|
|
|
|
|
|
Three
and the Win for McKinney in Dallas
ENNIS, TX
March 23, 2015: “Man,
I really want our bike to run a 3,” Scott McKinney said last week. His McKinney
Motorsports team was on their way to the Texas Motorplex near Dallas for the
Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) season opener.
There hadn’t been a 3 second Pro Extreme Motorcycle eighth mile pass at a PDRA
race ever, and its predecessor ADRL had seen only one 3 second racer—Ashley
Owens. But that was before a minimum weight rule of 625 pounds for bike and
rider was set up, and Owens’ combination when he rode Paul Gast’s 3 second Fast
By Gast “Red Bike” was 600 pounds. Two PXM combinations have run 3s at the
Bahrain International Circuit, but there is no weight rule at Bahrain.
Now Owens rides and tunes for McKinney, and both he and teammate Eric McKinney
have posted many 4.0s on the board and ran a 4.02 testing in Georgia. “But
Ashley went 4.02 about 50 times before he ran a 3 on the Red Bike,” said Scott.
Owens had a more compressed time frame in mind this time around. “I did a little
work over the winter and got a new package worked out,” said Owens. “We got a
little weight off the bike, about 10 pounds.”
The team also took out their favored motor known as Mr. Mud and put an as-yet
un-named bullet in Eric’s frame rails. Mr. Mud is so named because it was in the
Red Bike when Ashley crashed it years ago in Huntsville—its intake ports packed
with Alabama clay after
|
|
|
|
the carbs were
knocked off and the bike dug in at the
end of the track. “Mr. Mud was one of
the motors I ran 3s on back then,”
said Owens. “It was always my favorite
motor and we’ve used it in Eric’s bike
as often as possible.”
“But we had this other motor that laid
around up in the trailer all last
season,” said Eric. “Dad said ‘Let’s
give it a try’ and it ran 4.02 right
off the trailer in Georgia.”
“That motor has a really good cylinder
head from Paul Gast,” said Scott. “I
was told when I bought that head it’s
a good one, and it is. It’s a real
good engine.”
But there were more changes to be made
for this champion team that never lets
up. “I don’t usually get to see Eric’s
bike run except from the waterbox,”
said Owens, who rides a similar bike
to Eric’s and finished number two in
points last year. “I mostly just tune
from the downloads. But at Valdosta I
got to watch the bike make a pass or
two. We lowered the wheelie bars and
did a couple other things.”
“We had a real good track there too,
so that helped us,” noted Owens.
Steady rains had thrown a real monkey
wrench into the Texas event, and it
was late in the day on Saturday before
the team had their first chance to
make a pass—a number one qualifying
4.008 from Eric that sent notice of
what was about to happen. “We weren't
really trying to do that (run that
quickly),” Eric said Saturday night.
“It's still a long way to a 3, but
Ashley is onto something. We'll see
how tomorrow goes.”
Sunday started late after more
dampness and track drying, but PDRA’s
Cale and Cody Crispe—AKA The Traction
Twins—put the PJ1 traction compound to
good use. The skies were clearing and
the air was getting better. “Ashley
had my bike souped up,” said Eric. “He
knew it was either gonna hurt itself
or go very quick. So we decided to sit
the second qualifier out.”
“The bike always ran the back half,
had the power to run the number,” said
Owens, who’s been working on the 60
foot times with the heavier
combinations and thought he had it
figured out to run a 3.
“I didn’t think we would do it right
then,” continued Scott. “But Ashley
was pretty confident. He said ‘I think
we’ve got it.’”
So the McKinney team rolled up for
round 1 of eliminations. “The track
was really tight,” said Scott. “Ashley
had the tune-up in Eric’s bike and it
ran the number. The stars lined up and
I was shocked.” Four years later and
25 pounds added since Owens was the
first person ever to run an eighth
mile in less than 4 seconds on two
wheels burning anything other than
nitromethane, Eric McKinney had a 3
second timeslip—3.998 at 179.54
mph—both PDRA records.
“Last year I averaged 1.03 60 foot
times,” said Eric. “But this time it
went 1.01 and that’s a whole other
time zone. You really feel it. It felt
like the difference of going from a
1.10 to a 1.03. When I put t in second
gear I knew it was on a pass.”
“You’ve gotta have the horsepower,”
said Scott. “I don’t know that we
could have run that 3 with any other
engine in our trailer.
“Eric did an excellent job and was on
his game all weekend. I know he’s my
son and all, but if he was150 pounds
or less like some of these guys out
here, he’d be deadly.” Hmmm.....make
that MORE deadly than the PDRA’s first
ever PXM champion—and now their first
ever 3 second motorcycle pilot—already
is.
“And Ashley, there’s no one better,”
continued Scott. “He’s smart, he
really doesn’t miss a trick. I don’t
think there’s a better tuner or
chassis set-up guy anywhere.”
The 3 second pass behind them, the
team still had an event to win. Eric
slowed to a 4.02 in his round 2 win
over Jeff House, still good enough for
lane choice over teammate Owens in the
final.
“Run ‘em, put ‘em on kill!” Scott
pleaded, eschewing team orders. And
they did. Darkness now descended on
the Motorplex, you could sense that
one of Team McKinney’s motors wouldn’t
survive the round. “The track had
gotten a little gummy,” noted Scott.
“Dad searched for a good spot to line
me up and kind of had me in the middle
of the track,” said Eric.
“Then I ran over and had Ashley
pointed towards the wall,” laughed
Scott.
The rollout at the Motorplex being a
little long, neither rider had a good
light in the final but Owens had a
slight edge. “My bike left good but
spun in second gear, fishtailed and
started driving left to the wall,”
said Eric.
By this time Owens was already out of
the throttle, his motor expired in a
flameless cloud of smoke. “My bike
burnt a piston,” was Ashley’s
assessment.
“I was pretty close to the eighth mile
when I let off,” said Eric, who still
ran a 4.06 at 169 for the win.
“He was on a pass,” noted Owens. “It
would have been a great run if he
didn’t have to let out of it.”
“Eric did everything but hit the wall
and Ashley blew up,” laughed Scott.
“But we were number one qualifier, set
both ends of the record, and won the
race—you can’t do any more, can you?”
“And it didn’t hurt anything,” Eric
said in near disbelief. “We finished
the race with the motor, now we’ll
freshen it up for Rockingham.”
“I just hope we don’t run everybody
off,” said Scott. “We need more
competition out here, and there’s
plenty of bikes that can run with us.
Brad McCoy ran a 4.16 and Jeff House
ran a .13 here. I think there’s a lot
of bikes out there with .0s in them.”
Now the team prepares for what should
be a much larger, tougher field at
Rockingham on April 9-12. “I’ll pop
the engines out of ‘em when I get
home,” said Scott. “Ashley told me if
I take that 3 second motor apart to
make damn sure I mark everything so it
can go back together exactly how it
is!”
One component of the motors that the
team expects to find ship-shape are
their Vance & Hines crankshafts.
“We’ve had no failures on the cranks
since switching to the Vance & Hines,”
reports Owens.
“I really want to thank Eddie Krawiec
and everyone at Vance & Hines,” agreed
Scott. “Not just for supporting the
class with their qualifying bonus, but
also for building a crankshaft that
can stand the pressure we put them
under.”
“I definitely want to thank Vance &
Hines and new class sponsor Drag965,”
added Eric.
“Oh yeah, I really want to thank
Drag965 for stepping up and sponsoring
the class,” agreed Scott. “They didn’t
have to do that, and it’s huge for us.
I also want to thank my brother Steve.
His help on the clutch and everything
else he does is huge for our team.”
“And thanks to Simpson helmets,” said
Eric. “They’re helping us out a bit
this year, giving us a deal.”
So what goals do the McKinney
Motorsports team have for the rest of
the year? “Well, I planned on building
Eric a new bike, but I’m behind on
that and now I don’t think I’ll ever
get him off of this one,” laughed
Owens.
“I’d like to run a side-by-side 3 with
Ashley before the year is out,” said
Eric. No one in the field is laughing
about that possibility.
The McKinney Motorsports team races
next at the PDRA’s Spring Nationals
April 9-12 at Rockingham Dragway in
Rockingham, North Carolina.
The McKinney Motorsports team thanked
Fast By Gast
http://www.fastbygast.com
Schnitz Racing
http://store.schnitzracing.com
ProFab
https://profabperformance.com/jm/
McKinney Motorsports
https://www.facebook.com/eric.mckinney
Vance&Hines
http://www.vanceandhines.com
McKinney Farm
Eatmyink
http://eatmyink.com
PMFR
http://www.pmfronline.com
Contact McKinney Motorsports:
mckinneymotorsports06@yahoo.com
dsautosales@frontier.com
Enjoy everything there is to read, see
and watch about motorcycle drag racing
and more at
http://www.eatmyink.com
ABOUT THE PDRA
Based in Pittsboro, North Carolina,
the Professional Drag Racers
Association is the top sanctioning
body in the United States for the
sport of eighth-mile drag racing. The
PDRA’s professional categories include
Pro Extreme, Pro Nitrous, Pro Boost,
and Pro Extreme Motorcycle along with
Top Sportsman, Top Dragster, Pro Jr.
Dragster, and Top Jr. Dragster. The
2015 PDRA schedule consists of ten
national events.
Follow the PDRA:
Facebook,
Twitter,
Instagram,
YouTube.
Photo: Amy Rowe / RaceWorks.com /
PDRA660.com
PRESS CONTACT: Lisa Collier
Professional Drag Racers Association
lisa@pdra660.com
704.692.4636 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|