Season 2006 review.

After our meeting, early 2006, we knew it was going to be a tough job, this year. So many races, so little time! And a lot of traveling, specially for Roman Sixta and Herman Jolink, (and your reporter) who attended all the events. Some topgas racers went over to the V-rod Destroyer cup class, but some of them also came to race with us on their new toys, and so they helped to fill our field and made up for the loss. Busy boy Bernd Niessen was racing in both classes (and they were all beaten by a reporter in Luckau!).

Some supertwin topgas teams suffered serious damage, like Frank Heitmann. He came to Hoscovice with a great looking, well equipped race truck, and new crew chief. He made a great pass, but damaged his gearbox later. He was forced to skip four races, returned in Vandel, with a new support bearing fitted, to relief the tranny.

Frank made one great pass, 8.388, good for third spot, and kept his gearbox intact. But in first round, a rod broke, and his year was over. Bernd Niessen started good on the ex-Caspari alu-Buell, but in Switserland a broken con rod came out of the bottom of his cases after a burn out.

Bernd told me the damage looks like this: both rods disrupted, the front rod is in unbeleavable pieces and came in parts through the main case. Trashed: main case, flywheels, rods, crankpin, bearings, sprocket shaft, pinion shaft, cylinder sleeves, and pistons (what has he got left? A pair of heads and four cams?).

Bernd used the V-rod Destroyer in Vandel to finish the season. He made the fifth place in the championship. Bernd is a new member, so he is the new "rookie of the year". Marc vanden Boer from Belgium joined the euroserie in Luckau, where he broke his wheelybar three times, and could not make the call in Vandel, with a leaking oil tank. Team Dragons MC suffered from problems with an electronic device, controling the fuel injection. Peter Marz was forced to change to "high gear" in Turtmann, to stay 0.001 second ahead of Ralph Heuer who made his first appearence there.

Roman Sixta damaged a cylinder head during test&tune in Luckau, but was ready in time to kick ass: he took the lead in the championschip at the first race and was never in danger throughout the season. The changes made to the Honda engine, last winter, worked well, and the intercooler seems to help the blower bike.

Roman won two races, and with a new personal best of 8.443 sec, he improved a quarter of a second this year, making the biggest jump at the first race, in his home country.

Only Cord Albers and Frank Heitmann went faster, but didn't race a full season. Cord won in Luckau,

and his victory in Vandel was more than impressive! With a little coaching from Gerd Caspari, the man stayed cool in all the hectic, and eliminated everybody in a series of smooth runs with his Buell, living up to his nickname "German Undertaker".

Cord's new personal best of 8.232 @ 256 kmh was set in the quickest and fastest side by side run of the season on the quarter mile: the Vandel semi final race, against Roman Sixta. Cord Albers only raced three races, and jumped to the second place in the championship in the last one, pushing Herman Jolink down to third.

Herman didn't do a personal best this year, but he came pretty close with the new 999RS Ducati engine, struggling to get all the horses to the track with a narrow tyre. Herman Jolink celebated 30 years of dragracing at his support party.

So we have a Czech champ with a Honda, a German with a Buell on two, a Dutchman with a Ducati third. Fourh place is for the Full Throttle Team from Delft, Holland. Rider Harry van Schie flew to Budapest, but had his biggest succes making it into the finals in Drachten,

where he was eliminated by Mr Heezen (who is playing with the big boys at the Pod doing 8.2 while I write this). Team Full throttle went to Mosten last week where they made the third place. Well done Harry, Jaap and Barney. Keep that S&S engine alive! And so the two Dutch boys beat all the Germans exept for Cord

!

Mike Brüsch is the number six. The Dragon-Harley looks great with the new paintjob and matching tow bike and airbrushed helmet.

And their green tent is the place to be in the pits, day and night. But Brüschie was often too hot at the tree, and deserves the "red light award".

Place number seven, the lucky number, despite all the damage is for Frank Heitmann (here he is on his knees for Cord, and look at his truck!).

Frank will host the prize giving ceremony and end of the season topgas party this year, held on the 21st of october in Eldachsen (above Bad Oyenhausen), details below, and I hope he cooks for us!

Peter Marz comes eight.

Klaus-Peter Weimar and Jos Vermaas were crewing for him, this year. Marz's new personal best and his riding skills displayed in Luckau impressed not only his crew but everybody watching him.

Another new man this year is Frank Peisker. He bought Axel Seifert´s bike, took it to Luckau, and did the 1/8 mile quicker than Axel ever was!

Then we saw him in Vandel, where he dropped a pushrod, barely made the call, and did his last run of the season on one cylinder. Peisker is the new number nine. But to me the bike still looks Axel´s bike. I think he should give it a new flashy paintjob to make it a Peisker bike.

Marc vanden Boer is the number ten, but being a devoted racer for many years, I´m sure he´ll move up some places next year.

He just needs time to trust his wheely-bar, that's all.

Place number eleven is for Ralph Heuer and his Triple Five racing team. We only saw Ralph Heuer in Turtmann, where his Harley ran at very low revs after the burnout (and your not allowed to start again after that on raceday...).

But he should talk to Jörg Lymand about the use of his startnumber, because it's the one that Jörg uses for his blower bike.

