Thursday December 5, 2019 at 4:16pm
After Saturday’s dry sunny weather, rain fell just before the semi-finals of Top Fuel Bike around dinner time on Sunday. The race was called in the afternoon. None of the bike classes ran their eliminations. Top Fuel Bike. Coming into this event, Reigning Champion Steve Woollatt had a 15 points lead over Neil Midgley. Woollatt qualified in number one spot with 6.451-193.76. Midgley ran 6.654-18213 for number two spot. After reaching the final at the European Finals. Al Smith was hoping to go one better ran 7.030-145. With the race called Steve Woollatt was confirmed the 2019 ACU Top Fuel Bike Champion. Nick Milburn debut his new fuel bike, the ex Eric Teboul and managed to put a 330ft test pass in the last qualifying session. Funny Bike. Kars Van Den Belt was 6/10ths quicker (7.157) that his nearest challenger Dave Batcheler 7.780. Kevin Osman ran his best to date of 7.833. Dave Peters 7.923 had his exhaust break and Al Smith repaired it for race day. Phil Crossley just dipped in the sevens with 7.953. Thomas Joswig was riding his new bike ex Filippos Papafilippou bike and ran 8.002. But had gear shift and clutch issue. 2018 champion Lorcan Parnell made his first appearance of the year, but had problems with the bike and didn’t get down the track. Belt is the 2019 ACU Funny Bike Champion. Comp Bike. Paul Hambridge ran a personal best of 7.360-195.38 for number one qualifier. Outgoing champion Margot Schmidt was next 7.602. 2019 ACU Comp Bike Champion Louis Davies had put some upgrades for this event and damaged his motor after qualifying with 7.671. Valentijn Sandtke ran 8.067 ahead of Ian Burns 8.255. Phil Leamon ran 8.394. Super Street Bike. Steve Venables continues to dominate the class and ran 6.884-213.80 with teammate Graham Balchin the only other rider to run a six-second pass (6.993). Daniel Lencses 7.087. Mark Hope continued his good form with 7.304-198. Dave Smith ran his best of the season 7.403 at 199.87.Mark Dainty 7.425 Chris Reed 7.509 and Dave Thomas on the bump spot 7.991. Garry Bowe did some testing with new fuel, but the input shaft moved and damaged the clutch assembly, which put him out of the show. With the rain falling, it meant Steve Venables was the ACU champion in Super Street Bike. Congratulations to the following ACU Champions. Top Fuel Bike. Steve Woollatt. Funny Bike. Kars Van Den Belt. Comp Bike. Louis Davies. Super Street Bike. Steve Venables. Report by Steven Moxley.