Fort. St. John, not kind to Barkley

The CMDRA's fourth stop was in Fort. St. John B.C. on July 19th and 20th. Although track conditions weren't optimal and traction was hard to find, Ethan Barkley was hoping for a great weekend.

In the Saturday Mission Springs Brewing Co. Street class qualifying, Ethan put his new 2008 Suzuki Hayabusa in third spot with a 0.058 reaction time. He was one spot ahead of the class leader Glen Kneller, aboard his Kawasaki ZX-14. The new 2008 Suzuki Hayabusa was running quick and was putting up consistent 9.90’s.

In the Power-Up Lubricants Pro Street class Ethan was struggling to find traction at the starting line. In his opening round Ethan ran a decent 9.06 @ 163 mph abourd his turbocharged '06 Suzuki GSX-R1000. The other two runs were hampered with air shifter issues resulting in slower times. After the three qualifying rounds, Ethan was in second place with class leader Glen Fraser in first spot.

In the Mission Springs Brewing Co. Street Class elimination rounds, Ethan was up against a tough component, Ken Froese. Unfortunately Ethan ran a little too quick, putting up a 9.88 on his 9.90 dial in. The Power-Up Lubricants Pro Street class wasn’t any better for Barkley. He was up against Ken Morrison aboard his Kawasaki ZX-12R. What should have been an easy win for Ethan turned out to be anything but. The air shifter acted up again and Barkley was unable to shift and watched as Morrison cruised to the win.

The race in Fort St. John was difficult for Barkley, who was out on both bikes in the opening round. To make matters worse, both class leaders continued on to win their respective classes further extending their point leads over Barkley.

Ethan is heading to Mission Raceway Park August 8-10th in hopes of turning things around and to post some great times on both bikes.

*high resolution images available on request

All photos by Laura Barkley