 |
|
Two more Consecutive CMDRA Titles for Barkley and Team EB Speed
The final event of the CMDRA’s six race season was held in Mission B.C from September 15th to 17th. The team headed to Mission Raceway Park a day early to get some practice time in on the Friday before the race. Their hope was to get the 400+ horsepower 2006 GSX-R1000 to launch harder and put them into a 7 second pass. After the afternoon was over, the best pass was a strong 8.11 @ 181 mph. Saturday’s qualifying went well for the Suzuki Canada/Walt Healy Motorsports/EB Speed team. In Pro Street Barkley qualified first with a near record setting 8.09 @ 181 mph. The second qualifying spot went to Dan Green of High Level aboard his nitrous powered 2003 GSX-R1000 with an impressive 8.83 @ 160 mph. Glen Kneller of Edmonton rounded out the top three on his silver nitrous assisted Kawasaki ZX-14. In the Street class, Ethan qualified in fifth place with a .051 reaction time. Due to poor weather conditions expected for Sunday, two rounds of eliminations were held on Saturday evening. Ethan eliminated his first round competitor from the race with ease, running a 9.79 on his 9.75 dial in. In the second round however, Ethan uncharacteristically had a poor reaction time, handing the win to Kneller. Even with his early round loss, Ethan had enough points to win the Championship. Sunday the skies opened up and the heavy Vancouver rain forced the postponement of the racing until Monday. The Street class loss was unfortunate, but it allowed the team to concentrate on the Pro Street class exclusively. In the first round of eliminations Ethan had a bye run, but the bike faltered at the start, running a poor 13.69 @ 175mph. Round two pitted Barkley against Kneller on his Kawasaki ZX-14. His strong 9.6 @ 151 was no match for Ethan’s 8.44 @ 184.95 mph. With that fast speed, Ethan set his sixth CMDRA record of 2007. In the finals, it was Dan Green in the other lane. Ethan had the advantage of typically running well over half a second quicker than Dan. However Dan’s nitrous GSX-R1000 was very consistent compared with Ethan’s runs that varied from 13 seconds down to 8 seconds. As they staged, Ethan’s revs spiked, disrupting the launch sequence from his turbocharged GSX-R1000. As a result, the bike stumbled just as it left the starting line while Dan Green pulled away. By half track Ethan’s turbo was at full steam and they were neck and neck. Ethan’s speed prevailed and pushed him out front for the win, 9.01 @ 181.34 mph to Dan’s 9.54 @ 145.16 mph. The 2007 season of CMDRA drag racing was especially successful for Team EB Speed. In Street the winning tradition continued on the all new 2007 Suzuki GSX-R1000. Unlike most of his competitors that prefer to use a bike they are familiar with, Ethan is able to jump aboard something totally new and provide consistent results. The Street Class had excellent turnout throughout the season, with over 25 bikes qualified at any given time. In the six events, Ethan made it to the finals on four occasions, winning three times. Bracket racing is all about being consistent, but Barkley couldn’t resist the urge to go fast. The nearly stock 2007 Suzuki GSX-R1000 clocked several impressive 9.5’s @ 152 mph! In Pro Street, Ethan made it to the finals in all six events, and came home with four first place trophies. Besides winning, Barkley set six CMDRA records, and upped his personal best’s with a very quick E.T of just 8.06 seconds and a top speed of 184.95 mph!
All photos by Laura Barkley |
