FIA / FIM European Finals
Santa Pod Raceway, 7th-10th September 2017

Sunday



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Super Street Bike racer Graham Dance tested on Wednesday running a 7.62 and 7.63 as his best times. He didn't run on Friday night but ran a 7.62 to go tenth in the second session. Then in eliminations he stepped up to 7.385/194 but lost out to Robert Nilsson's 7.25.


Super Street Bike racer Rick Stubbins came into this event leading the FIM Championship, and two round wins secured his championship from contenders Franklyn Borg or and Mogens Lund. In round one, Rick defeated Matthias Bohlin with a 7.21/197 to get closer to the title and in round two he secured it with a win over Graham Balchin.


Super Street Bike racer Steve Venables ran a best of 7.31/196 in the test session and qualified fourth with a 7.32/198. He defeated Clemens Walleit in round one but slowed to 8.05/181. His second round match-up was against Erich Gruber who had come in as an alternate after Garry Bowe had to withdraw. He red-lit against Erich who took his second round win against a member of the Venables family on a red-light.


Super Street Bike racer Jemma Venables raced Erich Gruber in round one but red lit to a quicker 7.48/188 to Erich's 7.904/180.


Super Street Bike racer Mark Hope ran a 7.98 in testing on Wednesday and qualified 14th with a 8.00/178. He went out to Graham Balchin in round one with a 7.72/189 to Graham's 7.25/197.


Pro Mod racer Kev Slyfield was second alternate and didn't get the chance to run on Sunday. Kev's chances in the MSA Championship, dented by missing the Mopar Euronationals, were therefore further dented, but we will still be seeing him at the National Finals


Super Street Bike racer Franklyn Borg, who has a chance of the championship uncorked one when he ran an outstanding 6.915/204 in Saturday's qualfying session, the quickest ever SSB pass in Europe and first half of an ET record. In round two he was defeated by Steven Mead so he couldn't back it up.


Comp Eliminator racer Chris Isaacs had to switch categories from Pro Mod due to turbo certification issues, however Chris's performance returned to his previous bests. He is racing in AT/PM with a class index of 7.03. He qualified eighth with a 6.95/217 and then went 6.42/222 in round one to defeat Rob Smallworth. If he runs more than 0.6 under the index again then the index will be reduced, a situation known as 'index-bombing'.


Pro Mod racer Håkan Persson was an alternate after running a ten in session one and the car shutting off without warning in session two.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Antti Horto's team were optimistic before round one. But problems slowed him to a 20 second ET as Duncan Micallef ran the only representative time of the round and secured the championship. Antti can however reflect on his best ever championship finish and a best time of 3.963 at the Tierp Internationals, and his second career race win as high points of the year.


Fuel Funny Car racer Steve Ashdown qualified no.1 with a 4.994/166 and will have a bye run before meeting the winner of the Birgitte Bremnes v Kevin Kent matchup. Sadly Gary Page and Terry Haddock didn't get to put in qualifying runs (Gary with reverser problems) and won't be in eliminations.


Top Methanol Dragster racer Timo Habermann has won the 2017 championship after a year of better competition with the Funny Cars in the same category. He said 'I'm happy with the championship. We had ignition problems at the first two races, fixed it and then won two races at Alastaro and Hockenheim. I can meet Dennis in the final here and am looking to win the race. We have not fixed our plans for next season but look forward to working with our sponsors'.


Top Methanol Dragster racer Dennis Habermann was pleased to run 5.43 and 5.44 in qualifying. 'On the first run it was tyre-shake and pedal and on the second wheelie and pedal, so there is more to come. The track is good, the Pro Mod numbers prove that, and we are thankful to the SPR track crew who have worked their hardest to provide us with a good racing surface.'


Top Methanol Dragster racer Rod Harrison ran a new PB 5.688/250 in the second qualifying session, but the car creeped out of stage in his first round matchup against Dennis Habermann's 5.472/262 and that was the end of Rod's event.


Super Pro ET racer Johan Oomen has had his best event for some time with a 6.749/200 in qualifying, a 6.84/198 in round one to defeat Wouter van Leersum and no problems. Henri Joosten is crew chief and the nitrous 740ci combination seems to be working just fine.


