A világ leggyorsabb sport kőzetek Magyarországon!!!

UEM Dragbike Championship, Round One, Kunmadaras, Hungary

Words and photos by Ivan Sansom
Thanks to Zoltán Hernády for access to the timing data

After putting a toe in the water of eastern European drag racing towards the end of the 2009 season, UEM Dragbike series returned to the Hungarian Drag Arena in Kunmadaras for the season opener, augmented by an exhibition field of FIA competitors to help to provide the required certification for a full European car championship round in the future.

Kunmadaras is a world away from the high spec facilities, such as Hockenheim, Alastaro, Mantorp and Santa Pod that are available elsewhere on the European tour, so the buzzword here is potential. The racing surface is extremely green, but if the funds permit grinding out the current ridges, then there is over a mile of former Soviet all concrete (10 feet thick!) runaway to provide the smoothest and most stable track in Europe. There is no problem about space either; nuclear MIG fighter/bomber squadrons required vast amounts of it, with some of the dispersal bunkers being huge monuments to Cold War politics. The local area is rural, and the government is strongly backing the development of the track to bring more tourist dollars into what is an economically depressed, but picturesque, area.

Some surprises, some jaw dropping passes and some of the most bizarre entertainment over the PA we’ve ever heard* proved to be a great mixture to start the European season off in 2010.

[*Berserko Bob Doerrer may well have met his match with the Hungarian commentary team. Not only does József Hadnagy (main commentator, event promoter and organizer of pretty much everything at Kunmadaras) maintain astounding levels of volume and enthusiasm to whip the crowd into a frenzy, but one of the other commentators managed (we think, our Hungarian isn’t up to much)  to tell a fairly long shaggy dog story that involved a cat, a dog, a whole variety of wildfowl and a motorcyclist or two for a fair few minutes whilst providing all of his own sound effects]

UEM Top Fuel Bike

New for 2010 has been the restriction of UEM Top Fuel Bike to just nitro burning inline fours. Although this inevitably led to a reduction in the overall class entry, the appearance of four inline fuel burners at a track far from the Scandinavian and British European strongholds for the breed was a pleasant surprise (and more than regularly compete stateside). Like all classes they had a struggle to gain a firm grip on the track, Both finalists, Dutchman Rene van den Berg and Finn Kai Selkamaa clocked six-second passes in the opening round of eliminations, van den Berg’s 6.869 being the best in class. A fuel leak would prevent the low qualifier from contesting the final, with Selkamaa taking his first UEM trophy with a consistent 6.99 that will stand him in good stead for the rest of the season, “We struggled to find a clutch setup all through qualifying, but stumbled on one for eliminations, so I am very happy,” he said.

Custom Article Framing