UEM Super Twin Bike

Last season saw Jan Sturla Hegre’s debut on the blown Sunoco Fast Cat out of the Svein Olav Rolfstad stable (which ended up with a solid 7th spot in the championship). This season, Hegre kicked things off in fine style with a second spot on the qualifying ladder, and then defeated Petri Mattson with a first round low ET of 6.935/197, outpedaled Roel Koedam in an on and off the throttle 7.067 to 7.198 match up. Into his first final round and up against fellow Norwegian Hans Olav Olstad, Hegre left first and secured the win with a new class track ET record 6.821/195 that left the 23 year old with a grin that stretched from ear to ear; it hadn’t diminished by the time we bumped into him in the departure lounge at Budapest airport the following day, and we’re betting it will still be there for a long time yet.

With the only six second pass in the four qualifying sessions, Olstad’s 6.968 repeated his low qualifying effort in Kunmadaras last season and, although he wasn’t able to better his runner-up spot from 2010 in eliminations, he took out Hegre’s team mate Svein Olav Rolfstad in the first round and German nitro rookie Christian Jäger in the semi-finals with a 7.004/206. A drop off to a 7.22 wasn’t quite expected, but Olstad is looking for consistency rather than earth shattering numbers this year to move up from 2nd place in 2010 points chase, and with some major hitters (notably Per Bengtsson and Lorenz Stäuble) falling early in Hungary, this strategy might just work.