King´s brand new bike did not
struggle much during its first event at Kunmadaras and with this bike King says his personal best
of 6.12 sec. should be within reach and he can see runs in the 5-sec
range happening already this season.
Someone who has
already crosssed the 5-second barrier is Peter Svensson, team
Kendall from Sweden who is not on the entry list for the Main
Event but was out on track in Tierp earlier in May, tested and collected
some very promising data. Peter Svensson joins the championship in
round #2 at the Sweden Internationals in june.
The championship 2011 in Top Fuel Bike is spiced up with one
prime Canadian competitor.
Nate Gagnon was in Hungary for round #1 and will
join the UEM championship for round #4 at Gardermoen. Norway and round
#5 at HockenheimRing, Germany in august. Gagnon is in co-operation
with super-twin contender Samu Kemppainen, who supplies Gagnon with a
bike for the three events he plans to enter. We will make sure to
tell you more about that in a forthcoming edition.
Top Fuel
Bike Preview Main Event
The UEM European Drag Bike Championship has already had its first round at Kunmadaras, Hungary in april and the situation entering round #2 at Santa Pod is a points lead for UK:s Ian King
The 2010 Top Fuel Bike Champion - Petri Paljakka from Finland
Although the Top Fuel Bike class does not look as strong in numbers of competitors this season as the other two UEM classes, the teams in the class compensate that with crowd pleasing and spectacular runs. They are the F-1:s of the drag bikes and impressive to look at during runs when it all comes together.
Top Fuel Bike´s strongest nation at the moment is the UK and Ian King will be joined by Steve Carey, Steve Woollatt and Kev Charman (the latter new in the class after switching from the UEM Funny Bike class)
Last, but not least the 2010 Top Fuel Bike Champion Petri Paljakka from Finland makes the long journey to England to show the crowd at Santa Pod he can be counted on.
It was Steve Woollatt who won the Main Event last time, with a final run in the 6.60-second range. Interesting to see if a repetition is possible for Woollatt. Our guess is all 5 teams entered aim for the event win and that it will not come easy for any of them.
|
UEM TOP FUEL |
5 |
Main Event Entry List |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TF1 |
Petri Paljakka |
Finland |
Puma |
|
TF5 |
Steve Woollatt |
Garston, UK |
PBR Puma |
|
TF9 |
Steve Carey |
Bexhill-on-Sea, UK |
PBR Puma |
|
TF11 |
Ian King |
Litlington, UK |
Puma Yamaha |
|
TF27 |
Kev Charman |
Woodford Halse, UK |
Puma
Yamaha |
Please note changes on the entry list may occur
Ian
King at Kunmadaras, Hungary during round #1 of the UEM Drag Bike
Championship 2011
Text: Åsa Kinnemar
Photo: Ivan Sansom & Speedgroup
This article is part of the Speedgroup Club Europe Newsletter #5/2011
Published by Speedgroup www.speedgroup.eu
All material, text, images and logtypes are the
property of Speedgroup AB
Any use of the above requires permission from
Speedgroup
e-mail: asa.kinnemar@speedgroup.eu
© Speedgroup 2011