FIM-E Drag Racing Championship
The Euro Finals – Round Four
Santa Pod Raceway, England
September 10-13, 2026
Rain wins the day, but champions crowned at the FIM-E Drag Bike Euro Finals
words and photos by Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes
Unfortunately, heavy overnight rain continued deep into Sunday morning delaying the start of racing until late in the afternoon. Once underway there were many nervous glances towards the sky, and eventually the rain returned curtailing the event after most classes had managed a round of eliminations.
FIM-E Top Fuel Bike
Newly crowned FIM-E Top Fuel Bike champion Luke Farrugia had already done enough to take the first drag bike title back to Malta, had things been a bit tighter a nervous wait could have been on the cards after his Checkmate/Warpspeed Racing mount quit after the burnout in the first and only round of eliminations. The lucky recipient of Farrugia’s misfortune was Jiri Lukes, who picked up his first round win of the year by staging the PBR Rocket (Lukes only made eliminations by the thinnest of margins after almost being timed out on a 29.29 second roller thanks to the team chasing fuel pump drive issues all weekend).
FIM-E Super Twin
Another champion to surprisingly fall in the gloom was Marcus Christiansen. Having already done enough for a seventh FIM-E Super Twin title, the Speedy’s Racing bullet was hopped up for a final shot of the season, but blew the tire off 0.5 seconds into the run giving opponent Martin Buhler off season bragging rights with an off pace eight second clocking.
FIM-E Pro Stock Bike
Things were far from straightforward for Jorg Lymant as his Buell struggled to a double digit ticket in FIM-E Pro Stock Bike, but he avoided continuing the champions series of exits as scheduled opponent David Simon failed to get past the burnout.
FIM-E Super Street Bike / Junior Drag Bike
The remaining two categories didn’t deliver shocks in their completed rounds, despite being the tightest of the title chases. Daniel Donat Lencses completing a 6.7 second victory lap in FIM-E Super Street Bike’s only shot at the track to add the 2026 crown to his first from 2022, while Harry Isaacs clicked the win light in what could have been a tricky match-up against out-going FIM-E Junior Drag Bike cup Alia Lester, Alia passing the title on when she just missed a shot at the tree with a -0.0006 second red light.
Thus as season of ups and downs came to a close, 2027 will see an expansion of the FIM-E championship series, although it will all start again back at Santa Pod in May for the Main Event.
Lencses, Farrugia, Christiansen, Newbury and Burgering take the top qualifying spots at the FIM-E Finals before heading into eliminations
Conditions changed a bit for the final qualifying day of the 2026 FIM-E season as the wind got up (fortunately straight down the track rather than a more problematic cross wind) ahead of a weather front moving in presaging a series of showers that clipped the final qualifying sessions for Super Street Bike and Junior Drag Bike.
FIM-E Super Street Bike
A stiff headwind for their first session today (third overall) and then the curtailment of the final session midway through class mitigated against improvements at the sharp end of the FIM-E Super Street Bike field.
It remains as per yesterday with Daniel Donat Lencses (6.6310/223.63), Ioannis Lampropoulos (6.706/225.54), Alan Morrison Jnr (6.7082) and Jake Mechaell (6.7105/220.11) holding station as the quick quartet before heading into the 16 qualified bike ladder tomorrow. The championship will take a couple of eliminations round to unfold, but Lencses has padded his points lead thanks to a 6.6738/217.20 to snaffle the most bonus points in today’s only completed session.
FIM-E Top Fuel Bike
Shuffling in FIM-E Top Fuel Bike saw the inter-team rivalry within Warpspeed Racing intensify with Luke Farrugia (6.2373/215) just getting ahead of Stuart Crane (6.2517/217.90) in the final qualifying session.
Glenn Borg also improved in third spot, threatening his personal best with a 6.4700/205.13 while the top four is rounded out by Mark Smith’s 6.8611/181. Completing a top five for the funny bikes, Thomas Pettersson carries over a 6.91 from yesterday, while only one of the nitro fuelled trio appeared for the final session, leaving causes for concern for a full eliminator ladder tomorrow.
FIM-E Super Twin
Holding firm at number one in FIM-E Super Twin is Marcus Christiansen who improved a blink on his number from yesterday with a 6.1733/220.35 in the final session.
Roman Sixta also improved to a 6.5971 at only 182mph suggesting a full pull in eliminations tomorrow could dismiss his 6.549 PB from 2019 by some distance. Chris van Nimmen will also be mighty relieved after his ride ran straight and true to a 6.7816/194.71. Martin Buhler sits in fourth with the unenviable task of facing off with Christiansen in the first round tomorrow.
FIM-E Pro Stock Bike
Martin Newbury holds on to top spot in FIM-E Pro Stock Bike thanks to yesterday’s 7.1277/185.10. Jorg Lymant massively closed up the distance between one and two rumbling to a 7.1351/183.60 in the final session today, without the headwind it seems likely that he’ll celebrate his championship with a new PB tomorrow seeing that he only needs four thousands to get the job done.
FIM-E Junior Drag Bike
Remarkably, Anouk Burgering managed to wrangle her somewhat errant launching Shark Attack Suzuki to top spot in FIM-E Junior Drag Bike with a third (and only) session +0.0100 on a 8.62 to squeeze ahead of Leah Morisson’s +0.0111 and Jaxon King’s +0.0133 from yesterday.
Anouk Burgering
Hopefully the weather system will pass overnight and the season will be able to arrive at a timely conclusion during eliminations day on Sunday.
Lencses, Crane, Christiansen, Newbury and Morrison lead after the opening day at the FIM-E Finals
The concluding event of the 2026 FIM-E season kicked off with an elongated first qualifying day at Santa Pod Raceway and with two qualifying sessions completed for all classes, the latter being under the lights for some spectacular night racing.
FIM-E Super Street Bike
Predicted as being the class to watch pre-event, FIM-E Super Street Bike hasn’t quite hit the heights at the sharp end (no 6.5s), but there were shots aplenty fired in the championship chase. After two sessions and some swapping of the little qualifying points, Daniel Donat Lencses produced a 6.6310/223.63 to take over pole position heading into the second day of qualifying tomorrow. Most adjacent is his nearest championship challenger Ioannis Lampropoulos with a 6.706/225.54 from his GSXR while Alan Morrison Jnr (6.7082) and Jake Mechaell (6.7105/220.11) round out the quick quartet at the head of the field. The top ten are in the sixes, the bump is currently 7.4473 and the fifteenth position is below the current class bump record.
FIM-E Top Fuel Bike
FIM-E Top Fuel Bike is headed by Stuart Crane with a 6.3922/209.83 (not quite the numbers the Warpspeed team leader is looking for) with Malta’s Glenn Borg putting the frustration of Germany behind him with a 6.5881/212.09 for second. Points leader and pretty much champion elect Luke Farrugia sits in third but scattered a bullet just before the finishline on his 6.6376/184 that is necessitating a rebuild of the Checkmate/Warpspeed engine.
FIM-E Super Twin
Marcus Christiansen (who else?) leads the FIM-E Super Twin field with a 6.1829/221.14 first session best while Roman Sixta returned to form with a 6.6763 at only 175 mph in that Denmark vs. Czech pairing.
FIM-E Pro Stock Bike
Martin Newbury only needed one pass on his return to competition in FIM-E Pro Stock Bike to head the field with a 7.1277/185.10 from the PsycleWorkz Suzuki. Somewhat distant in second is Jorg Lymant with a 7.4530/185.13 which at least demonstrated the German champion has made progress in solving some clutch issues that have developed this season with his Buell.
FIM-E Junior Drag Bike
It’s crazily tight in FIM-E Junior Drag Bike qualifying as it is in the points chase. Leah Morisson sits at one with a +0.0111 on an 8.00 dial, while Jaxon King is less than a blink behind with a +0.0133 on a 12.95. Points leader Harry Isaacs is at five while Hollie King (tied with Leah in the points coming into the meeting) could do with improving on ninth spot tomorrow.
