King Racing thwarted by weather

Following King Racing's win on the Portable Shade Top Fuel Bike at the first stop of the so called `Nordic Swing', the team travelled to the back to back second and third stops at Mantorp Park in Sweden and Gardermoen in Norway with high hopes. However, their optimism was short lived when they experienced the extremes of weather conditions at each event that put a large dent in their hope of retaining their Championship crown.

Although the Swedish event is one of the most eagerly awaited by racers and the 40,000 fans alike, the tricky bumpy track and eighth mile race distance leaves many a crew chief scratching their heads in their quest for an optimized setup. And this year the stiflingly hot conditions turned the event into somewhat of a lottery for many and the final qualifying sheets were testament to that fact. The team was not immune from the same problems facing the other riders and struggled to find a clutch setting to match that of the previous race. Despite that fact the team finished on the `right' side of the ladder in fourth position at the end of final qualifying. Their first round was a nail biting affair with Norway's Sverre Dahl making a welcome return to the series with his all new Bentec timed clutch and big sprag gearbox. King cut a good light on Dahl that proved to be decisive as he crossed the line at an achingly close . However, the semifinals were to prove the limits of King's good reactions and less than optimal clutch settings when local hero Peter Svensson on his `Mountain Motor' 1700cc billet machine blasted past King in the early part of the race, and the half race distance proved too short for King to make any headway.

The team's miseries were compounded when France's Eric Teboul failed to make his semifinal round against championship leader Rikard Gustafsson of Sweden after suffering supercharger problems allowing the local rider to take a solo run into the final and build a further ten point advantage on the King Racing team.

However, Gustafsson was unable to build any further points advantage on King when he failed to overcome the record breaking performance of the Kendall Oils backed Peter Svensson in the final. Gardermoen, Norway.

With less than three days between the previous event and this to plan their challenge to Rikard Gustafsson's championship lead the team had little time to make large changes to their clutch setup but were confident that two further days and five planned qualifying runs would ensure that they would be back on track.

The first day of qualifying saw the team make steady progress and ease quickly into fourth qualifying position in similar hot and sticky conditions to those experienced in Sweden. Gustfaffson, however, had some problems with his mid track performance and finished the first day on the bump spot.

But the second and final day of qualifying saw the weather turn to that experienced at the first round of the championship at Santa Pod when the team failed to qualify, wet and windy and not one of the Championship machines turned a wheel in anger. Although disappointing to the team that they were unable to make further progress in their quest for more personal bests, the resulting ladder saw King paired against rookie Kai Selkaama of Finland on the ex Norbert Kutzera machine and Gustaffson with the unenviable task of taking on number one qualifier Eric Teboul who had run an astounding 6.2 second pass in qualifying - in second gear only!

The team saw their chance to claw back further points from Gustafsson other than those from their superior qualifying position but it was not to be with the third and final day a repeat of the previous. The event was called to a halt by the Race Director without a pass having been made in the championship. When the announcement was made the Gustafsson camp were all smiles, those in the King camp grimaced…….

So, with the next two races in Germany and Denmark non championship events the championship goes down to the wire in the final round at Santa Pod in England with Gustafsson a comfortable 12 points ahead of King. Can the team pull off a repeat of their stunning `against all odds' win at the same event last year? The team and their fans wait with bated breath…..

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