FIM-E Championships decided, Euro Finals winners crowned
The end of the 2025 FIM-E Drag Bike season finished in tumultuous fashion at Santa Pod Raceway, with some stunning racing and a whole slew of personal bests set.
Rikard Gustafsson and the RG Engineering team continued their irresistible form over from qualifying to dominate eliminations and wrap up a fourth FIM-E Top Fuel Bike championship in a row. A first round 5.7252/246.48 win over Mark Smith set up a championship decider with Stuart Crane (Smith’s Warpspeed team mate having flown to a European Funny Bike best of 6.1722/221.46 in his first round match-up). Pushing it harder found the limit of the Funny Bike with a motor expiration around the 1000 foot mark while Gustafsson clocked a 5.8576/242.41 (his slowest ET of the weekend).
The event final lined up the two quickest bikes in Europe with Neil Midgley having dipped back into the fives in the semi-finals. A wayward launch from Midgley resulted in an early click off, while Gustafsson placed an exclamation point on his year with a 5.6507/245.17 associated with short numbers that would gain the respect of anyone in the fuel bike world.
The FIM-E Super Twin title had already been decided in favour of Marcus Christiansen, so Sunday was the opportunity to look for a bit more from the world’s quickest naturally aspirated bike. A first round victory over Chris van Nimmen with a 6.4147/166.05 wasn’t quite what the Danish team were looking for. However, a half track 3.9037/187.03 was verging on the ridiculously quick for a twin. The final boiled down to the Christiansen and Per Bengtsson show that has been such a treat to watch over the past year, and Bengtsson and The Beast really hit the mark with a 6.1427/222.22 personal best ET to take the win over Christiansen’s 6.3872/207.21 and break the Dane’s three year winning streak.
FIM-E Super Street Bike was just immense. Personal bests were falling like autumnal leaves in what would prove to be an eliminator for the ages. Mogens Lund, 16th qualifier, gave Jake Mechaell a real fright in the opening round with a 6.8187/209.14 only just being defeated by Mechaell’s 6.7690/220.14 with a shade over a bike length at the finishline.
The quarter-finals then saw Alan Morrison Jnr knocked out of the title chase by a simply shocking PB 6.6963/217.18 from Giannis Lampropoulos’s GSXR K5 (the quickest 1000cc Super Street Bike in Europe by a bunch). Morrison’s elder brother Ross then gained some Morrison Racing revenge on the newly crowned champion Mechaell with a 6.7268/209.15 to a 6.7702/220.03 semi-final match-up (less than a bike’s length at the finish line). Morrison’s final round opponent would be Luke Farrugia who ended Lampropoulos’s day with a 6.6909/221.10.
The trophy match-up would be all Farrugia, with the MaltaBusa ripping off a 6.6497/220.13, matching the FIM-E class record, to place Farrugia second in the season ending points.
The four bike FIM-E Pro Stock eliminator opened with reigning champion Jorg Lymant putting his Buell across the finishline first after Bertrand Maurice’s Suzuki decided to stumble about 350 feet out. With Maurice out of championship contention, Karl-Heinz Weikum then lost out to Martin Bishop on a 7.5107/175.09 to a 7.5123/181.36 to hand Lymant his second championship in a row.
Bishop dropped a sizable holeshot on Lymant in the final and held on with a slower 7.5794/171 from his Suzuki to take his first event win in three years.
The topsy-turvy world of FIM-E Junior Dragbike continued to the conclusion of the Cup chase, with the title being decided in Alia Lester’s favour when the other contenders couldn’t progress sufficiently beyond her quarter-final finish. Although unsuccessful in defending her 2024 title, Hollie King took the event win over Harry Isaacs by not much more than a wheel width before she eyes a move to other classes next year.
It’s going to be a long off-season waiting for the challenges restart next season.
Text and photos: Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes
