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

With a few spanners thrown into the schedule during the off season, the 2011 edition of the European drag racing championship kicked off with the UEM Drag Bike round at the far flung venue that is Kunmadaras in the picturesque Tisza-tó-Hortobágy region of eastern Hungary.

The first half of the three-day event saw qualifying taking place under glorious sunny skies, but the overhead conditions clouded over early Saturday afternoon (causing the loss of the scheduled final qualifying session), and, despite an increasingly gloomy Sunday forecast the eliminations were completed in between brief showers.

Although the track still waits funding to grind and smooth the concrete surface of the ex-Soviet airbase runway, the cool conditions during eliminations delivered some startling numbers that bode well for records to tumble once the tour hits the high horsepower tracks later in the year.

UEM Top Fuel Bike

Although there were only two entries in UEM Top Fuel Bike, a situation that will hopefully be significantly turned around in the forthcoming events, the class attracted a fair amount of attention with the debut of the Gulf Oil – Grand Prix Originals backed Puma Yamaha of Ian King. The newest fuel bike on the planet had the inevitable teething problems (but thankfully restricted to a couple of small fuel leaks), and the first outings on the tricky Kunmadaras surface proved extremely encouraging, especially the 6.573/220.10mph pass that took the event win on very conservative motor settings. A post-event stripdown found the engine and clutch looking “like new” and bodes extremely well for the more power accommodating tracks that lie ahead.

King’s opponent represented the start of a trend that is likely to carry on throughout this season and into 2012 if the rumours come to fruition, with Canadian Nate Gagnon being the first of the non-Europeans to join the UEM tour. Although Gagnon wasn’t happy with the performance of the fuel Harley he was riding for owner Samu Kemppainen, whilst Gagnon and Canadian Fuel Harley legend Ron Houniet helped to set up the V60 twin Kemppainen was debuting in Super Twin competition. Gagnon will be back later in the season to contest the rounds in Norway and Germany.