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Drag Racing Nitro Thunder

Discussion in 'Motorcycle Racing and Track Days' started by Frankster, May 5, 2019.

  1. Frankster

    Frankster Grey Pride...Adventure before Dementia Staff Member Premium Member Ride and Events Crew

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    I was in Sydney the last few days to catch up with friends and spectate at the "Nitro Thunder" Event at WSID. This is a 2-day event that was shortened to one-day after it pissed down on Friday. Saturday was better, cooler and a little windy. The overcast and cooler conditions meant great performances across all classes. No small capacity bikes at these events, so here are the highlights...

    No picture, but I was there to see the first Australia Pro Stock Motorcycle break into the sixes. Luke Crowley nearly jumped into the 6.80's on his historic run. He ran 6.90sec on his Suzuki.

    I thought I might see the first Top Fuel Bike run a 5 seconds pass and Chris Matheson came close. In fact his first run incremental times showed he would definitely have run a high 5 if the bike had not expired just after half track. His 6.09 in the second round wasn't as strong as his first pass. Hopefully, he'll get it done at the Winternationals at Willowbank.

    TFB 1.jpg TFB 2.jpg TFB 3.jpg

    Nice looking V-twin..

    HD.jpg

    Honourable mention goes to our NZ friends who belted out some spectacular times. Barry Plumpton brought his Nitrous-fed, Monster-motored Camaro over to run the first 5 second pass by a nitrous doorslammer in Australia. His race number (959) is also the cubic inch capacity of his engine (that's 15,715cc for any of you playing at home).

    959ci.jpg

    Rod Harvey has been visiting our shores for many years and his latest 2JZ car ran a couple of 5.7sec passes. His quickest (5.72) was the 3rd quickest in the world.

    Rod.jpg

    It was good to catch up with a few people. I was in the Top Fuel Bike pits talking to one of junior crew members about front end geometry and why they run a steering dampener on bikes that have a 45 degree rake. His boss must have heard what he was saying and decided to intervene and set the record straight. There bike is a HD and while chatting I asked how that guy in Europe has managed to run a 5.8sec time on what I thought was a HD. The crew chief tells me that Jasko's bike isn't a HD even though it runs in the European "Super Twin" class. The NHRA won't let him run in their Nitro HD class, so he's stuck with the world's quickest V-twin. The crew chief was pretty knowledgeable about the rider (Jaakko ”Jaska” Salakari) and what he's done to his engine to make it run that fast. He said the guy's a genius and a showman too. I did a quick search for him on the interweb and found a video of him doing a burnout while waving to the crowd and also his parachute falling out on his quickest pass. If you're interested...

    One handed burnout (2012) - https://tinyurl.com/yxdlyg6o
    6.01 second run (2018) - https://tinyurl.com/yyrhc9mp
    5.83 second run (2019) - https://tinyurl.com/y6ptn6ny
     
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  2. Frankster

    Frankster Grey Pride...Adventure before Dementia Staff Member Premium Member Ride and Events Crew

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  3. ruckusman

    ruckusman White Mans Magic Master Premium Member Dirty Wheel Club

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    I was doing onboard cameras for that race meet, and as it happens I had one on board Daniel Rabnott's bike which running against Luke Crowley in his historic pass - for the Pro Bike class, each camera points across the track at their opponent because viewpoints are limited, so there will be footage of Luke Crowley's run appearing at some stage on speedweek.

    There were a lot of broken engines in the final rounds and Jay Upton got really agitated at being called to the staging lanes a good hour early, but when it came to it, he did a full pass as at one stage he was contemplating just staging and not doing a full pass.

    These guys all need as much data as possible and it's not like they can go down a back street for a run, especially given that Friday was a full washout.

    It was good to see the entire meet go to completion although during many of the finals they shut off early with extreme tyre shake, meaning that the faster passes all occurred earlier in the evening.

    I must say that everyone there, from officials to all of the teams, are really friendly and it's amazing that even during my whistle stop visits when doing the cameras they're always up for a chat and appreciate intelligent questions and open discussion.

    I must say despite running around like a crazy person, getting sore feet and basically being exhausted by the end of the evening, it's so much more enjoyable than I would have anticipated after not really having an interest in drag racing prior to doing the camera work.
     
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  4. Murdo

    Murdo The Good Doctor Staff Member Contributing Member Ride and Events Crew

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    Very impressive for a N/A bike.
     

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