rounds of eliminations thanks to their sixteen bike field. The headliner heading to the semis proved to be Luke Farrugia with the Maltese rider setting low ET of the eliminations with a 6.7794/220.12 personal best onboard Simon Giordmania’s Hayabusa. Coupled with Farrugia’s very sharp reaction times, the Malta Busa would have been a serious threat to the established runners of Jake Mechaell, Daniel Donat Lencses and Alan Morrison Jnr at the final four stage.
The trio left in FIM-E Pro Stock Bike when the curtain came down were led by Bertrand Maurice who would have had a bye into the trophy round thanks to a low ET of eliminations of 7.2498/180.64 in the first stanza. The contenders on the other side of the ladder would have been Jorg Lymant and Jerome Rougement, the former being the defending class champion and the latter picking up his first eliminations round win earlier in the day.
The crazy world of FIM-E Junior Dragbike continued to throw the form book out of the window in the first and second elimination rounds with all of the anticipated Cup contenders and reigning and recent holders out early. Sophie Pollen on debut at FIM-E level took the opportunity to remove the 2023 champ Leah Morrison in the opening round and then 2022 and 2024 champ Hollie King in the second round and would have earned a bye into the final and deservingly so. Alia Lester and Declan Butt were due to contest the spot in the final from the lower half of the ladder.
Text and photos: Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes
