Thursday November 15, 2018 at 2:57pm
The final round of the 2018 ACU Championships were disrupted by rain on qualifying day, that meant it was a one shot qualifier for all the competitors on Sunday morning of race day. Top Fuel Bike. Reigning and multi-time ACU Top Fuel Bike Champion Steve Woollatt tried a different combination on Friday’s test day. Sunday Woollatt was the number one qualifier, which meant he had a bye run to the final and ran a personal best 6.147. Allan Davies ran a career personal best speed 189.91 in his semi-final win over Gert-Jan Laseur. Woollatt won the final with a back up run 6.172 to set a new ACU et record of 6.147. He also won the 2018 ACU Top Fuel Bike Championship. Funny Bike. Lorcan Parnell had already claimed the championship and did not qualify for this event. Kars Van den Belt was the number one qualifier 7.053. Dave Buttery had an incident mid-track (Buttery ok). Belt ran teeth clenching 7.005 (so close to his first six) personal best in the semi-finals. Belt won his first ACU event beating Phil Crossley in the final. Comp Bike. Coming into this event and three riders had a chance to win the ACU Comp Bike Championship. Erik Jennes was the points leader followed by Margot Schmidt and Sean Mills. But it was Rudolfo Maduro riding Charly Anasgasti bike that led the field. After a one shot qualifier with 7.445-182.14. Schmidt was in No 4 spot, Mills in No 10 spot and Jennes had a chain break and was on the bump spot (16th). Jennes ran top speed and a p/b of 197.19mph in round one. Thurtny Martina also ran a p/b of 7.535 to beat Mark Hope. Jennes lost in round two to Mick Winyard. The final would decide who would win the championship with Mills against Schmidt. Mills had a blue line violation and Schmidt became the third female rider and second overseas rider to win the ACU Comp Bike Championship beating Mills to the title by 30 points. Super Street Bike. Steve Venables was the number one qualifier 7.187 just ahead of Reigning Champion Richard Stubbins 7.216. Venables beat Mathias Bohlin to win the ACU Super Street Bike Championship. Robert Nilsson beat Stubbins in the other semi-finals. Venables took the win light in the final to complete dominating day for the team. Congratulations to the following ACU Champions. Top Fuel Bike. Steve Woollatt. Funny Bike. Lorcan Parnell. Comp Bike. Margot Schmidt. Super Street Bike. Steve Venables.
Report by Steven Moxley.