This year’s running of the Nitrolympx from the famous Hockenheim Circuit in Germany was very affected by the weather. Heavy rain on Saturday meant that the planned third and fourth qualifying sessions had to be abandoned and occasional showers on Sunday resulted in a delayed start to eliminations.
Despite the weather forecast, the spectators came out in their thousands to see some fantastic racing.
In Top Fuel Bike, Ian King (UK) headed the qualifying list of 7 riders at the end of Friday. His strong six-second performances took him to the final. Here he met Rene van de Berg (NED, photo1), who had been setting personal best times all weekend. Unfortunately, King had a mechanical issue before the run and van de Berg took the victory.
It was a similar story in Super Twin Bike, as Samu Kemppainen (FIN photo2) finished at the top of the qualifying list, again of six riders. He progressed through the rounds of eliminations to meet Martijn de Haas (NED). In what was a close race, Kemppainen took the victory with another 6.5 second elapsed time. Indeed, the winner did not run slower than 6.56 seconds throughout eliminations.
In Pro Stock Bike, there were 11 qualified riders who were competing for an 8 bike field, so qualifying was fierce. Eventually, Gert-Jan Laseur (NED, photo3) was found to be the quickest Pro Stock Bike on qualifying day and topped the list. He successfully progressed to the final round where he was to meet last year’s Champion, Fredrik Fredlund (FIN). These two riders have raced each other many times before and it was set to be a very close race. Laseur saved his best to last, running the quickest class elapsed time of the weekend (7.067) to take the win.
The Super Street Bike Cup saw a massive 28 bike entry represent many Countries from across Europe. The current point leader, Shawn Buttigieg (MLT), ended up on top of the long qualifying list having run 7.148 seconds on Friday. However, he was beaten in Round 1 opening up the opportunity for his championship rivals to overtake him in the points table. There was close racing through all of the rounds, and the final ended up be represented by just one Country.
The UK’s Richard Stubbins (photo4) was to meet Garry Bowe (photo5), who had had reset the European Top Speed record to 340.69 Kph in Round 1 of eliminations. Unfortunately, during the final run, there was an error with timing system meaning that officials had to declare a re-run. However, with the event running up to its curfew time it was impossible to complete so there was no event winner.
All photos @ Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes
