A new European best was set on day two of the 2026 NitrOlympX in an action-filled day. Even though the track crew again had to deal with two separate spells of rain and some on-track incidents race officials and racers managed to complete nearly three sessions of FIM European Drag Bike Championship qualifying, two rounds of FIA European Drag Racing Championship, and sessions for all Sportsman classes although planned eliminations had to be postponed to tomorrow.
The new European best for a Funny Bike, 6.146 seconds at 356.34 kmh, was set by Maltese Funny Bike racer Luke Farrugia to top the first session of qualifying for FIM Europe Top Fuel Bike, which is open to Funny Bikes as well as to nitro-powered Top Fuel Bikes. Luke’s 6.146 beats the previous European best of 6.181 seconds, set by the UK’s Stuart Crane in UK Championship competition, and after today’s three qualifying sessions still stood as number one qualifier. Stuart Crane himself is second qualifier in Top Fuel Bike with a 6.477/294.35 set in session two even though Stuart had to ride out a wobble at high speed towards the finish line. The UK’s Mark Smith is third at 6.618/334.55 followed by Finland’s Kari Rautanen 6.838/336.47 with Sweden’s Thomas Pettersson the last six-second runner at 6.846/277.96 and Malta’s Glenn Borg and The Netherlands’ Rene van den Berg in the sevens. In the final session Rene’s motor started to groan and then smoke, Rene stayed on the throttle and then the bike drifted left taking out the finish line timing reflector.
Friday’s first qualifying session of FIA Top Fuel Dragster, which was interrupted by rain, was annulled leaving racers with a clean sheet this morning. Local favourite, Switzerland’s Jndia Erbacher clocked 4.053/400.11 in the first session lasted as number one qualifier through both qualifying sessions. Jndia suffered the boss of a blower belt and an engine fire in the second session and a clean-up ensued in the shutdown area. Current Champion, Sweden’s Susanne Callin and Scotland’s Colin Millar, faced off in both qualifying sessions; in the first session both hit tyre spin at the same time and had to shut off. In today’s second session, which was delayed by rain quickly dealt with by the track crew, Susanne took second spot at 4.102/280.13 (298.34 mph) whilst Colin had to back off the throttle early but still recorded a Personal Best of 4.630/312.96 which was good for third. Norway’s Øyvor Jacobsen clocked 4.802/257.51 in session one, shut off at about 330 feet; the team did not appear for the second session so Øyvor qualified in fourth place.
Sweden’s Tony Bryntesson ended the day in top spot in FIA Top Methanol with a 5.284/435.56 in his injected-nitro dragster; in the same pairing in the final qualifying session previous leader, Germany’s Timo Habermann improved to 5.312/435.39 which was good for second place ahead of Swedes Johnny Lagg 5.375/439.80 and Isak Lagg 5.408/390.54, Germany’s Silvio Strauch 5.782/360.48 and Jürgen Nagel 6.186/371.00 and Belgium’s Sandro Bellio at 6.519/258.79. The Funny Cars will have a 0.23 head start on the dragsters in eliminations tomorrow.
Number one qualifying position changed hands more than once during FIA Pro Modified, but when the smoke cleared after session three it was The Netherlands’ Michel Tooren who headed the field with a far-from-straight 5.815/394.08 over Norway’s Stian Rusånes 5.825/387.41 and Championship leader, Finland’s Jere Rantaniemi at 5.829/400.26 (248.71 mph) with The Netherlands’ David Vegter, Estonia’s Andres Arnover, Switzerland’s Bruno Bader and The Netherlands’ Marck Harteveld all recording five-second passes. An important line was crossed in today’s first session when a total of thirteen cars recorded qualifying times ensuring a sixteen-car ladder tomorrow, increasing the number of Championship points on offer.
Sweden’s Jimmy Ålund remained the leader in FIA Pro Stock, the multiple Champion and record holder consolidating his lead with a best of 6.596/338.51 over fellow Swedes Robin Norén 6.644/334.24, Michael Malmgren 6.701/323.06 and Simon Ekengren 6.754/321.06 with Stefan Ernryd and Henry Riehl both recording seven-second passes hit by tyre shake.
Reigning Champion, Denmark’s Marcus Christiansen consolidated his lead in FIM Europe Supertwin with an improved 6.231/357.74 giving him half a second advantage over second-placed fellow Dane Anders Vodby Jensen at 6.791/316.89 and Switzerland’s Martin Bühler 6.808/303.90. Czech Roman Sixta and Germany’s Christian Jäger complete the field with seven- and eight-second passes respectively whilst Belgium’s Chris van Nimmen is not qualified after crossing the centre line and hitting a timing reflector in the first session and sideswiping (and leaving a mark on) the guardrail in Q2, both disqualifications.
FIM Europe Pro Stock Bike is led by France’s Bertrand Maurice on his first FIM outing of the season. Bertrand’s 7.226/292.17 in today’s first session was good for top spot and was still the day’s best after the third and final qualifier. Maurice’s 0.4-second advantage over second place in the first session reduced as the field closed up behind him in the second and third outings, with Germany’s Karl-Heinz Weikum second at 7.344/292.33, Jörg Lymant third placed at 7.467/294.891 and Greece’s Charalampos Bousinis fourth at 7.507/283.11 followed by the the UK’s Martin Bishop, Greece’s Dimitrios Petridis and France’s Jerome Rougemont all in the sevens, and David Simonin the low eights. The Netherlands’ Matthijs van Wijngaarden missed the cut and is first alternate tomorrow.
The third FIM Super Street Bike qualifying session was postponed with racers at the head of the lanes and ready to run after rain and other incidents during the day pushed the projected finish past the time needed to set up the track for the Night Show. The third qualifying session will instead be run first thing in the morning. At the end of today’s second qualifying session the bump spot – the Elapsed Time required to qualify for tomorrow’s eliminations – had dropped from 8.201 after the first qualifying session to 7.453, clinched by Germany’s Ricardo Grauer. A number of changes of top qualifier in the second session ended with Greek duo Ioannis Martzakalis and Aggelos Semertzidis first and second at 6.793/346.01 and 6.878/345.13 respectively, Ioannis rocketing from sixteenth to top and that after a rain delay. Alan Morrison of the UK was outside the qualifying field going into his pass but then recorded 6.895/351.15 for third place followed by Hungary’s Daniel Donat Lencses 6.928/309.88, the UK’s Jake Mechaell 6.938/338.66 and Malta’s Simon Giordmaina 6.997/342.19, the rest of the field ranging between 7.001 and Ricardo’s 7.453.
0.446 seconds separate the field in FIM Europe Junior Drag Bike, which qualifies against dial-in. The seven UK and two Netherlands Juniors are led by the UK’s Hollie King +0.022 against dial-in followed by Leah Morrison +0.043 and Alia Lester +0.078 with current Championship leader Harry Isaacs fourth at +0.118 followed by Anouk Burgering, Kian Lester, Jaxon King, Brad Morrison and Geeuwke Siersema.
DMSB Junior Drag Bike is topped by Leona Schuh +0.007 on dial-in with Liv-Greta Braune in second place +0.021. A Perfect Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds by the UK’s Amelia Innes won her first place in Junior Dragster with Lenny Fässler’s 0.006 of yesterday in second and the top eleven of twenty qualifiers covered by 0.098 seconds.
One of the best stories of the day was the return of Jack Williams in the Evil Edna Pro Comp Corvette, the team having worked for ten hours to repair the damaged caused by yesterday’s top end crash. To add icing on the cake Jack improved upon yesterday’s time at 7.322/304.45 which was good for fourth place. Julian Bayer consolidated top spot with an improved 6.755/325.14 (195.82 mph) in his two-litre VW Golf, followed by Thomas Ranft’s Pro Mod-which-isn’t at 6.979/292.52 and René Ehrismann at 7.073/312.20. The bump spot for an eight-car field fell from 7.991 to 7.607 in the second session with a total of twelve cars qualified.
Robert Jongen had a wild ride in today’s first session of Super Pro ET after his VW Beetle got out of shape in the launch caused by one of the rear wheels coming off the car. It was a close thing between the VW and the wheel which reached the finish line first. Safety crews sped to Robert’s aid, he was quite OK. In session two Robert Gaßner took the lead +0.010 on dial-in only for previous leader Lucas Pothoff to take it back in the next pair +0.009, then in the next run of the session Mike Bruckmüller secured and held the lead at +0.006. Also in session two, Enrico Bailo broke out by -0.001 which, as a distance, translated to 6.77 centimetres of track.
Side-by-side times against dial-in of +0.001 and +0.009 respectively secured first and second Pro ET spots for Rilana Dold and Rene Schindler; the top fourteen of thirty three qualifiers are covered by 0.097 seconds.
The UK’s Ronnie Mercer took over the lead in Super Comp in the second qualifying session with an 8.906/241.26. Janine Petzold’s leading 8.913/262.55 from yesterday was good for second spot with Oliver Krautberger in third at 8.923/252.27 and Kenneth Celestin fourth at 8.924/221.87. Gerd Habermann is the last of the twelve-car field in the 8.9s at 8.928/237.80. The Super Gas lead changed twice in two pairs in the third and final session with Oscar Scappocin taking top spot in the first pair at 9.951/202.12 only for Manfred Gräßer to take the lead moments later at 9.913/207.66. Daniel Vetterl then slotted into second spot at 9.916/215.19 pushing Oscar down to third. Five of the eight-car field are in the 9.9s.
A spectacular side-by-side 7.155/306.17 and 7.294/304.62 for Stefan Hagenstein and Petr Ceska secured first and second spots respectively the second Funny Bike qualifier. Markus Laur and Thomas Joswig are not far behind at 7.303/313.73 and 7.386/284.03 ahead of Leon David Weikum at 7.607/281.35 and Cord Albers with an eight-second pass.
It was worth the long journey from Finland for Kimmo Rantala as he took number one qualifier in Super Comp Bike at 8.504/247.64. Yesterday’s leading 8.512/241.45 by Panis Charchalaklis was good for second spot today and was the only other 8.5-second qualifying time. Thomas Troupkos and Marie Madleen Rosen went side-by-side to first and second spots in ET Bike, respectively +0.028 and +0.048 on dial-in. The top five of fourteen qualifiers are separated by 0.084 seconds.
Tomorrow’s action commences at 09:00 with the final qualifying session for FIM Europe Super Street Bike followed by full eliminations in Pro and Sportsman classes.
