Bikes

The absence of the full tranche of FIM-Europe (formerly UEM) Bike classes at the Main Event was a major disappointment, and the reduction to a four round series is surely a backward step.

Anyway. The FIM Europe Super Street Bike Cup round saw Dave Holland in simply sparkling form on his NLR Hayabusa. Together with tuner Brad O’Connor, Dutch ripped off a string of passes that bear comparison with the vast majority of no-bar performances on a world stage. The series started with a 7.229/206.00mph (the TS being way above the previous no bar best outside of North America), dropped in ET to a 7.393 but the speed was still there with a 204.40mph, we’ll pass on the troubled mid eight and move onto the final qualifying session 7.199/202.58mph that snatched low qualifying honours from Steve Venables. Picking up in eliminations at the quarter final stage, Holland sped to a 7.241/200.57 win over Pete Field, used a 7.218/205.09mph to defeat Garry Bowe and set up the final against the 2012 Cup holder Graham Balchin. Both carded 0.09 RTs, but Holland pulled away with a 7.214/206.05mph to Balchin’s 7.391/199.

Christian Jager Martin Bishop Ian King
Remaining FIA/UEM European Championship rounds
June 13th – 16th Swedish Internationals, Tierp Arena, Sweden
July 4th – July 7th FHRA Nitro Nationals, Alastaro, Finland
August 9th – 11th NitrolympX, Hockenheim, Germany
August 22rd – 25th Swedish Internationals II, Tierp Arena, Sweden (FIA only)
September 5th – 8th FIA European Finals, Santa Pod Raceway, England

A handful of entries in FIM-Europe Top Fuel Bike, SuperTwin and Pro Stock Bike tried to put on a show, but breakages (both mechanical and in the case of TFB veteran Steve Woollatt to one of his ribs after an abrupt halt) produced solos for Ian King (TFB) and Christian Jager (SuperTwin) in the ‘finals’, whilst Martin Bishop defeated Gert Jan Laseur in PSB.