With four competitors, qualifying was not an issue in Top Fuel Bike. But what a surprise to see Super Twin regular Jaska Salakari in Top Fuel Bike with team-mate Kari Rajala’s 2009 Super Twin bike. Work commitments make it impossible for Rajala to race this season so Salakari decided to enter the bike in Top Fuel. And the surprise was even bigger when Salakari took the number one qualifying spot with a stunning 6.692 seconds in only his second run on the bike. A 6.843 in his fourth attempt showed the 6.6 (at the end still good for the number one position) was no coincidence. There were big problems in qualifying for the the championship leader, Kai Selkämaa. The Finn torched a head in the second qualifying session and had to skip the last two attempts. His 14.583 seconds put him into the number four spot. There were problems too for René van den Berg. On his second run the Dutchman broke a gearbox but the 7.324 seconds on the third run gave Van den Berg the number three qualifying position. Petri Paljakka was the only man to make four qualifying runs. After his UEM Hungary Top Fuel debut, the Finn had to skip the Main Event but showed great progress on the ex-Ian King bike by taking the number three position with a 7.354 and, even more importantly, never encountered any technical problems.
