UEM European Drag Racing Championships, Rounds Four and Five, Veidec Festival, Mantorp Park, Sweden and Sunoco Drag Challenge, Gardermoen, Norway

This year saw the return of the Gardermoen event to the UEM calendar and the back-to-back rounds in Sweden and Norway resumed their traditional spots in late July and early August. Unfortunately the Veidec Festival at Mantorp was adversely affected by the weather for the second season in a row, with one qualifying session and all of the UEM bike eliminations washed out, but the Sunoco Drag Challenge was completed after the Scandinavian rains had finished doing their worst.

Peter and Soren Svensson have sat out the early part of the season as they completed the strengthening of the chassis on the Team Kendall Billet Racing bike that broke into the fives last season. The Mantorp round saw Peter qualifying low with a 4.074/187mph that would have represented a good back-up for a new European eighth mile record if they had more time to test out a new Goodyear slick that was giving them a some great wheelspeed off the line but went into violent shake about 100 feet out. Norway didn’t deliver the return to the five second zone the team had hoped for, but a low qualifying effort at 6.185, low ET at 6.103 and event win over Rene van den Berg with a tyresmoking 6.641/231.80mph represented a decent return. Like a number of other runs over the weekend, Svensson posted some pretty impressive increments like a 6.6 in qualifying that saw the drive belt stripped of all of it’s teeth 3.4 seconds into the run, and backhalf numbers that were an improvement over last season’s 5.9 second blasts.

Sverre Dahl, another stalwart of the European Top Fuel ranks, had a late start to the season, debuting a new chassis for the Sunshine Express Yamaha. The early shakedown runs suggest that the new frame is strong enough to cope with the power Dahl is traditionally noted for, and third spot in the eight bike field at Mantorp and second (of six) in Norway at 6.556 will give the Norwegian rider the baseline for progress before the end of the season, despite the clutch problems that led to a first round loss to Petri Paljakka in the opening round of eliminations.

Still on double duty with the KTM Nitro Dukes, Jaska Salakari managed to qualify bike number 53 that he runs in UEM Super Twin in Norway after trials and tribulations at previous events. Bike number 56 (in UEM Top Fuel) belted out a stunning 4.12 over the eighth in Mantorp for second spot there, and Salakari improved the short numbers to a mightily impressive 4.09 in Norway, despite losing the rear cylinder after 3.8 seconds, on his way to a 6.594 at only 170mph. If he can keep both cylinders lit (and the motor together), the supercharged flyer should produce something pretty special on a full run.

Whilst the likes of Svensson, Dahl, Paljakka and Salakari have largely forfeited the points chase due to skipping some of the earlier rounds, the battle between Kai Selkamaa and Rene van den Berg closed up dramatically in Norway. Selkamaa lost out to Svensson in the opening round of eliminations, whilst at the same stage van den Berg was handed the opportunity to make a move when Salakari was shutoff before moving off the stand. The Dutch rider closed to within 12 points of Selkamaa with one event left when semifinal favourite Paljakka’s ride dropped a cylinder at the hit and spat off the blower belt before the tree.

Of all the riders on the European tour, it’s probably Lorenz Stäuble who left Gardermoen the happiest, with the event win having vaulted him into the points lead after defeating both of those that were ahead of him in eliminations. After qualifying second with a 6.604/215 (a position matching that achieved in Sweden), the Swiss Erbacher team were looking for consistency rather than low ET, and a 6.727/220 blast was enough to defeat Samu Kemppainen in the opening round of eliminations. A pivotal points match up in the semifinal saw Job Heezen leave first, but Stäuble rode around him with a 6.813/207 to a 6.884/205, and then a cylinder dropping Hans Olav Olstad slowed to a 16 second pass whilst Stäuble also wasn’t firing on both cylinders all the way down, but a 7.001 lit the winlight.

Low qualifier at both Mantorp and Gardermoen, 2009 points champion Per Bengtsson has decided to focus on performance this year rather than defending his title. Although he wasn’t happy with the 4.462 that secured pole in Sweden, a 6.473 to do similar in Norway represented the quickest Super Twin pass in Europe since Charley Karling set the record at 6.458 back in 2004. Bengtsson was still a bit puzzled by the lack of performance off of the line, but if he can match his best first half to the storming middle sector the Bentec Beast produced on the 6.4 there is the possibility for a tenth to be lopped off the ET. A cam drive failure in the semifinal against Hans Olav Olstad prevented a further shot at the record in Norway, but the European Finals are just three weeks away now.

Third place in the points (but only 6 out of the lead) after Norway, Hans Olav Olstad followed up his win in Finland with a runner-up spot at Gardermoen (after qualifying fifth in the rainout in Sweden). The Norwegian rider produced a nice 6.756 to defeat alternate Ismo Mäenpää in the first round of eliminations, and then lucked out when he dropped a cylinder after 2 seconds only to see opponent Bengtsson lose all power after 3.2 seconds, and "a V-one is better than a parallel zero" and few meters before the finish line Olstad passed his pit mate to take the win.

UEM Pro Stock Bike

The biggest shock over the two meetings had to be the failure of runaway PSB points leader Ulf Ögge to qualify for the eight bike field in Sweden. Having given the opposition a chance to really put the pressure on, Mother Nature intervened and a runner-up spot in Norway has essentially tied up a second championship in a row for the Bikeline G2 Buell team as all they have to do now is undergo scrutineering at the Euro Finals and the title is their’s.

Anders Abrahamsson was particularly disappointed with the rain in Mantorp as he’d qualified low with a 7.242/183 and not only had Ögge not qualified, but the then second place in the points Kenneth Vik hadn’t even managed to get off the line in his qualifying efforts. A semifinal finish in Norway managed to get Abrahamsson as the best of the rest to Ögge in the points standings, a position the Swede will hope to defend at the Finals.

Rookie Jesper Thiel picked up his second low qualifying spot of the season in Norway with a 7.185 which he translated to a semifinal finish when Fredlund did him with a holeshot. Wouldn’t bet against Thiel taking his first event win in the very near future, perhaps at Santa Pod for the Euro Finals which traditionally a high horsepower track that might favour his ex-Tom Tinndahn G2 Buell.

UEM Funny Bike Cup

If there was an award for persistence in the face of overwhelming odds, it would probably have been awarded to Otto Knebl a long time ago. The Czech rider has been a stalwart of the UEM tour, until this season getting metaphorically beaten up by the nitro bikes in UEM Top Fuel/Competition, but he managed to outlast the Funny Bike field in Norway to take his first European event win.

Remaining UEM championship rounds
9th – 12th September, FIA European Finals, Santa Pod Raceway, UK