Pro Stock racer Stefan Ernryd was no.1 qualifier and ran a 6.673/202 bye run.


Pro Stock racer Bengt Ljungdahl could only manage a 6.9s pass. Crew chief Markus Svensson said 'The car was fine to the eighth but then a small part failed and so we only had four gears and Bengt had to lift. We have fixed it all and should do ok'. Bengt's pass in round one was 6.63/206, the quickest run in the round.


Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson suffered a cam failure as reported yesterday. The team worked until after midnight in taking the engine out and installing their replacement and then running a 5.999 in round one.


Pro Mod racer Micke Gullqvist won his 2017 championship by appearing in qualifying, but, as so often in the past, his best comes on race day. He ran a 5.94/243 in round one to defeat Michel Tooren, and then a 5.979 in round two against Andy Robinson who suffered a blower relief panel explosion.


Pro Mod racer Freddy Fagerström had his transmission removed and clutch disassembled between rounds. The team remarked that the car had driven through the clutch in round one, a 6.36 defeat of Marco Maurischat. In round two Freddy stepped up with a 6.23/226 however Jimmy Ålund in the other lane ran a 6.02/234 and that was the end of the event for Freddy. He did put on a great show in doing so, with half track burnouts and reversing at speeds that most of us would only contemplate travelling forward at.


Pro Mod racer Bert Englefield also changed his clutch between rounds. He had run a great 6.20 in a defeat of Bruno Bader's 6.28 in round one, and in round two Bert's ET fell by only two hundredths, but Kim Kristiansen was quicker.


Pro Mod racer Kim Kristiansen has been one of the best performing class rookies after buying Marc Meihuizen's car. He said 'The car is running fine, we are doing routine maintenance and we are looking forward to doing well here and also to running the full FIA championship next year'. Kim has had Top Doorslammer experience and his Andy Robinson built car is one of the best in the category.


Pro Mod racer Roger Johansson had problems in qualifying but performance-wise came good in round one, running a 6.006/234 but coming up short against Jimmy Ålund's 5.93/238 in the Old 51, low ET of the event. He said 'I started the run with lower revs than ideal as the clutch was starting to pull me forward so it was a part throttle launch and not a good 60ft time. But it then went well. We will do a full season next year.'


Top Fuel Dragster racer and 2018 FIA Champion Duncan Micallef was delighted after a 4.15/303 run sealed his title. 'We had tyre shake on the pass and I had to pedal but it went really quick after that. This has been a six year dream for me working with Rune. I hope the achievement will be recognised fully in Malta where I was nominated for sportsman of the year last year. It's been a tense ten days since Tierp. I have worked hard for the title, with a personal trainer at 7am every day giving me endurance training so that I could focus better on Sunday. I think that helped me win three races. Rune helped me through some bad times and team worked so hard and I thank them from my heart. It's Rune's 40th anniversary in racing this year and it is fitting for his cars to be the first two in the championship'. Duncan's next racing date is 16-18 November where he will try for Malta's first three second TF run.


Super Twin racer Neil Midgley ran a great 6.761/164 on Saturday. He said 'It should have been quicker as a cylinde went out at 4.8s and I shut off at 5.2s. Jaska Salakari ran his 6.28 with the same eighth mile times as us. The only problem we've had is the drive belt coming off after it dropped a cylinder which is nothing unusual'. In round one Neil lost traction at around 60ft and that was his day, and season, done.


Super Twin racer Roman Sixta would need to win the race to win the championship from Martjn de Haas who Roman defeated in round one with a 6.92/197. He will face Bruno Salesse in the final who has run a career best of 8.165. His team reported trouble with the oil pump and losing oil pressure on the qualifying pass resulting in bearing damage and a need also to replace o-rings in the oil pump.


Top Fuel Bike racer Stu Crane also needs to win the event to get the championship from Rickard Gustafsson. He said 'We have made some fuel system alterations to run quick'. In round one, he beat Filippos Papafilippou with a great 6.818/176 - however the engine let go at the finish line and there was fire in the shutdown area.


Super Street Bike racer Mogens Lund ran the low ET of rounds one (7.13) and two (7.15) as he defeated Dave Thomas and Robert Nilsson. In the semi final he came up against newly crowned champion Rick Stubbins. He said 'We look forward to competing next year in the full FIM series'.


