Hockenheim, August 12, 2013 - At his first race of the season MPM-driver Martijn de Haas showed the Haas Brothers team stepped up to the next level with their almost new Super Twin bike. Without any testing the new combination ran a great 7.11 seconds, close to their personal best and a prefect fourth qualifying position in the European Super Twin class. De Haas lost in the quarter finals, but the big step forward the MPM-team made in horsepower and reliability, was far more important for De Haas brothers and the first signal of great things to come in the near future.
The Hockenheim NitrOlympX was the third race of the FIM European Drag Bike Championship. As Martijn de Haas and his team skipped the races at Tierp Arena and Alastaro, it was the MPM-drivers first race of the season. Last six months the team worked around the clock to step up to the next level with the MPM Harley. More horsepower and a better reliability were the most important goals, as the machine always lost power in the second part of the run. Because parts arrived later than expected and the large investments time and moneywise, De Haas brothers skipped the first two races and already planned to start the season in Germany.
As the bike could only be fired up for the first time the Friday prior to Hockenheim, De Haas had to start the NitrOlympX qualifying without any test runs at all. The first run was lost by a fluid leak but in the second, wild qualifying run, a good 7.8 seconds lit up on the score board. "It was the first run in almost one year and I was a bit surprised by the power the bike had. The first part of the run was pretty wild and halfway the power came in again. I was not used to that with the old bike", said a surprised De Haas after the run. The second day of qualifying De Haas proved the team stepped up to the next level with their almost new bike, as after a 7.7 seconds in run number three, in the last run a 7.11 seconds lit up on the score board. That run made De Haas the number four in qualifying and in only the third run with the bike, the MPM-driver came close to his personal best.
In the quarter finals De Haas had to face Veas Lipponen. In an extremely close run, the Finn took the win with a margin of 0.049 seconds only, and De Haas was out of competition. But still the MPM-driver was very happy with the first outing with the new bike. "We are racing again and I got that feeling back in the quarter final. We now have a base to work from and can start to improve the set-up of the bike step by step."
The next and last race of the FIM European Championship is the European Finals at Santa Pod, September 6 to 8. Haas Brothers is looking forward to that race and when the conditions are right, a new personal best and a good race result should be possible.
- Author
- Remco Scheelings
- Photographer
- Remco Scheelings
Dragracing FIM European Championship Haas Brothers Hockenheim Main event MPM Racing MPM Sports NitrOlympX Super twin Top fuel bike
