Monday May 20, 2019 at 11:07am
What a difference twelve months make. At this event last year it was very cold and wet and the track was slick. At this year’s event temperature was in the 70 degrees for all three days. Championship records were set and many personal bests as well. There was a big turnout by the spectators to watch the races. Top Fuel Bike. Steve Woollatt reset his ACU ET record during qualifying with a time of 6.062 and ran a personal best 1/8mile speed of 189mph. Neil Midgley ran a personal best of 6.439 and p/b for the 1/8mile of 4.0secs. Allan Davies had a great weekend getting quicker and faster on every run with a p/b 7.029-198.08mph during qualifying. Woollatt had a bye run to the final. Midgley beat Davies in the other semi-final, but damaged his transmission. Davies ran a teeth clenching 199.86mph so close to his first 200mph. Woollatt soloed to the winner’s circle. Funny Bike. Kars Van Den Belt was the number one qualifier 7.037-192.92mph. Dave Batcheler riding Phil Crossley’s bike ran personal best figures of 7.338-178.53mph. Dave Peters was next 7.405 followed by Phil Crossley on Bob Brookes bike 7.558-178.53mph. Jiri Lukes was on the bump spot 8.530 with cylinder head issue. Belt had a bye run. Peters beat Crossley on a holeshot and Lukes beat Batcheler and had a bye to the final. Belt came into the final with the quickest bike, but broke at mid-track and Lukes won his first ACU event. Comp Bike. Sean Mills led the field with 7.519-193.05mph, ahead of newcomer Louis Davies on the ex Nick Daniels Funny Bike with a personal best figures of 7.601-171.07mph. Rudolfo Maduro is running on Methanol and dropped into Comp Bike to test the new set up and was third with 7.772-189.00mph. Reigning Champion Margot Schmidt qualified in sixth spot. Valentijn Sandtke damaged his engine in qualifying. There were a couple of shocks in round one of the eliminations with both Mills and Schmidt being knocked out. Former champion Phil Leamon faced newcomer Davies in the final. Leamon broke off the start line and Davies won his first ACU event. Super Street Bike. Steve Venables dominated the event recording the quickest and fastest figures for a Super Street bike of 6.815-218.28mph. During qualifying he set a new ACU speed record of 211.92mph. Garry Bowe was Venables nearest challenger with a p/b of 6.960. Then a gap to Graham Balchin 7.101. Venables had to change his engine for the semi-finals (head gasket) and beat Stephen Mead 6.957 to 7.227 to face Bowe in the final. Bowe had a fluid leak on the start line leaving Venables a solo pass and he ran another jaw dropping run of 6.836 which backed up the 6.815 for a new ACU ET record. Report by Steven Moxley.