2011 UEM Drag Bike/Honda Biker Celebrity of May Sunday
15:40
Jan Sturla Hegre (right) was all sunshine when he returned after the run. He ran so consistently over the weekend. The final run for Hegre was in the left hand lane and when asked
about it he just smiled and said the lane was perfectly OK for him. He could tell straight away it was going to hold all the way, he worked the bike some mid-track but his win
was very convincing at 6.82 against Olstad's 7.22 . Still some way to go to his Personal Best in the low 6.6s at Santa Pod, but as the conditions in Kunmadaras were different
and traction started close to non-existent and built up over the weekend it is even more impressive to stay so consistent through the event. 6.93, 7.06 and 6.82 during eliminations.
Just awesome.
Pro Stock Bike winner Jesper Thiel and Team Sovereign were incredibly consistent over the weekend. About the final run he said he actually thought that the ET was a bit
quicker than the 7.09, but also that the run was not all perfect. The weekend resulted in a new Personal Best of 7.0871 and the team says they will take it from there at the
Main Event three weeks from now.
Eurodragster.com and Speedgroup photographer Lena Perés and editor Åsa Kinnemar were your reporters over the weekend, assisted by Aila Striem who was behind the
camera in this test project of posting live interviews on-line.
14:30
We have spoken to Top Fuel Bike winner Ian King. Click on the picture to play the video.
13:45
Eurodragster.com sponsor Marco Maurischat getting ready for some Pro Mod action. The crowd in Kunmadaras cheered the FIA teams big time when they were on track.
A family affair. Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson in his Pro Mod getting ready to run. Son Luke is Crew Chief and wife Kate, in the background, manages the Andy Robinson Race
Cars shop and is an important member of the crew. Daughter Stefani is not in the photo but is also on site.
13:20
In the Pro Stock Bike quarter finals, Martin Bishop broke before the start against Kalle Lyrén.Martin said that the motor was running on three cylinders when they started the bike.
Jesper Thiel (pictured with crew) and Karl Lyrén made nice straight passes, both in the right lane, both slower than their previous runs. Both said before they were going to continue
making adjustments. Jesper's 7.225 will give him lane choice over Kalle's 7.248.
12:00
7.10 second win for Jesper Thiel over Karl-Heinz Weikum in Pro Stock Bike. A bit slower than last run but still quick and consistent. Jesper says the first round had a tailwind,
the second round a headwind, and that during the 7.10 run he timed the shifting perfectly, so there is still more to come. The track can take a bit more clutch and some adjustments
will be made for the next round where Jesper has lane choice over Fredrik Fredlund.
New Personal Best again for Kalle Lyrén 7.21/296 who had a bye but went for it. Adjustments had been made before the run and team manager said they have to
work to learn. This time that paid off and Lyren will have lane choice over Martin Bishop next run.
Fredrik Fredlund had set up the bike with more ignition and fuel for the last run. It resulted in a win over Kenneth Vik. Fredlund 7.26/295. Fredlund will adjust further for next run
as he is up against Jesper Thiel, he will need to run quicker and does not have lane choice. A perfect reaction is what he aims for to stand a good chance.
Supertwin racer Hans Olav Olstad said before this run that he needed to run quicker and so he did, big time. No changes between first and second round as they found
some faults that needed adjustment and one more round of evaluation with the same set-up. Hans Olav is up against Jan Sturla Hegré in the final, both have run
really well this weekend.
Jan Sturla Hegré ran a bit slower second round 7.06 compared to 6.93. The team had adjusted the bike some in between runs for a harder setup and
Jan Sturla also adjusted his launching technique as the track can take more and more power. Lane choice for Hans Olav Olstad, Hans Olav 7.00 and Jan Sturla 7.06.
It will be an extremely close and competitive pair in the final.
11:15
It is expected to start raining mid afternoon, so the organisers are speeding up the schedule.
This morning we spoke to Pro Stock Bike racer Jesper Thiel.
Jan Sturla Hegre was very happy with his first round win. The set-up tuner Ingar had prepared worked brilliantly and Jan Sturla knew he had to handle the throttle with great care.
He was behind from the startline, but on purpose as he knew the launch had to be soft to get the traction he needed. 6.93 sec/317 km and Jan Sturla meets Roel Koedam in the next
round. Lane choice for Jan Sturla.
Hans Olav Olstad was up against Svein Olav Rolfstad. Hans Olav ran a confident 7.16/332 while Svein Olav lost power mid track. Hans Olav expected a lower ET and says he needs to
improve performance in the next round against Christian Jäger.
Christian Jäger's win over Lorenz Stäuble was his third full pass on the new bike and he was very happy with the ET 7.02 at 321 km. He says both he and the crew are still on the learning
curve, Christian has been running drag bikes for ten years for this season changed from Funny Bike to Supertwin. He says he feels comfortable with the bike and looks forward to the next round
where he has lane choice over Hans Olav Olstad.
Jesper Thiel had a bye run in the first round of Pro Stock Bike run but went for it big time. 7.08/300 km is not far behind Dave Beck's record from Santa Pod and he was actually asking exactly
what Dave's record ET was. Jesper is keeping the set-up intact and has lane choice over Karl Heinz Weikum in Round 2.
Promoter Keith Bartlett explains the plan is to grind the concrete track over the winter. That is what will be needed to take it to the next level. Here Keith is with Pro Mod driver
Mats Eriksson and Speedgroup co-ordinator Åsa Kinnemar.
While it was raining yesterday were taken on a guided tour of the old Russian village. Spooky! But very interesting. The first picture is a block of
apartments for the solders' families, just left as it was standing.
This is the big dining room where they all had their meals.
This is one of two rooms who with murals telling stories about Russia such as the space shuttles and Gagarin.
Then we visited the headquarters where the officers had maps of the world and made their plans.
Is was a very emotional tour, just crazy that all these buildings were just standing there.
