Gustafsson, Christiansen, Weikum stay on top, Mechaell and Smallman make moves
Second day of qualifying at the FIM-E Euro Finals at Santa Pod Raceway saw the request two sessions completed with some moves in setting the elimination ladders for tomorrow’s all important championship decider.
Rikard Gustafsson maintained top spot in FIM-E Top Fuel Bike thanks to yesterday’s five sixties, a comparatively ‘relaxed’ 5.7565/252.42 setting low ET for today in the RG Engineering/Indian Motorcycles only appearance on the day (the team skipped the final session to refresh the powerplant ready for eliminations).
Dropping into second spot, is a reviatalised Neil Midgley with a 5.9900/209.87 being a considerable step forward in getting back into the grove with the Cannon Engineering Puma, suggesting that Midgley could have a role to play in deciding the destiny of the 2025 European title.
FIM-E Super Twin has a familiar look to the top of the list with Marcus Christiansen’s 6.09 holding on from yesterday (the Danish team setting low ET of both sessions today with a 6.1880/222.27 best) and Per Bengtsson keeping The Beast parallel twin tamed with a 6.3045/225.89 to snaffle top speed honours. Roman Sixta is the other competitor in the sixes, Martin Buhler left metal shards behind yesterday and is already heading home to Switzerland giving Chris van Nimmen the unenviable task of taking on Christiansen in the opening round tomorrow.
The final session of FIM-E Super Street Bike saw a lot of shuffling in the pack to end up as the quickest 16 bike field (following on from resetting the mark last week in Germany) with a bump of 7.2816.
At the top of the pile the duo of serious championship contenders worked their way to the top with Jake Mechaell’s 6.6924/222.52 just squeaking ahead of points leader Alan Morrison Jnr’s new pb of 6.6970/220.24, reducing Luke Farrugia’s 6.70 from yesterday to third spot.
A brief side note for Nikolaos Chrysanthopoulos for not only qualifying in the tough field but dropping his pb to a 7.2453/206.27 from the utterly unique Skaltsas Performance Tuning Triumph triple.
The top two in FIM-E Pro Stock Bike stay the same with Karl-Heinz Weikum going into eliminations in the low qualifier spot, closely followed by Bertrand Maurice (both keeping their numbers from yesterday).
FIM-E Junior Drag Bike has Maggie Smallman now at number one with a +0.0243 on a 7.90 from the Rugrat Honda. As seen previously, pretty much anyone in the all run thirteen bike field can step up and win on raceday.
Text and photos: Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes
