2006 FIA Main Event
Monday (eliminations)


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11:00
Monday morning: OK, Nitro FM set the stage by playing The Final Countdown as first song this morning. Eliminations coming up after an eventful day of two rounds of qualifying.

Pro Stock Bike: Team MotoSpeed leads off the pack, Anders Abrahamsson ran two runs in the low 7.3s with a best of 7.31 to take the number one qualifying spot. Things are looking solid with the 60-foot times down to 1.11 which is a good indication of a good clutch/tire combination. Speed not as solid at "only" 176 miles which is a whole 8 mph off the personal best.

Qualifier #2 is the riders who is labeled "the Dark Horse" in the Main Event programme. Fine, but no surprise to anyone in the pits. In the second qualifying run, Anders Jakobsson lost one of two batteries about 150 feet off the line which meant low voltage with weak ignition and less than ideal conditions for the onboard electrical system. Anders still pulled a 7.61 under those conditions and at that time was number two. In the last qualifying run, Anders had all the momentum back and ran a 7.49/173.8 which made him second qualifier in his first Euro Championship event. Impressive, I am sure there is more to come as Anders has run faster in testing.

Rounding up the top 3 Pro Stock bikes is Martin Bishop, the team has been running in a brand new motor this weekend and has managed two full runs with things going right according to plan. First run was 7.81 and then a run of 7.58 which put Martin in the number 3 spot. The plan for today is to step it up a tad more, "We'll continue with a 7.43 in the quarterfinals and a 7.3 run to get into the finals" says Martin Bishop. It should be known that Team Bishop did promise this roving reporter a low 7.6 run before the last qualifying run...

In number four spot is the second Team MotoSpeed rider, Örjan Gustavsson who improved to a 7.68. Örjan is also running a new engine and feeling good about the developments, softening up the clutch and raising the wheelie bars a notch for the quarterfinals.

Len Paget in 5th also at 7.68 followed by Paul Watson at 7.77, Martin Newbury in 7th with a 7.98 with Luigu Chinarello as the last qualifier at 8.10.

It was tough fight around the bumpspot with danish G2 rider Tom Tinndahn getting the short end of the stick, he missed the last qualifying spot by only 13/1000 of a second. Despite thar, Tom was very satisfied with the weekend and will be back for more at the next race in Finland where I hope we will see the addition of another v-twin rider in Pro Stock Bike and that would then be Team BikeLine with Ulf Ögge in the riders seat.

Super Twin Top Fuel: A good day of qualifying, Lorenz Stauble keeps improving at every run so far this year, second round of qualifying saw Lorenz take the number 1 spot with a solid run of 6.64 at a strong 201 miles per hour. Charley Karling tried to catch up but ran into directional problems and crossed the centerline which aborted the run.

Charley came back nice in the last round of qualifying and put down a 6.57/190.2 mph which was good enough to bring him back up as the #1 qualifier and Lorenz could not match that so we go into the elimination runs with Charley Karling in the number 1 spot, Lorens Stauble in secons spot and Ronny Aasen rounding out the top three Super Twins with a 6.98 and 198.5 miles per hour which is the second fastest Super Twin speed so far this weekend which indicates that Team Aasen is on the right track for finding the right tuneup on this motor that sports both a new ignition and fuel delivery system. Despite the good numbers, Team Aasen has been having a less than ideal weekend with burnt pistons and had to open up the engine three times this far but looks Ronny looks confident this morning, "we feel we now have the fuel settings correct for doing good in the finals".

Gunther Sohn is in fourth place with 7.06/189 which has to be considered excellent numbers considering that the bike is brand new and the team is stepping things up slowly with no guesswork on how to proceed. The bike is an immaculate vehicle and the tean very satisfied with the progress so far and my bet is that we will see this bike in the six second range before the day is over.

Joachim Riemer is in 5th place with a 7.19 at a strong 195 miles per hour but is not content with that, the team has run in the 6.8s last year and are tweaking the fuel delivery system for this mornings quarterfinal round. Svein Gottenberg is in 6th with a 7.62 and will also go for a sharper tune-up as regards to putting more nitro into the motor. Hans Olav Olstad rounds up the Super Twin bikes with a 7.813, a time that is obviously not at all indicative of the performance that Team Olstad usually can muster. Olstad is running a new high gear setup which the team is very happy with, "The 60-foot numbers and top speed at Gardermoen proves we have something working very well in the drivetrain department" says Hans Olav, "the issue here has been in the tuning of the engine, specifically getting the fuel delivery right.

Top Fuel Bike: 17 bikes going for 8 spots. Roel Koedam held the #1 spot going into Sunday qualifying but broke a cam gear which set him back enough not to run during sunday but his single run of 6.57/155.1 on saturday was good enough to keep in number 1. Tim Blakemore went into second spot at 6.87/165.4. Neil Midgley who had the cases of his turboed N20-motivated Suzuki motor split in two came back after some real hard work in the pits and pulled into third spot with a 6.94/190.7 mph. Luigi Ferretti in fourth with a 7.04 but he reports that he's happy with these numbers, they are personal bests and he has only been on the bike for a month.

"Dodging the bullet". The story in Top Fuel Bike is obviously that current European Top Fuel Bike Champion, Ian King, has been working hard on a whole new setup all weekend and did not show up until the last round of qualifying. He came in fairy early and ran a 7.43 which is definitely off the pace for the King Racing Team. At the time it had him "safely" in sixth place but there were other racers more than willing to get into the show and with capacity to easily run faster than 7.43. Ians time was beaten a few times and when it was all over he ended up on the bump with only 3/100 of a second separating him from number 9 qualifier Shaun Branch. No, Steve Wollatt did not make it, big problems on Saturday kept him from being able to qualify for the Main Event. For the Swedish contingency: Rickard Gustafsson kept having handling problems all weekend and ended up with a best of 8.80.

That's it for now, the finals are on.


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