UEM Dragbike Championship, Round Two, The Main Event, Santa Pod Raceway, UK

Thanks to TSI Timers (Europe) for access to the timing data After the long haul out to Hungary at the start of May for the opening round of the UEM championship, it was back to the familiar haunts of Santa Pod Raceway for the second round. Unfortunately, rain, the all too familiar curse of British bank holidays, put paid to the first day of professional qualifying; this led to a number of racers not quite getting the handle on the track they were expecting. Eliminations produced a new best for a pure Funnybike outside of North America coupled with the small matter of the all time quickest ticket from a bike over the quarter mile, and the culmination of the event saw the early season points in the four UEM titled classes start provide some prominent signs as to the likely destination of the championship trophies with four rounds of the six round series left.

With the heavy hitters of the European Top Fuel Bike taking a (hopefully) short sabbatical during the early part of 2010, it was left to veteran Steve Woollatt to pick up the event win in UEM Top Fuel Bike; although it has to be said that Woollatt is not unfamiliar with taking home all the marbles on home turf even with the likes of Peter Svensson, Sverre Dahl and Ian King et al. are on the premises. Woollatt was a bit puzzled as to why his PBR Puma bike was unable to get close to repeating the 4.050/182 half track ticket that he’d recorded on a RWYB prepped track at Santa Pod earlier in the month that should have led to something considerably better that the 6.603 weekend best he recorded in a first round bye. The Dealer team stayed with the 6.6s to defeat Steve Carey in the semis (6.653/179 to a 6.993/185) and a 6.689/192 to a 6.893/186 was enough to account for early season points leader Kai Selkamaa. Selkamaa did his championship chances a power of good with the runner-up finish after main rival Rene van den Berg lost to Carey in the opening round of eliminations.

The Swiss Erbacher Racing team are back up to a full compliment this season with team owner Urs Erbacher back from a sojourn on the NHRA tour and taking the win in FIA Top Fuel Dragster. It turned into a double celebration when Lo Stäuble bounced back from struggling in Hungary to convert a low qualifying 6.656/215 onto the top step of the eliminations podium defeating Norwegian neighbours Svein Olaf Rolfstad and Trond Hoiberget before taking out points leader Job Heezen with a 6.608/215.96 to a 6.815/205.

At his final race onboard the Mr Spokehead bike, Ian Turburville didn’t have the dream finish, ending up as second alternate after qualifying. It looked as if Turbo might make the field after Jan Sturla’s ride was sidelined after qualifying but was left frustrated at the head of the staging lanes as Vidar Ravnsborg and then Ismo Mäenpää both broke after they entered the burnout box in first round pairings. A wave to the crowd and that was unfortunately it for a long career in the gas and fuel twin ranks and Turbo now is concentrating on his daughter Laura’s burgeoning junior dragster career.

The story of the race for reigning UEM PSB champion Ulf Ögge was pretty much a replay of the previous round in Hungary. Having qualified in second spot with a 7.262/180 (behind Anders Abrahamsson’s 7.241/182), Ögge made short work of the four rounds of eliminations defeating Zoltan Toth, Fredrik Fredlund and Jesper Thiel in the preliminaries, the semifinal against Thiel being a barnstorming 7.145/179 to 7.194/182 match up. Victory in the final four put Ögge into his third UEM final in a row, this time against first time finalist Gert Jan Laseur. The all G2 Buell final went to form as Ögge’s 7.167/182 switched on the win light and a second event win in a row gives the Swede a strong lead in the defence of his points title.

Stepping up from Euro Serie Top Gas competition with a G2 Buell towards the end of last season, Dutchman Gert Jan Laseur produced his best performance at UEM level with a strong qualifying performance, hitting fourth spot with a 7.4. Eliminations saw the Eurol backed rider improve round on round in the ET department, culiminating with a 7.285/185 PB that wasn’t enough to challenge Ögge’s winning effort, but suggested that there will be a number of players in the V-Twin vs Suzuki battles ahead.

The Black Seven Funny Bike team backed up their event wins at Santa Pod back at Easter (ACU UK domestic competition) and Kunmadaras at the start of May (UEM season opener) with yet another trophy at the Main Event. Christian Jäger may not have had the quickest bike at each of these events, but consistent low seven second passes from the German rider was enough to get through eliminations defeating Mike Olie, pre race favourite Rikard Gustafsson in the quarters and semifinal stage respectively, and then knocked off low qualifier Steve French with a 7.313 to French’s early shutoff.

After ripping off low ET of all the UEM bike classes in Hungary, Rikard Gustafsson did it again at Santa Pod. If the 6.6 on the green track at Kunmadaras was pretty impressive, then the PB 6.469 at only 201mph in the opening round of eliminations with a soft set up was a real cracker. Having lightened the bike and introduced a new clutch setup for this season, Rikard is chasing the 6.3s and will next get a shot at it at the super smooth Gardermoen track in Norway at the start of August.

At domestic level in the UK the ACU Super Street Bike class is going from strength to strength and, not before time, a championship round was restored to the Main Event giving the opportunity for the riders to strut their no-bar stuff in front of one of the biggest crowds of the season. First and foremost among the 2X competitors in the all run field was Steve Venables, wheeling his Velocity Racing Hayabusa to one of the most dominant performance in class. Qualifying on pole with a 7.402, Ven turned up the wick in eliminations and was in the 7.3s (including a best of 7.314/184) for the five knockout rounds that ended with a 7.327/193 to 7.434/193 victory over 2009 ACU champion Rick Stubbins. This all came despite Ven still suffering from the back problems that caused him to skip the previous event.

It may not be racing, but Eric Teboul (struggling with getting his Top Fuel Bike down track) stunned the crowd with a 5.331/247.66mph pass on the Sunday in a strong breeze. Still conditions on the Monday produced a 3.452/230.05mph clocking at the eighth and that was then converted to a jaw dropping world quickest two wheeled pass at 5.232/249.02mph. The fours are getting ever closer.

1st – 4th July, FHRA Nitro Nationals, Alastaro, Finland
29th July – 1st August, Veidec Festival, Mantorp Park, Sweden
6th – 8th August, Sunoco Drag Challenge, Gardermoen, Norway (including UEM Funny Bike Cup)
9th – 12th September, FIA European Finals, Santa Pod Raceway, UK (including UEM Funny Bike Cup)