Barkley has great results at Castrol Raceway, Edmonton, Alberta.

The C.M.D.R.A.’s third event was held at Castrol Raceway in Edmonton on June 28-29th. The Suzuki Canada / Walt Healy / EB Speed team arrived the Friday before the event in an effort to get some testing done. Unfortunately the track was being re-surfaced by the IHRA crew in preparation for their July 3-5 event. Therefore the Friday evening test & tune was cancelled as the work continued throughout the night.

The weather was almost perfect but the track conditions were not. The surface was perfectly smooth but there was no rubber on it, so traction was going to be hard to find. The track opened up for competitors around 10 am, and Ethan wasted little time. After a few passes on the ’08 Suzuki Hayabusa it was determined that a 9.90 could be run comfortably and more importantly, consistently. The turbocharged ’06 GSX-R1000 made a run in the test session as well, posting a conservative low nine second pass. In the afternoon qualifying started, and in the second round Ethan had a nearly perfect light resulting in a 0.001 reaction time. That would put Ethan on top of the ladder in the Street Class. In the Power Up Lubricants Pro Street Class he posted a great second round run of 8.52 @ 170 mph that had him in top spot. The next closest competitor was Glen Fraser at 8.92 @ 161 mph aboard his turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa.

On Sunday the track conditions were getting better, but were still not great. The Mission Springs Brewing Co. Street Class had a record thirty one entries. That meant plenty of rounds of competition, so Ethan was extremely focused on running consistently and cutting great reaction times. After his first bye round, he began taking out his opponents one round at a time. What seemed like an eternity of racing, five rounds later he found himself in the finals against then series leader Glen Kneller of Edmonton. Once again Ethan cut an excellent light and ran another consistent pass, taking the win. With such a large field, Ethan made the leap from 5th position in the points all the way to first place, seven points ahead of Kneller. In Pro Street, Barkley and Walt Healy mechanic James Carlin were frustrated with the lack of traction. The combination of light weight and high horsepower of the GSX-R1000 looks great on paper, but can also hurt when the track is less than perfect. Slight changes were made in an attempt to get the bike cleanly down the track while still posting quick times as the heavier Hayabusas had the advantage. Ethan took the first round win against fellow Walt Healy rider, Chris Klassen. In the second round Ethan put up a great 8.42 @ 172 mph on the scoreboards for the win against Ken Froese. In the finals, Barkley was lined up against Glen Fraser of Drayton Valley. Glen had a great 8.26 @ 169 mph pass in the previous round giving him lane choice. As the race started, both bikes spun at the line but Ethan’s GSX-R never recovered and spun nearly the entire length of the track. He was working the throttle on and off in an effort to regain traction, but it was to no avail as Glen pulled ahead and crossed the stripe first on his turbocharged Hayabusa. It was a disappointing loss for the team who had worked so hard all weekend and was hoping to pull off the double win.

At this point Ethan is just one point behind Glen Fraser in the Pro Street championship standings. The next CMDRA event is July 19-20 in Fort St. John B.C. where Barkley will attempt to keep the momentum going and post more great results.

All photos by Laura Barkley