Race day of the 2026 NitrOlympX took place under sunny skies and ran mainly to schedule until the clean-up necessitated by a long and large oildown in the Funny Bike final took the event past the strict local authority curfew forcing race officials to cancel most of the finals.
The FIA Top Fuel Dragster final would have been contested by Switzerland’s Jndia Erbacher and Sweden’s reigning Champion Susanne Callin. Jndia was gifted her place in the final by Norway’s Øyvor Jacobsen whose dragster rolled through stage instantly disqualifying her. Jndia dodged a bullet as her tyres shook then lit up and she rolled through to a fifteen-second pass. Susanne won her semi-final with Scotland’s Colin Millar whose dragster lost its blower belt and slowed, although Susanne too dodged a bullet as there was a loud bang from her motor in the second half of the track and she shut off to a 4.239/371.32.
FIA Top Methanol Dragster was due to be contested between Swedes Tony Bryntesson and Johnny Lagg. Tony had a bye in the semi-final as opponent Isak Lagg did not show after damage sustained in the first round and lucked out as his tyres lit up at the hit of the throttle. Johnny made the final in a picture-perfect semi-final with Germany’s Timo Habermann, taking the stripe at 5.317/433.22 to Timo’s 5.385/426.75. All of Timo’s runs this weekend were in the 5.3s.
Estonia’s Andres Arnover and Norway’s Stiån Rusanes were to meet in the final of FIA Pro Modified. Andres took his semi-final against The Netherlands’ Michel Tooren with an out-of-shape 6.378/347.61 after Michel lost his blower belt, whilst Stiån made the final over reigning Champion Jere Rantianemi with a 0.003 Reaction Time and a 5.888/355.29 pass in what was expected to be a close race but Jere shut off after his car started to move around its lane. With the Championship close between Andres and Jere, Andres’ semi-final win will extend his lead a little.
Championship implications for FIA Pro Stock also as close second place going into the race, Sweden’s Simon Ekengren made neither the last qualifying session nor the first round of eliminations. Fellow Swede Robin Norén, at that point fourth in the Championship, made the most of Simon’s absence by beating third-placed Stefan Ernryd in the first round and then beating Michael Malmgren in the semi-final with a 6.635/335.02 to make the final whilst Michael suffered an appalling bout of tyre shake which could clearly be felt through the floor of Race Control. Multiple Champion and record holder, fellow Swede Jimmy Ålund defeated Germany’s Henry Riehl in the first round then in the semi went all-out for final-round lane choice with a 6.599/339.15 bye.
Funny Bike racers Malta’s Luke Farrugia and the UK’s Stuart Crane, both 6.1-second runners, would have contested the FIM Europe Top Fuel Bike final. Luke won his semi-final against Finland’s Kari Rautanen with a troubled 6.846/252.01 luckily covering Kari’s seven-second pass whilst Stuart beat fellow Brit Mark Smith with a 6.320/340.58 as Mark slowed with engine problems. In the first round of eliminations Stuart won against The Netherlands’ Rene van den Berg whose engine groaned then expired and deposited a long trail of oil on the track necessitating a clean-up.
Denmark’s Marcus Christiansen made the FIM Supertwin final with a 6.146 at a huge 366.56 kmh – a mere 5 kmh below the current European speed record – against Czech Roman Sixta who returned to the sixes himself at 6.943/252.48. Fellow Dane Anders Vodby Jensen booked his passage to the final with a 6.905/292.01 against Martin Bühler’s early shut-off nine-second pass.
The FIM Super Street Bike final was set to be contested between Greece’s Dimitros Kontarinis and Alan Morrison. Dimitris advanced to the final with a 6.932/332.50 defeat of Hungary’s Daniel Donat Lencses whose tyre blackstriped at the hit. Daniel’s progress to the semis did however make up ground on reigning Champion and current points leader, the UK’s Jake Mechaell, who did not appear for this morning’s first round of eliminations. The UK’s Alan Morrison was to be the other finalist after defeating Greece’s Aggelos Semertzidis 7.037/319.31 to Aggelos’ 7.169/332.10. The first round featured a shock as Greece’s Nikolaos Emmanouilidis, who qualified eighteenth for the sixteen-bike field, came in as second alternate and took the win over The Netherlands’ Margot Schmidt with a 7.761/286.05 as Margot’s bike rolled out of stage. The fairytale ending was not to be as Nikolaos shut off before staging in the second round.
France’s Bertrand Maurice and Germany’s Karl-Heinz Weikum would have contested the FIM Europe Pro Stock Bike final. Bertrand took a clear semi-final win over the UK’s Martin Bishop in his semi-final with a 7.199/293.87 whilst in his semi Karl-Heinz defeated Championship leader, Germany’s Jörg Lymant at 7.270/290.33 although by the semi-final Jörg had cured a persistent launch issue and improved to 7.336/298.84.
The UK’s Harry Isaacs and Leah Morrison were set to race in the FIM Europe Junior Drag Bike final. Harry booked his place with a semi-final win over Hollie King with a 9.749/108.13 on 9.50 dial-in whilst Leah made the final with a near-perfect 7.905/125.41 on 7.90 dial-in.
In an uncanny echo of yesterday’s incident involving Robert Jongen, Jacqueline Putzman’s VW Beetle lost a rear wheel on launch in this morning’s first round of Super Gas. Jacqueline was quite OK and the car and wheel were quickly recovered. Rene van den Berg’s above-mentioned oildown aside the day was largely incident-free until the final of Funny Bike when Stefan Hagenstein’s Suzuki left a long and difficult-to-clean trail of oil, which led to the event being called before the majority of finals could be run.
Sportsman final results:
Junior Dragster: Felix Schmid (8.00) 8.018/125.42 def. Lille Erichsen (8.00) 8.024/129.44
Funny Bike: Markus Laur 6.913/323/16 def. Stefan Hagenstein 9.393/154.83
Super Comp Bike: Sami Ylhainen 8.675/254.49 def. Peter Ӧstlund 8.923/229.39 DQ red light
ET Bike: Thomas Troupkos (9.36) 9.480/227.30 def. Marc Quattelbaum (9.23) 9.349/232.29
DMSB Junior Drag Bike: Leif-Erik Braune (8.10) 8.157/138.90 def. Leona Schuh (8.41) 8.569/127.37
Pro finals did not take place:
FIA Top Fuel Dragster: Jndia Erbacher v Susanne Callin
FIA Top Methanol: Tony Bryntesson v Johnny Lagg
FIA Pro Modified: Andres Arnover v Stian Rusånes
FIA Pro Stock: Jimmy Ålund v Robin Norén
FIM Europe Top Fuel Bike: Luke Farrugia v Stuart Crane
FIM Europe Supertwin: Marcus Christiansen v Anders Vodby Jensen
FIM Europe Super Street Bike: Dimitros Kontarinis v Alan Morrison
FIM Europe Pro Stock Bike: Bertrand Maurice v Karl-Heinz Weikum
FIM Europe Junior Drag Bike: Harry Isaacs v Leah Morrison
Sportsman finals did not take place:
Pro Comp: Jack Williams v Rene Ehrismann
Super Pro ET: Marco Grandini v Robert Gaßner
Pro ET: Bjorn Szczendzina v Jürgen Försch
Super Comp: Gerd Habermann v Janine Petzold
Super Gas: Philipp Daud v Oscar Scappocin
