Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128104
AM A U. S . Drag Racing C h a m p io n s h ip s ~ o ; Round 3 : H ous t o n Raceway Park r.ace (Above) Ryan Sc hnitz took the w in and bombed th e 600 Supersport rec ord with a 9 .8 0 5/1 3 9 on his Te am Green ZX-6R (Below) Tom my M iceli slamm e d the Streetbike Shooto ut c la ss on Brad M umm ert's '81 GS 1 10 0 , running th e hottest la p ever f or th e cla ss at 7 .755 seconds, 188 m ph. BAYTOWN, TX, APR. 21·22 hen Steve Rice emba rked on his journey to m odernize the Fun nybike class , he kne w it would take a while . He was , aft er all , cha rt ing unknown waters . The class had been dom inated by th e b ig-bore , a ir- coo le d motors of th e seventies and e ighties and th e new, nimble , liqu id -cooled engines ju st didn 't have th e grunt to g et th e j o b d on e . Or so it w a s thought. T he AMA/Prostar Hou s to n Cycle fes t at Houston Raceway Park may be lo ok e d b a ck u p on a s t he t urning po int fo r the class . With rider Chip Ellis , Rice realiz ed the suc cess he wa s lo o king for with the modern Kawa saki ZX- I I po werplant. It was almost like you would write it up: run a person a l-b e s t to qu ali fy number one for th e first time, set low elapsed time of every round a nd save the hot la p fo r t he fin al. It could n' t get any bett er. "It's pretty sa tisfying: said Rice, a media relations s pecialis t at Kawasa ki. "It's a lways been there , it wa s just a matter of putti ng together the right combination to bring it out. The bike a lway s ra n strong do wntrack. Th e first 300 feet was the cha llenge." Afte r Rice won the To p Fue l championship in 1992 on a turbo a lco hol KZ 10 00- po wered bike , he decided to modernize his setu p a nd bega n work ing on a ZX- 11-ba sed mach ine . After a few yea rs of riding the' bike himself, Ric e fe lt he wou ld be more e ffec tive focus ing on the tun ing . Rice tabbed Ellis , who was ma k ing a nam e for h imse lf in the 600 Supersport cl ass , to ride the fac to ry-b a cked Ka wasa ki. The team has c e rta inly seen e arly fla sh es of s uc c ess. They m ade four n ati ona l-ev ent fin a ls a nd E llis was na m ed "Pro Roo kie of th e Ye ar " last seaso n . He a lso h ad s e veral win s and re c ord s in t he r e gional we st coast serie s . T he big win, how ever, eluded the m . Something se eme d to be brew ing early in Houston when Ellis, with a career- best of 6 .70 seconds, ripped off a 6.61 at 212 mph to take his first number-one qualifying spot. Ellis th en ran a pair of 6.6s in eliminations, includi ng a 6 .62 /206 in th e semi fina ls against Barry Van Hook , who ran a personal best of 6 .97/190. In the fi nal, E ll is faced fo rmer cham pion Brya n Be n net t and got the holeshot and the win light, setting low e .t. of the e vent in the process , with a 6.591 at a soft 188 m ph. "I was ge tting close to the wall and had to get off th e thrott le: said Ellis . "If I wou ld ha ve be en a ble to stay in it, we may have been a ble to back up the 212 for the mile-per-hour record. "We we ren 't try ing to rip off so me spectacular number," continued Ellis . "We just wanted to m a k e smooth ru ns a nd ha ve th e numbers c ome to us . Steve j ust kept work ing on the clu tch and found a combination that wo rked fo r that partic ula r tra c k. After that, it' s just me try ing to h it the righ t 56 n S TORY AND P HOT O S By M ATT P OLIT O W MAV 1 6 . 200 1 • c ue I e e vv s IAbove) Chip Ellis took his first national event win on St eve Rice's turbo Kawasaki ZX-11 Funnybike with a personal-best perfonnance of 6.59 seconds at 212 m ph. s hift points and ho ld ing it wide o pe n a ll the wa y do wn the tra ck." Lou ie Grist took his third -straight number -on e -qualify ing spot in t h e Fast by Ga st Pro Modified class, with a 6 .83/197 on the BVR Suzuki. Th e number-two qualifier was Charlie Farrar , who ran t he q uickest Kawasaki Pro Mod pass ever at 6.890 on the C&W bik e . Grist suffered a red-l ight foul in round two of eliminations a s Fa rra r, after running a pair of 6 ,88s, went out in the semis with motor troubles. That set u p a rema tch of t he Gainesville final with John Sachs facing Steve Drake. Sachs took his seco nd win of the yea r on the Franco 's Performanc e bike with a low e.t. of the event at 6 .744 seconds as Dra ke , who has seen tremendous perfo rmance gains recently , lost with a 6.894. Paul Gast scored the win in the Lectron Pro Stock class as the savvy veteran put his new Haya busa in the winner's circle for the first time . Qu a lifying wa s led by Todd Doege wh o -pu t u p a 7. 13 a t th e fast e st s peed ever for a Pro S to c k bik e, 19 4.55 m ph, o n the Ward Pe rfo rmance/PMFR Hayabusa. Doe ge went out in the semifinals to Gast when, ironically , his Fast b y Gast throttle cabl e malfuncti on ed . On the other side of t h e ladder , Atlanta winner Billy Vose took out new Harry Lartigue rider Peggy Llewell yn in round two to get a semifina l by e . Gas t was masterful in the final, cutting a sharp .410 light and dr iving away from Vose, 7 .12 to 7.22. In the Ka wasa k i Superbike class, Mar k Moisan blasted the record books with a 7 .83/177 to qualify on the pole with the Ame rican T ur bo S ys t e m s GSX-R. Moisan made h is fourth-stra ight final and was looking for his second -straight win over Phill Dav is, b ut threw away a 7 .85/18 0 " with a redlig ht as Da vis took his first win since Ohio 2000 with a 8. 08/162 . Former Sch n itz Streetbike Shootout cha mpion T om m y Miceli s wappe d bikes a nd sco red a tre m e nd o us win. W ith hi s Phil ' s Hous e o f Po wer GS 1150 E be ing repa ired after blowing