Teething problems for American Lifestyle at the Main Event

The Belgian Super Twin team representing American Lifestyle had a problem plagued opener having made a lot of changes for the 2025 campaign to their Overkill thumper. Team principal and rider Chris van Nimmen gives the low down.

“During the winter, we worked a lot and changed a lot on the bike for the forthcoming season. New rods, pistons, heads, lifters, rocker stands, intake manifolds and exhaust as bigger must be better, so more fuel etc…
First qualifier [and first shot of the season], the motor shut off after the burn out, maybe a rider error and I closed the throttle too quickly?
Second qualifier, and the strong head wind appeared to be blowing the methanol away and it took too long to get the bike started safely. Fortunately we were given the chance to restart but after the burn out the motor shut off again! So we checked in the pits overnight what was the problem.
Third qualifier on the Sunday, we reverted to the setup from last year but no progress, shut off after the burn out again.
Fourth and last qualifier so we don’t do the burn out and go straight to start line to get qualified. Make the pass and when shifting to second gear engine shut off!! But could roll to the finishline in 13 sec!!
First round of eliminations on the Monday, and we finally find the problem in the gearbox (thanks to Marcus [Christiansen] and Speedy). This time we could make the burn out and get staged against Per Bengtsson, and I get a good reaction on the lights but we don’t have enough power with the set up from last year, and the wind pushed me close to the wall and I had to go off the throttle. But finally everything worked as it should be. So hopefully at the next race we can go full power!”

Not the most straightforward start for Van Nimmen as he looks to build on last year’s 3rd place finish in the points, but at least the team didn’t lose too much ground as a result of the early curtailment of the meeting due to rain. They get to go again in Sweden in August.

FIM-E Dragbike championship 2025
Remaining rounds

7th-10th August, Summit Racing Equipment Internationals 2025, Tierp Arena, Sweden
29th-31st August, NitrOlympX, Hockenheimring, Germany
4th-7th September, Euro Finals, Santa Pod Raceway, UK

Text and photos: Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes