Friday May 19, 2017 at 9:49am
2017 European FIM Championships kick off over the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend for four days starting on May 26th to 29th.
Top Fuel Bike.
There will be a new champion this year after Reigning Champion Ian King announced he would be racing in the USA this season. 2006 Champion Rikard Gustafsson will be one of the favourites and will be hoping to run his first five-second pass this year. Reigning ACU Top Fuel Bike Champion Steve Woollatt won the Easter meeting here last month. Rene Van Den Berg over powered the track that weekend and will be keen to find the form he ran last year. Filippos Papafilippou won the European Finals last year and if any of the Top Fuel Bikes slip up he could win again. EDRS Pro Top Fuel Bike Champion Thomas Pettersson is making his first appearance in the FIM Top Fuel Bike here at Santa Pod. Warpspeed Stuart Crane is hoping to run his first six-second pass in 2017 and Allan Davies runner up at Easter has also entered.
SuperTwins.
Reigning European FIM SuperTwins Champion Martijn De Haas is going for his third straight title. Roman Sixta recently tested at Hungary and ran 6.88 with a personal best speed of 210.88mph. Ronny Aasen is on board the Zodiac team bike hoping for a better season. Petr Ceska has a new combination for his motor. There are two riders with new machines. 2016 European FIM Pro Stock Bike Champion Gert-Jan Laseur has bought Chris Hannam V Twin bike. Bruno Salesse is riding the ex Job Heezen bike and rumoured that Heezen and his crew will be helping Salesse at this event.
Pro Stock Bike.
Former multi-time champion Fredrik Fredlund will head the list for the first round of European FIM Championship. Reigning ACU Pro Stock Bike Champion Alex Hope will be hoping he will have sorted the handling problems from the Easter meeting of the ex Dave Beck chassis. Martin Newbury had a career best season last year and hopes it will continue. Len Paget won here at Easter and finished fifth in the championship in 2016. Mark Smith had his best finish last year. Bertrand Maurice ran a personal best here at this event 7.35 on the ex Dave Schultz bike.
Super Street bike Round 2.
Franklyn Borg won the opening round of this season’s European FIM Cup in Hungary a few weeks ago. Richard Stubbins finished runner up at Hungary and he also finished runner up at Easter in the ACU Championships. Reigning European FIM Cup Champion Garry Bowe will be going for his third straight title after winning a dramatic final race here at the European Finals against Reigning ACU Super Street Bike Champion Steve Venables. Easter winner Pete Field will be hoping to continue his winning form. Other riders like Graham Balchin on the world’s quickest Kawasaki ZX12. Hungay’s Daniel Lencses, Sweden’s Robert Nilsson and Denmark’s Mogens Lund. Jemma Venables makes her first appearance of the year and Reigning ACU Comp Bike Champion Eddy Smiley has entered again this year.
Report by Steven Moxley.