Sportsman
Motorcycle Class
Another day of perfect weather blessed the Samoa Dragstrip as thirteen motorcycle racers decided to celebrate Mother’s Day in their own special way – competing head to head for prize money and trophies at the Competition Eliminator.
Unlucky Racing’s Mike Pires started the day by leading all qualifiers with an .020 reaction time during qualifications. With an uneven number of racers, Pires’ quick reactions earned him a bye in Round 1, making valuable points the “easy way”!
Pires was eliminated in the semi-finals, as was Snowmobile racer Mike Pettit, pitting Kirk Speelman’s Suzuki Hayabusa against James Surber’s Harley-Davidson V-Rod Destroyer in the final round.
Surber overcame Speelman’s
starting line advantage (.161 vs. .035 reaction time) and ran closer to his
dial-in, 9.99 (9.85 dial) vs. 10.63 (10.36 dial), winning the
event by the narrowest of margins - .001 seconds at the finish line. Using John Widmann’s
always handy “high tech finish line margin of victory calculator”, the racers
calculated that the DISTANCE between the two racers at the stripe was a
mere 91/1000 of an inch (.091”)!! It
just doesn’t get much closer than that….
The racing is getting heated up at the historic Samoa Dragstrip with five racers within 6 overall points of each other as we head toward the 4th race of the season. That race, the Grand-Slam Eliminator, sponsored by Denny’s Restaurants, will be contested on June 11, 2006.
Current points
standings for the Sportsman Motorcycle Class can be accessed by clicking “RACE
RESULTS” at www.blackandwhitemotorsports.com.