Martijn de Haas. Photo by Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes
The second round of the FIM Europe Drag Racing Championship and Cup were held in very hot weather at the Hockenheimring in Germany.
The Nitrolympix were celebrating their 30th year and the 75.000 spectators who attended the event were hoping to witness fast and close racing worthy of the milestone. They were not disappointed.
In Super Twin Bike, Martijn de Haas (NED) qualified at the top of a six bike field with a 6.841 second run. In eliminations, de Haas progressed to the final round where he eventually raced against Job Heezen (NED). The final promised a close race but Heezen suffered an engine explosion after 100m, leaving de Haas the win with a 6.756 second pass.
Gert-Jan Laseur. Photo by Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes
In Pro Stock Bike, the crowds witnessed the largest gathering of the class in a while with 15 bikes qualifying. Qualifying itself was a very close affair, with the top three riders being separated by just 0.03 of a second. However, it was Gert-Jan Laseur (NED) who topped the time sheets at the end of qualifying with a 7.152 second time slip. Laseur continued his strong performance through the three rounds of eliminations to reach the final. Here he met Fredrik Fredlund (FIN) who had himself qualified in second position and was leading the Championship coming in to this event. The final was always going to be close and this proved to be the case with Laseur running a fantastic 7.148 second pass, to beat Fredlund’s pass in 7.193.
Ian King. Photo by Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes
In Top Fuel Bike, nine bikes qualified in the hot conditions. Unfortunately, the difficult conditions resulted in several bikes experiencing unfixable damage to their engines meaning they would not be able to make the first round of eliminations. Ian King (GBR) sat at the top of the timing sheets at the end of qualifying having posted a spectacular 6.143 seconds run. He continued to progress to the final with further low six seconds passes where he came up against the third qualified Rikard Gustafsson (SWE). In the final, Gustafsson had the better reaction time leaving the start line and so gaining the slight advantage he would need to beat his normally faster opponent. In the other lane, King was on another strong run and rode around Gustafsson to take the win. King run 6.372 to beat Gustafsson’s 6.700.
Richard Stubbins. Photo by Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes
In the European Super Street Bike Cup, we saw again a strong field. 19 bikes qualifying for 16 starting positions meant that it was always going to be close racing. Gary Bowe (GBR) found himself in the number one qualifying spot having run a 7.210 seconds pass. He made it all the way to finals where he faced the number three qualifier Richard Stubbins (GBR). Although Stubbins had qualified lower, he had been laying down lower numbers in the elimination rounds so there was much anticipation going in to the final. Bowe was away first with a quicker reaction time, however his 7.409 seconds time was not enough to cover Stubbins’ winning 7.164 seconds pass that was also low elapsed time of the weekend for the class.
Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/114
For the European Super Street Bike Cup, the next round will be held in Hungary 14-16 August.
The European Championship will next visit Santa Pod Raceway on 3-6 September for their final round.