2026 FIM-E Drag Racing Championship – Round Four Preview
And so, to the conclusion of the 2026 FIM-E Dragbike Championship tour, and back to the beginning with the return to Santa Pod Raceway, which hosted the season opener back at the end of May. All five classes will be in action over the course of the weekend, with two championships pretty much wrapped up and another in the mathematical category. The remaining two titles present something of a puzzle, and there will be personal bests to chase and grudges to settle in each and every eliminator.
FIM-E Top Fuel Bike
With eight bikes entered almost certainly taking a DNQ out of the equation, Luke Farrugia is heavily favored to take the FIM-E Top Fuel Bike points title, with Thomas Pettersson the only challenger, but this would require the Swede to have a career-defining weekend while the Maltese points leader drops dramatically off the form that has seen Farrugia take the event win in Sweden at the start of August and a run to the final in the incomplete event in Germany a couple of weeks ago.
Elsewhere, there are intra-team rivalries with Farrugia and Stuart Crane chasing European funnybike bests (currently in Farrugia’s hands with a 6.14) and the first six zero outside North America for the breed, not counting out the third of the Warpspeed trio, Mark Smith, who will be looking for the 6.3s. That’s also a number that Glenn Borg will be looking for to end the season on high, while the nitro bikes of Jiri Lukes, Rene van den Berg and Phil Crossley will be looking for better, something in the fives would be good for the first two listed.
The nitro bikes need to end the season on a high after the unfortunate accident that claimed the life of multi-time champion and the quickest and fastest rider outside of the USA, Rikard Gustafsson, at an off track demonstration earlier in the year. The Euro Finals field is also missing Neil Midgley, the UK’s quickest and fastest rider, who is taking a break while considering future options.
FIM-E Super Twin
The FIM-E Super Twin title is once again heading to Denmark, leaving seven time champion Marcus Christiansen and his father Speedy chasing record numbers if the conditions are right (their own 6.07 being the target for a naturally aspirated world mark).
With only four bikes entered, it looks as if Anders Jensen will be able to hold onto second spot despite having to skip the event. This leaves a chase for third spot, currently held by Roman Sixta, with Martin Buhler on the chase (both could do with their first round wins to progress) and Chris van Nimmen looking to bounce back provided the right foot he damaged in Germany heals sufficiently to get a non-surgical boot on.
FIM-E Super Street Bike
Who knows what is going to happen in FIM-E Super Street Bike? To say it’s been a season of swings would be something of an understatement and the eighteen entries at the Finals provide plenty of scope for more drama.
The top five are in with a shout of the championship, but Alan Morrison Jnr needs a lot to go his way over the course of the weekend. Daniel Donat Lencses leads and will be looking to get back to his record setting (6.546) and event winning form from the season opener, if he slips, Ioannis Lampropoulos (still searching for his first FIM-E event win) is less than an elimination’s round behind, while defending champion Jake Mechaell and Giannis Martzaklis are also within a shout if those ahead drop out early. If conditions are conducive, a slew of personal bests and another shot at the European record bump spot (7.2816 set at the Finals last year) could be on the cards.
FIM-E Pro Stock Bike
The championship in FIM-E Pro Stock Bike is very much in the done and dusted category as Jorg Lymant has an unassailable lead after back-to-back wins in the first half of the season, giving the German a third championship on the bounce.
Six entries should result in an all run field, provided all make qualifying passes. In the absence of others, Martin Bishop looks likely to pick up second place in the year-ending points, which will be a high in three decades of competition, and Jerome Rougemont should move up to third at the conclusion.
FIM-E Junior Drag Bike Cup
Nine entries for the final round of the FIM-E Junior Drag Bike Cup could mean an all run ladder which might keep Alia Lester in with a shot of defending her title from last year.
However, with three above her in the points it could be a big ask. Harry Isaacs leads thanks to an event win in May and a final round spot in Germany last month, with Leah Morrison (champion in 2023) and Hollie King (champion in 2024 and 2022) poised to pick up the spoils if Isaacs departs early on race day.
Weekend Event Information
- ENTRY LIST: https://www.santapodracersclub.com/entry_lists/2026/8_european_finals/europeanfinals_entry_list
- LIVE TIMING: https://www.etslips.co.uk/
- VIDEO COVERAGE: https://www.youtube.com/@SantaPodTV/streams
