Gustafsson, Bengtsson and Maurice keep ahead and Farrugia leaps to the front of the Tierp qualifying lists

FIM-E European Drag Bike Championship – Round Two – Summit Equipment Internationals, Tierp Arena, Sweden 7th-10th August

A long second day of FIM-E qualifying at Tierp Arena saw a number of delays (most not coming from the FIM-E classes it should be noted) but three rounds completed to set the ladders for tomorrow’s eliminations

Sweden’s Rikard Gustafsson maintained his lead in FIM-E Top Fuel Bike, improving in both of his runs today to finish on a 5.7585/252.66 to give the Indian/RG Engineering team the best part of two tenths over the rest of the field.

Sverre Dahl remains in second with the 5.9576/230.70 from yesterday, and Rene van den Berg improving to third with a 6.1325. Although Gustafsson has some distance on the rest, the 6.8809 bump held by Kari Rautanen was a cough away from resetting the class European eight bike best from 2003.

The top three in FIM-E Super Twin remained the same with Per Bengtsson repeating six twenties but not bettering yesterday’s 6.2087/217.59 for pole. Marcus Christiansen improved but perhaps not as much as anticipated to a 6.2411/225.49 to stay in second, while Vesa Lipponen rumbled to a 6.2444/230.60 to put him very much into the mix for honours tomorrow.

FIM-E Super Street Bike continued to send everyone dizzy during each session, but today’s second was very much focused on Luke Farrugia onboard Simon Giordmania’s MaltaBusa which leapt to the top of the heap with a 6.6965/222.21 to reset his PB by a bunch. Alan Morrison Jnr dropped to second but improved to a 6.7333, closely followed by Jake Mechaell’s 6.7479 and Ross Morrison 6.7831 to round out the top four. The top eight of the field were in the sixes with PBs scattered throughout the eighteen competitors, sixteen of which will entry tomorrow’s ladder.

After threatening to do so yesterday, Bertrand Maurice did improve his PB to a 7.0829 to continue heading the FIM-E Pro Stock Bike field. Dimitrios Petridis pulled one out of the bag in the final session to move into second with a 7.2802 ahead of Jorg Lymant (7.2974) and Karl-Heinz Weikum (7.3952).

Eliminations start early tomorrow especially for the sixteen bike Super Street Bike ladder, and again the weather looks set fair for another dramatic day on the FIM-E tour.

Livestream can be access via Speedevents Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@Speedevents_se

Text and photos: Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes