Wednesday September 6, 2017 at 9:05am
The final round of the 2017 European FIM Championships take place this weekend at Santa Pod Raceway. All four classes are still undecided and some may go down to the wire.
Top Fuel Bike.
Rikard Gustafsson has a 48 point lead coming into this event, after winning the last round at Hockenheim. Rene Van Den Berg is second with Hockenheim finalist Stuart Crane a further point behind. Last years event winner Filippos Papafilippou will have his final race on his Pro Mod bike. Next year he will be riding a Top Fuel Bike. Reigning and multi-time ACU Top Fuel Bike Champion Steve Woollatt has won this event before and could win it again. Dale Leeks recorded his first six-second pass (6.992) at Hockenheim. Eric Richard is another Funny Bike rider who is close to running 6 seconds.
SuperTwins.
Reigning champion and current points leader Martijn De Haas, will not be competing at the European Finals. Roman Sixta is the only rider who could win the championship of SuperTwins and is 40 points behind De Haas. Sixta ran a personal best speed of 222.03mph in the last round. Bruno Salesse is fourth in the championship. 2016 European Pro Stock Bike Champion Gert-Jan Laseur and Neil Midgley are the other competitors entered for this event. Midgley has run a best of 7.026 and not made a full pass yet.
Pro Stock Bike.
The title chase is between Fredrik Fredlund who has a 33 point lead ahead of Alex Hope. Len Paget ran a personal best at Hockenheim 7.319 and is in third spot. Martin Bishop found his form again running in the 7.3sec bracket. Serge Pinet was another to run personal best 7.293-185.13mph at Hockenheim.
Super Street Bike Round 4.
Having won the Hockenheim event Richard Stubbins has a 46 points lead go into the last round of the championship. Franklyn Borg is Stubbins nearest challenger with Mogens Lund the 2017 EDRS Super Street Bike Champion 64 points behind Stubbins and Daniel Lencses a further eight points behind. Reigning champion Garry Bowe and Reigning ACU champion Steve Venables could shake things up. Another rider to look out for is Graham Balchin.
Report by Steven Moxley.