Hallo, erneut aus Zeitmangel nur die englische Fassung von Piets Bericht...

Funnybike

A total of ten riders came to the start for the qualification of the Funnybike class.

But ony six kept their engine alive untill sunday. One of the first victims was Luc Raeymaekers from Belgium.

After his first attempt (8.2 sec) he noticed a big crack in the cylinder head, and sent his son home to get a replacement. Then he found a damaged sprocket in his gearbox, but had no replacement for that, so Luc and his team ...

were spectating for the rest of the weekend.

Maarten Zijlstra (the Netherlands) wrecked his engine during round two. It exploded as he passed the finish line, spilling a lot of oil on the track. He spend the rest of the weekend crewing for Mike Olie. Mike himself fell off his bike when the rear tire came loose from the rim, during his burnout on saturday.

He was able to repair the damage, was qualified #8, and got a bye run in the quarter finals, because his opponent Charly Forsberg from Sweden (top qualifier with 7.06 sec.) didn't show up.

Thomas Joswig from Germany was not happy with his results on friday, but produced 7.85 sec. on saturday that got him to place #4, and had a bit of luck to advance in the quarter finals against Petr Ceska (Czech Rep.) who was first alternate, and came in for Zijlstra. Joswig 11.3 sec. and Ceska 15.5 seconds.

Filippos Papafilippou from Greece entered two classes, and made it to place #2 with 7.2 seconds. He got a bye run in the quarter finals, as his opponent Borsay from Hungaria didn't show up.

Stefan Hagenstein (Germany) showed the bike still has the same problems as earlier in the season.

Haggie didn't make a decent pass and qualified # 10 with 10.4 sec. as best result. He took the place of Raeymakers on Sunday, but was eliminated by Eric Richard from France, the winner of last year with 7.5 sec. for Richard, 12.4 sec. for Hagenstein.

Mike Olie gave Thomas Joswig a head start in the semi finals, then went to get him in 7.70 seconds. Joswig stopped the clock at 9.35 sec.

Papafilippou responded much quicker agains Eric Richard, but he lost with a 7.7 sec. to Eric's 7.3 sec. and that was also the end of "Phil"'s motor, after racing it hard in two classes.

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Eric Richard had the front wheel high up all the way down the track as he beat Mike Olie in the finals.

Text and Pictures Piet Mom