Pro Stock racer Robin Norén has competed in each round this season and here qualified with 7.566/202 and did a 6.784/202 against Bengt Ljungdahl.


Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jürgen Nagel qualified with an early shut-off 6.779/127 and improved with a 5.93/231 losing run against Timo Habermann in round one.


Top Fuel Bike racer Allan Davies ran a great 7.280/177 in the sole qualifying session for the class to go fourth. However as he hasn't run a six in the past he won't be in eliminations.


Top Fuel Bike racer Lorcan Parnell will also not be taking part as in the qualifying session yesterday he shut off after the burnout and couldn't make a pass. We will be seeing Lorcan and Allan in Funny Bike in two weeks' time at the National Finals though.


Pro Stock Bike racer Charly Abraham is riding last year's championship winning Buell XB 12R previously owned by Gert-Jean Laseur who is now in Super Twin. His best times so far are 7.28/174 and he qualified in third with 7.41/167.


Pro Stock Bike racer Len Paget was the sole bike to run on Friday night and although the time stood, the pass was a launch to try out some new parts. Len is crewed by his son Rees, who is usually involved in go karting. Len's qualifying time was 7.76 which puts him as first alternate


Pro Stock Bike racer Alex Hope is second in the championship, 33 points behind Fredrik Fredlund and 37 points ahead of third placed Len Paget. Alex had to win the event and see Fredrik go out before round 2 to have a chance to win the title. Alex said testing proved frustrating with a misfire slowing the bike, but a 7.37/178 in qualifying shows it had been cured.


Top Fuel Bike racer Fil Papafilippou put in a great 6.70/209 pass to qualify no.2. Fil, who is defending event champion, will be going the nitro route and running Ian King's bike next year. He said 'We are hoping to keep the funny bike in the UK and to work on it and support another racer'. He went out first round to Dale Leeks.


Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt, who will be inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame in November, ran a 6.344/210 pass to qualify first. Having a racing surface to hold these times, after so much rain and humidity is a tribute to the hard work of the track crew. Steve went out in the first round when the bike lost drive down the track


Top Fuel Bike racer Rickard Gustafsson had engine problems during his pass and could only run a 11.9s pass. So he is on the outside of a four bike field. Although he is leading the championship by 48 points from Rene van den Berg who couldn't attend.


Super Street Bike racer Erich Gruber was testing on Wednesday and did several passes to a best of 7.85/179, however could only run a 9.69/112 in yesterday's session and is first alternate.


Super Street Bike racer Dave Thomas, on a similar Kawasaki ZX12R to Erich, also tested on Wednesday but had gearshift, handling and misfiring problems on his passes. He went better yesterday to a 8.23/179 to go fifteenth in the 16 bike field. In round one he went across lanes, but was behind Mogens Lund in any case.


Super Street Bike racer Steve Mead ran a 7.60 to go ninth. He said 'I short shifted on the Friday evening pass to a 7.91 and feel more able to give it power today'. He was up against Daniel Donat Lencses in round one this morning and won when Daniel's bike broke.


Super Street Bike racer Daniel Donat Lencses went 7.50/192 to go eighth. Daniel is fourth in the FIM points but he and third placed Mogens Lund will be trying hard to catch Franklyn Borg in second, who is only 28 points ahead, with 40 points available in eliminations.


Super Street Bike racer Garry Bowe suffered a engine explosion on his 7.39/197 qualifying pass and bits of piston were discovered by the track and returned to Garry to enable him to analyse what had caused the problem. He said 'I have had two catastrophic engine failures and whilst we could get together the parts to build another motor, this is the right time to say our season is over in Super Street, however I hope to be on Alex Hope's 9.50 Bike at the National Finals'.


Super Street Bike racer Robert Nilsson has had a busy season running the UK rounds of the FIM series and the Nordic series, not attending Alastaro. He said 'We've were busy changing the engine and gearbox for Tierp, as the engine broke at Gardermoen after I ran a PB of 7.14. I had wanted to go to Hockenheim but work prevented that'. Robert also has a new Motec ECU which some of the riders are now using instead of the AMS2000. In round one he defeated Graham Dance, 7.25/195 to Graham's 7.38/194.



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