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Barkley Runs new personal best at the Hindle Canadian Fastest Streetbike Shootout
Friday’s test and tune session was cut short due to rain, but pilot Ethan did manage to get one pass in to help him get acquainted with the track. The main event was scheduled for Saturday, but just prior to the opening test session, the skies opened up, and forced the event to be held on Sunday. Sunday’s weather was near perfect for dragracing. Temperatures in the low 20’s, combined with lots of sunshine dried up all the puddles left over from Saturday’s downpour. The morning test and tune was one round only. Barkley laid down a mid eight second run while still getting used to running on the track at Grand Bend. Meanwhile American racer Bud Yoder the quickest and fastest run on Canadian soil, an incredible 7.45 @ 195mph! Three rounds of qualifying followed, that stretched until early afternoon. The track was tricky, as some of the big horsepower bikes were spinning after the 1/8th mile marker. Barkley’s GSX-R1000 was also suffering from traction issues, and the best the team could run at the end of the session was 8.37 @ 180mph, good enough to qualify for 6th spot. The big players form the AMA circuit were on a tear, Rob Budgell’s 7.47 @ 190mph was good enough for the 2nd place spot. It was Bud Yoder who stole the show, running another record breaking 7.44 @ 197.15mph! Elimination’s started one hour after qualifying. Barkley and his crew chief, James Carlin were making clutch adjustments in hopes of making the bike launch stronger and subsequently shave off a few tenths of a second.. In the first round, Ethan was lined up to race AMA Prostar regular Trevor Altman on a Velocity powered turbocharged Hayabusa. Unfortunately for Altman, they had some motor problems, giving Ethan a bye run. It was a good pass, but still not competitive enough for the next round. Other first round advancers included the turbo Hayabusa’s of Phil Stoll, Rob Budgell, Lonnie Angel, Bud Yoder as well as the nitrous powered Kawasaki ZX14 of Mike Bayes. Round two pitted Barkley against the number one qualifier, Bud Yoder. Yoder jumped off the line well, but Barkley was right behind and kept him in check the entire pass as Yoder began to spin his tire nearing the finish line. The scoreboards flashed, 7.75 @ 168 for Yoder to Barkley’s quick 8.07 @ 183. The racing for Barkley wasn’t over yet, as they managed to run a couple of test passes between rounds. Team EB Speed’s goal was to run a seven second pass. So the clutch was stiffened slightly and everything else left the same. After a long burnout Barkley lined his GSX-R1000 at the line on a solo pass. As the tree flashed green, the bike leapt off the line and accelerated towards the finish line. The boards flashed, 8.06 @ 183, ever so close the elusive seven, but not today. That run did however, eclipse the teams previous best pass from Edmonton only a couple weeks prior except this time the team had gone even faster. The finals in the Streetbike Shootout were up next, it was Yoder versus Stoll in a classic AMA Prostar match-up. Stoll got the holeshot, but started to spin the tire, then Yoder pulled ahead and took the win with his 7.71 @ 189 to a slowing Stoll with a 7.93 @ 161. The Hindle Canadian Fastest Streetbike Shootout was an impressive
event. It was amazing to see the best machinery, tuners and riders
converge at this location for just one short day of racing. Team
EB Speed realised they have a lot of work to do and look forward
to next year where they will be running side by side 7’s
with some of the best dragracers in North America. Ethan Barkley
Bud Yoder
Rob Budgell
Phil Stoll
Lonnie Angel
Ethan Barkley
All photos by James and Luch Carlin |