Then there's place twelve, reserved for the teams who didn't race at all. But they are members and attended the meeting, and we thank them for that. First of all, we missed Otto Bauer, and hope he gets well soon.

His homemade blown monsterbike could have played a big role. Then there is the Knightriders MC from Würzburg, who hosted our meeting. They didn't race with us, but four years after Headley's last race, they took the bike back to the same track again. Rider Monster entered the supertwin topfuel class, and managed to qualify number eight for the race on sunday in Hockenheim during the Nitrolymics, because Herman Jolink did not make a pass. Herman's sparkplugs failed during the burn out at his first shot, and his batery broke, just before he wanted to start his second attempt. The Knightriders must have had some help from above.

Here's Monster in the burnout box, for his run against Jaska Salikari from Finland. We all hope to see a lot more of the Buell next year. And we hope that Klaus-Peter gets his blown zebra fixed, and takes it to the strip again. He is also on place twelve. Also last, but not least, is Wolfram Friedrich, woldfamous in Germany by the name of Wolla. I saw him at a test&tune in Meinershagen in spring, and he was present at a fun race in Geiselwind in august, so I'm sure he'll be back.

The season ended way too soon. With the last race in Drachten cancelled, the championship came to a sudden stop. Lets pray they solve the problems in Friesland, and come to a propper solution, a lot of european riders and drivers enjoyed the track and with three events a year, it would be a waste to throw it all away. If not, maybe some dutch riders will join our serie, and also come to Hoskovice and Kunmadaras, where they still have room for our sport and appreciate our visit.

What else happened? "Godfather" Ton Pels retired, Roel Koedam sold his bike "down under" so the quickest topfuel bike in Europe goes to Australia. Roel will be in the saddle of Ton's supertwin next year. Former topgasser Günther Sohn did his first six in Finland this summer, and another 6.8. He did a 6.9 in Hockenheim, and is qualified third with a new personal best of 6.7 at Santa Pod this weekend. Good job Günther! And in Hockenheim Jaska Salikari launched his bike to 305 kmh (189.5 mph!) after a 1/8 mile, proving his bike realy wants to move. Jaska runs his clutch directly on the engine, so no belt or gearbox needed. He brought his numbers down to 6.70 this weekend. But these guys run nitro.

With the gas bikes we saw the latest version of the S&S prostock engines arrive at the european track. Tom Tinndahn upset the european prostock bike field with his G2 motorsports Buell, with an 7.38 in Finland, a 7.40 in Mantorp, and at the moment he's at pole position in Santa Pod, beating the shit out of the jap bikes, like he predicted in Vandel. His 7.22 sec. is the quickest PSB run in Europe ever!

In the US, Chip Ellis did 6.911 on a G2 Buell. What does this mean for our class, if this comes our way? Should we not allow nitrous oxide in the furure, like in the pro-gas class in AHDRA, to give more guys a chance to go fast and make room for experiments? But then we would have to change our name too. Not everybody has got the green to go shop at Hal's, or wants to.

For some the season was not over yet. Vanden Boer and van Schie went to Francorchamps, just for the fun of it, and the Dragons and Roman Sixta were in Malmö, so I've heard. But for one man the race calender ended way too soon. Svein Gottenberg from Norway lost his life in a top end accident at Mosten racedays in Denmark. This message came as a great shock that still echoes. Marc vanden Boer was in the line-up just behind him when it happened, his crew guy Nico shot this picture. Svein rolls into the burnout box for the last time, helper Gunnar, whiping the wheel like allways.

I first remember Svein of my visit to Mantorp, Sweden, in ´97 when Krusé did the first six second run on a supertwin in Europe. "Gotten" made it into the finals, but his bike was far from fresh. Producing lots of smoke, he stood beside Krusé, who had just become a legend. A milestone in history. Svein was respected and loved by all, and an great inspiration to many Norwegian dragracers. Like Svein wanted, the race went on, the next day, but the word "mosten" will allways sound different to me from now on. We're one week later now, and there is good news for Norway allready. Hans-Olav Olstad did a 6.8 at the Pod, the quickest ever "high gear" pass in Europe (Too bad he torched a head after that, same thing happened in Mantorp).

Many thanks to all the crew at all the dragstrips, we love to see your tracktor putting rubber on the track and spraying while we put up our tents in the pits. Respect to all the marshals and timing people for the work under extreme conditions. Of course it was loud, but it was too hot five times in a row, and then a lot of rain came down. The most efficiënt work was done by the crew in Denmark, who managed to dry the track within an hour, after it was flooded, and did a qualification round and a full drarace between eight in the morning and tea time. It started dripping when the last pair of cars was doing the burnout. Excelent timing.

Race Reports 2006:

1st race: 17-18 june: Hoskovice, Czech rep. (read report)
2nd race: 30 june-2 july: Luckau, Germany. (read report)
3rd race: 8-9 july Kunmadaras, Hungaria. (read report)
4th race: 14-16 july Drachten, the Netherlands. (read report)
5th race: 21-23 july Turtmann, Switserland. (read report)
6th race: 12-13 aug Vandel, Denmark. (read report)
7th race: 18-20 aug Drachten, the Netherlands: cancelled! (read about the situation)

Read last years reports

Download the construction rules here.