Gustafsson, Christiansen, Farrugia, Weikum and Isaacs top the sheets on Day One of the Euro Finals
Sometimes FIM-E Drag Racing misses the spot, but today at Santa Pod Raceway certainly wasn’t one of those days. Stable conditions made for rapid action across all of the five categories at the season finale, with world class times leading in the two premier classes after only the first day of qualifying.
Grabbing headlines with a opening shot heard around the world, Rikard Gustafsson was aiming for a 5.8 to get into the FIM-E Top Fuel Bike field. He missed, by a bunch, and unloaded a 5.6382/249.02 to become the second quickest rider on a global stage, showing that less can be more as the RG Engineering/Indian Motorcycles team took a bit out of the tune-up having watched the FIA Pro Modified class struggle to get down the track in their opening session. A second session 5.6888/252.25 in the dark demonstrated that it certainly wasn’t a fluke.
Behind Gustafsson sits Rene van den Berg with a 6.1866/224.75 and championship contender Stuart Crane with a 6.2648/221.10 from his Warpspeed Funny Bike.
The current bump spot of 6.97 won’t require much improvement tomorrow to best the 6.844 European record eight bike field.
FIM-E Super Twin is also another that has delivered world class performances during the course of the year, and Marcus Christiansen looks to be underlining his championship status with a second session 6.0982/220.37 to not only pick up some valuable qualifying points, but also reset the track and FIM-E class record.
Alongside Christiansen, Per Bengtsson’s 6.3831/181 could have been a lot better had a drift towards the centreline not caused an early shutoff.
Coming of the class quickest field in Germany last weekend, FIM-E Super Street Bike continued the impressive performance levels, with Malta’s Luke Farrugia grabbing low ET in both sessions and ending up with a 6.7038/221.45 in the second session.
Behind Farrugia, Jake Mechaell helps his championship credentials with a 6.7985/217.19 while Ross Morrison’s 6.8488/213.80, Kostas Giannopoulos (6.8661/208.17) and points leader Alan Morrison Jnr (6.8692/216.15) round out the very quick quintet at the sharp end of the field.
Karl-Heinz Weikum continues to head the FIM-E Pro Stock Bike field following on from his win in Germany last weekend. A 7.2854/182.08 puts him ahead of an amazing 7.3008 from points leader Bertrand Maurice.
Why amazing? Well Maurice had called it quits after a dog attack caused significant injuries to his hands, chest and legs, but remarkably he is here and fit enough to drop the clutch on the Light Speed Suzuki.
In FIM-E Junior Drag Bike, Harry Isaacs with +0.0429 on a 9.70 is the target for the rest of the class to take aim at tomorrow.
Text and photos: Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes
