Hans Olav Olstad just nipped in front of Heezen in qualifying with a final session 6.900 that reset the Super Twin track record, the Norwegian taking some time to get the settings right, too often falling hard off the wheelie bars a few feet out from the line. Having found the tune up, Olstad then laid a serious marker down in the opening round of eliminations with a 6.876 in defeated Roman Sixta. Semifinal time and a bit of a cylinder-dropping squeaker against Lorenz Stauble, with a 7.23 putting Olstad in the trophy runoff over the Swiss rider’s 7.26. Olstad was behind off the line in the final and then went up in smoke.

UEM Pro Stock Bike

A surprise to some over the winter came the announcement that the majority of Pro Stock Bike rounds this year would see 16-bike elimination ladders. With the long trek to Hungary first up, it was heartening to see that 15 bikes would make qualifying (and but for a breakage in testing it would have been a full field), and all of these would card 7-second passes, with racers from Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Germany, Finland, Hungary and the UK emphasizing the multinational feel of the UEM pits. When all the dust had settled, 2009 series champion Ulf Ögge got his title defence off to a solid start, converting second in qualifying (7.322s, although a 7.2 in testing on Thursday was a stout number) to top spot in eliminations; “We had a long journey home, but with the first place in the luggage it was pretty OK. And with the fact that the engine was not 100% correct it feels good that the team and myself could beat the other guys in this big starting field”. Ögge is now looking for some good numbers at Santa Pod at the end of the month.