Real Street Class
HTP and Thompson Get AMA Dragbike First
It’s all about wins in racing, obviously, and the amount of time it takes to get one and the amount of time it takes to get more. To Cecil Towner III of HTP Performance, it seems like a long time for his first AMA Dragbike win as a builder/tuner. “Glad to finally get an AMA win,” said Cecil. “Got that monkey off my back.”
But Towner hasn’t been at it nearly as long as his BST Real Street rider Keith Thompson. “It’s been a long time comin’ on the AMA scene, you know,” said Thompson.
Thompson and Towner teamed up for the MiRock True Street championship last year. “But I wanted to come out here and run Real Street in AMA and see what we could do,” said Thompson. “We’re trying to double up in both series this year.” Anybody ever done that before? Probably not, and definitely not on one bike, anyway. But Thompson got a good start on it with an Atlanta win.
The Real Street bikes put on a great show in Atlanta, doing some crazy wheelie-ing and posting good numbers. Thompson qualified number 2 with an 8.16 on his Suzuki GSXR1000, followed by HTP teammate Richard Gadson on a Hayabusa.
Towner and Thompson tweaked up the 1000 all day on raceday, giving the mix a little too much nitrous on their round 3 bye run and sending the front wheel soaring skyward at mid-track. “We tried to turn it up, but we turned it up a little too much,” said Keith. “Then we ran an 8.10 in the semi trying to get into the .0s. It leaned out a little bit on the topside, so we kind of turned it back down and it slowed up to a .17 in the final, but that was enough for the win.” Indeed it was, as final round opponent Jeremy Teasley rode out a massive wheelie of his own.
“I was just hoping we didn’t hurt it on the semifinal pass,” said Towner. “But I actually turned it down just to get it down the track. I loved racing my best friend Coby Adams in the final, and Jeremy Teasley is the most deadly hundred pound rider on the planet. People will really have to step their game up with those two teaming up. I actually owe a lot of thanks to Coby for parts supplied on all three of my race bikes.”
Rule changes this year to merge AMA Dragbike’s Real Street and MiRock’s True Street have swelled the class and allowed for the kind of top rank match-up that occurred between Thompson and Teasley, and a first AMA win for Towner. “I hope there's more to come in the future,” said Cecil. “I was very happy that the class adopted some rules from the MiRock series, and vice versa. It allowed us to use some of the best aftermarket wheels in the world, BSTs from Brock's Performance. Hopefully, with the addition of the wheels and Brock's new TiWinder, we will lay down the first 7 second pass in the class. Other than those things, the rule change didn't really affect our bike at all.
“And Keith is as deadly as ever. He’s consistent and on his game and makes me look good every time he sits on a motorcycle.” And helped get that monkey off his back, too.
In other news, the HTP nitrous Hayabusa Pro Street bike that debuted in Atlanta with Richard Gadson in the seat took a dramatic leap in performance a couple of weeks later in Maryland. Gadson knocked nearly 2/10ths off the previous nitrous streetbike record with a 7.48 and, along with his teammate Thompson, looks to go quicker still this weekend in Memphis.
See video highlights of Keith Thompson and HTP Performance’s BST Real Street win below:
Pro Mod Class
McKinney Wins Second Straight
Despite a race weekend that included a “geological obstruction” and Saturday night fireball, 23 year-old Eric McKinney won his second straight Mickey Thompson Pro Mod race on his DTM Performance/Timblin Chassis Suzuki. McKinney beat racing legend Paul Gast in the final round at AMA Dragbike’s MTC Elmer Trett Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. Gast took the tree and the 60 foot on his Pro Stock-style Suzuki, but gave up the top end 6.87 to 6.75. “The final was pretty close,” said Eric. “Paul put a pretty good number on me at the tree, but luckily I out powered him. I still saw his wheelie bars at the 330, though, and I wasn’t really happy about that.”
Two races in a row—is this becoming old yet, Eric? “No, you can’t beat this.”
And Eric didn’t beat himself. He didn’t really need to cut a light in the final, and he didn’t make a mistake by trying to. “That’s right, he just did what he needed to do, and it was good—an .060,” said Eric’s dad Scott McKinney. “And that’s not bad for a Pro Mod. Paul had an .020, but Pro Mod clutches don’t move like a Pro Stocker, so I’m not gonna beat on him at all for that. Eric did a heckuva job, no question.
“We were behind big time all weekend with some problems. It turned out we had a rock in the nitrous solenoid. That was probably because I pushed it to tech with the bottle not in it and a line got open. Dan (engine builder/tuner Dan Wagner of DTM Performance) came in, looked at the RacePak and said ‘This is not right. We’ve got a problem here with this solenoid.’ We pulled the end off and took a look and there was a little piece of rock. It’s good to have a guy around who knows what’s goin’ on.”
“It’s been tough all weekend,” agreed Eric. “We had a little problem testing, and we had a new tire, but Dan fixed us up. If it wasn’t for him and DTM Performance and Walt Timblin and Dad, we wouldn’t be here. The bike didn’t really come around until this morning. We had a pretty big kaboom last night while testing during grudge racing. It was one of those things that happens in Pro Mod. I didn’t even know it had a fireball. A guy ran on the track and said ‘Are you on fire? Are you on fire?’ But I wasn’t.”
The bike wasn’t literally on fire Saturday night, but its performances were on Sunday. “The Timblin chassis and that DTM motor is a heckuva package. I hope nobody else buys one!” said Scott, laughing uproariously. “They’re awesome, I can’t say enough about those guys. And Eric’s doing a good job too. Eric is my son, but he’s riding and cutting lights and staying calm and doing everything he needs to do, two races in a row.”
The McKinney’s will do their best to make it three straight when AMA Dragbike races this weekend, May 2-3, 2009, at the Spring Nationals, Memphis Motorsports Park in Millington, Tennessee.
See video highlights of Eric McKinney and the McKinney Motorsports Atlanta win below:
Super Street
Adams Performance Determined to Win Memphis
Two races into the 2009 AMA Dragbike season, Coby Adams and the Mooresville, North Carolina based Adams Performance/Monster Kawasaki team find themselves in an unusual situation—without a win. “We have the best riders known to mankind, and our Kawasaki ZX14 race bikes are top notch,” said Adams. True enough. Multi-time champion Rickey Gadson is AMA Dragbike’s winningest rider ever and possibly the most recognized personality in the sport. And 18 year-old Jeremy Teasley is already the defending Real Street champion and record setter in multiple categories.
Kawasaki legend Gadson debuted the much-anticipated Adams Performance-built Pro Street ZX14 at the Elmer Trett Nationals in Atlanta. In a class predominantly filled with a different make and model, Gadson’s ’14 breaks new ground and no one expected the bike to rotate the earth first time out. Still, the sinister looking matte black bike went smoothly down the track and laid a good foundation for the races to come. In further testing after Atlanta, Gadson knocked a full 4/10ths off of the eighth mile times he ran there. Rickey also picked up his second straight Dragbike.com Supersport win while in Atlanta, outdueling Teasley in a blockbuster all-ZX14 semifinal to do so.
Running Supersport, Super Street, and Real Street kept Teasley super-real busy. When he wasn’t racing down track, Teasley was racing back up the return road to through his leg over one of three ZX14s and race yet again.
The Real Street bikes were a great show in Atlanta, doing some crazy wheelie-ing and posting good numbers. Teasley qualified #1 with an 8.08 and lowered the class ET record to 8.06 in round 1 of eliminations. He ran 8.0s all day Sunday and seemed destined to win—until the final, that is, and a huge back-tire-off-the-ground wheelie at the 330 slowed him down. “We went down to Coby’s shop on Thursday to get some testing in before the race, but it rained all day so we couldn’t test,” said Teasley. “That was a bummer. We only got two hours of testing in at Atlanta, but the Real Street bike went real good. In the final we had too much bottle pressure, or maybe I got on the button a little earlier, I really don’t know.”
Jeremy lost round 2 of Super Street to eventual race winner John Fernandez. “But overall it was a good weekend,” said Teasley. “I have a lot of fun with Coby and our crew chief Garron (Miller). They worked hard. I wish I could of gotten in the winner circle, but when it's time it will come.”
“The only thing I want to say is, it’s about time to get the monkey off our back,” said Adams. And there’s no better time and place than this weekend in Memphis.
See Atlanta video highlights of Jeremy Teasley, Rickey Gadson, and their Kawasaki ZX14s below:
