Rikard Gustafsson, Marcus Christiansen, Fredrik Fredlund and Vesa Ruhanen leaders after Friday qualifying at Kauhava
Rikard Gustafsson stormed to a stunning 5.83 seconds to claim the number one qualifying position in Top Fuel Motorcycle at the first day of qualifying for the FHRA Nitro Nationals, the second round of the EDRS Pro Nordic Motorcycle Championship at the brand new drag racing facility in Kauhava, Finland. In Super Twin Motorcycle Marcus Christiansen claimed the provisional number one qualifying position with a great 6.42 seconds. Pro Stock Motorcycle and Super Street Bike both have a Finnish number one qualifier so far. In Pro Stock Motorcycle it is Fredrik Fredlund with 7.09 seconds and in Super Street Bike Vesa Ruhanen with 7.08 seconds.
Great sunny conditions at the first day of qualifying at the brand new drag racing facility of Kauhava. In all categories there were several drivers who recorded excellent elapsed times.
In Top Fuel Motorcycle Rikard Gustafsson and Filippos Papafilippou stunned once again with record setting side by side performances. After the first run Papafilippou took the lead with a great 5.97 seconds, but in the second run Gustafsson improved to a stunning 5.83 seconds with Papafilippou in the other lane improving to 5.86 seconds. The fight between these two quickest and fastest Top Fuel Motorcycle riders in Europe will continue in Saturday qualifying and will probably end in the final on Sunday.
Jan Sturla Hegre is the number three qualifier with 6.39 seconds with Mikko Rajaniemi fourth.
In Super Twin Motorcycle reigning champion Marcus Christiansen impressed once again with a great 6.42 seconds to take the lead in his first and only run on Friday.
Martijn de Haas is in second position with 6.64 seconds, with local hero Samu Kemppainen third with 6.978 seconds, closely followed by Torsti Kettula with 6.979 seconds.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle Fredrik Fredlund was in a class of his own. The Finnish rider stormed to 7.09 seconds to take the lead, with Kenneth Holmberg from Sweden in second position with 7.65 seconds. Janne Koskinen is third.
With Vesa Ruhanen there is also a rider from Finland in the number one position in Super Street Bike. The championship leader recorded a great 7.08 seconds to take the lead.
Stephen Mead from the UK is the surprise number two with 7.15 seconds with Anders Blanck, the number two in the championship, in third position. Kimmo Pulakka is the provisional number four with Mogens Lund fifth.
In Super Comp Bike Kim Oksanen is the leader with an almost perfect 8.504-second elapsed time in this 8.5-second index category. Peter Östlund is second (8.521 seconds) and Petri Koivuniemi third.
In Super Gas Bike Viivi Ollikainen is the leader with the perfect index time of 9.500 seconds, with Jenni Pekkarinen second (9.508 second) and Juha Komulainen third.
Qualifying for the FHRA Nitro Nationals continues Saturday with two more runs.
Qualifying results: https://www.fhra.fi/keskustelu/threads/nitro-nationals-2019.1037/
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