Crane Warpspeeds into the 6.1s, Looks Forward to Funnybike Prospects in 2026
Crane Warpspeeds into the 6.1s, Looks Forward to Funnybike Prospects in 2026
Story and photos by Ivan Samson and Rose Hughes
Coming off the back of a second-place finish in the FIM-E Top Fuel Bike points in 2025, thanks in part to an event win at the Hockenheimring’s NitrOlympX, Stuart Crane underlined his status as the quickest funnybike rider in Europe with a 6.1722/221.46 at Santa Pod at the season-ending Euro Finals.
During a bit of downtime in between production runs for new and refined products at the Warpspeed Racing headquarters in rural Norfolk, we caught up with Stuart to find out a bit about his thoughts on 2025, working with a widespread network of racers, and some highly debated news emerging from the FIM-E for 2026.
You managed to drop into the 6.1s at the end of the year – how much more do you feel there is in the combination?
“Yeah, the 6.17 was a big step for the development on my combination the next pass would have been quicker but we found our next weak point so we can work on that. In the engine program I’m currently running it would go low 6.0 for sure maybe 6.03 as we really are still very conservative on the tune up.”
You have pretty strong collaborations in North America and across Europe – how are these helping/providing feedback into Warpspeed product development and your own race programme?
“My relations with the Americans have grown tenfold which has for sure helped my elapsed times as I’m learning new methods and techniques if you know what I mean. In exchange, I think they are also learning from me in the engine development and it’s helping them run the times they wanted to run so it’s win win on both sides.”
You’ve announced some new cases from Warpspeed – can you outline what you’ve changed and what are the plans with this next season?
“The new billet cases along with the billet crank would enable me to make another 500bhp if we wanted it but we’re not doing it for that we’re currently developing an engine that would be even more reliable than it is now. The billet engine cases we’re hoping will be used in a lot of the Pro Extreme bikes and also in the NHRA Pro Stock Bike.”
We’ve seen announcements for the FIM-E Top Fuel class racing over 1000 foot next season, what are your thoughts on this and will it change your plans for 2026?
“The recent rule change really has been a big blow to me as I’m trying very hard to put Europe on the map in funny bike terms as I’m the 3rd quickest funny bike on the planet and I wanted to make it the quickest and fastest but that is not achievable now in the FIM championship, which I run in.”
The rapid performance gains in funnybikes worldwide show no sign of slowing down, although their progression over the quarter at FIM-E level in Europe looks to have been caught up as part of decision-making focusing on the nitro bikes (combined nitro and funnybike racing having been a hallmark of the sport in Europe for decades). Hopefully, Crane will find opportunities to reach the six zeros, but it may require competition at the domestic level on this side of the pond.