Every bit as impressive as Yancy's performance, however, was the riding of North Dighton, Massachusetts, resident Dave Owen, who owned the unlimited-displacement/no-power-adder class with a series of 210-plus mph passes that culminated in a remarkable 215.9464 mph run on his copper-toned, 1507cc 1999 Suzuki Hayabusa. That's right-Owen went that fast on motor alone, without the benefit of turbos, superchargers or even a toot of nitrous oxide-and we looked his bike over very closely for a hidden bottle, but the underseat area was so full of data loggers and electronics there simply wasn't room! A 215 mph all-motor pass is going to be very hard for anyone to beat, even with another year to get ready.
While the unlimited classes were the sole domains of the Hayabusa Army, there was significantly more diversity in the 1000cc categories. Everyone expected the 1000cc power-adder title to go home with Charlotte-based super-tuner and land-speed veteran Lee Shierts from Lee's Performance Center, who rolled an '06 Gixxer Thou off the trailer with a deadly serious, seven-pound nitrous bottle crammed into the extended swingarm. The right tune-up remained elusive for Shierts, however, and 196 mph was as fast as he went on his bike. Instead of the big-name tuner taking home the title, the jacket in this class finally went home with Meriden, Connecticut, resident Don Hass of Last Minute Racing, who went 211.42642 mph on his gorgeous Suzuki GSX-R1000 that was pressurized by a Velocity Racing turbo system. Taking the win in the all-motor 1000cc class was Doug Uminn from Virginia Beach, Virginia, riding his 2003 Suzuki GSX-R1000 to a very solid 176.49827 mph. Uminn started the weekend running in the power-adder class, but with his nitrous system armed, he was just another victim of MSEFS (Maxton Sudden Engine Failure Syndrome). Instead of packing it up, he just disengaged the bottle and switched classes, earning a cool jacket for his efforts.
Lastly, there were the two 600 classes, which were inexplicably vacant for this event. As mentioned earlier, not a single 600 showed up for the first day of racing. Talk about easy pickings! You could have literally shown up with a box-stock 600 of any sort, made a pass at any speed and gone home with a free jacket, not to mention the prestigious (if not exactly representative) title of "Fastest 600 in America." Since none of the boys were man enough show up, it took a woman-Diane Marshburn from nearby Hubert, North Carolina-to saddle up and do the deed in the 600 class. Marshburn showed up on Sunday morning with her custom-painted 1996 Suzuki GSX600F Katana and, after recovering from a few mechanical issues early on, clicked off a respectable pass of 130.33090 mph to take the title in this uncontested class.
Another benefactor of the no-show scenario was veteran land-speed racer Jon Wennerberg of Marquette, Michigan, a member of both the Bonneville and ECTA 200 mph clubs. Sensing an opportunity, Wennerberg showed up at tech on Sunday with a very painfully pedestrian-looking Honda Elite 80cc scooter and demanded to enter our 600cc class. Once he demonstrated ownership of said scooter and proved that it met ECTA safety rules, we had no choice but allow him to enter the event. ECTA rules require that all gas class entrants use track gas, and since the fuel tank on Wennerberg's scooter was not sealed and the gas was of questionable origin, he was ineligible for the all-motor class and forced to compete in the (also uncontested) 600cc power-adder class. Wennerberg clicked off an utterly unimpressive pass of 31.23254 mph, but it was nonetheless enough to win the class and take home a custom Joe Rocket jacket. A Katana and a Honda Elite scooter owning the title for the "Fastest 600s in America"? Please kill us now...
Luckily, the fine folks at the ECTA proclaimed the event a success and would love to have us streetbike hooligans back for another go in '07, giving all of you 600 tuners and riders an opportunity to man- (woman-) up and show us some more representative 600cc speeds. And this goes for all of you guys out there-you can't win if you don't run, so we hope to see even more of you out there on the Monster Mile alongside us next year!
Performance Center, who rolled an '06 Gixxer Thou off the trailer with a deadly serious, seven-pound nitrous bottle crammed into the extended swingarm. The right tune-up remained elusive for Shierts, however, and 196 mph was as fast as he went on his bike. Instead of the big-name tuner taking home the title, the jacket in this class finally went home with Meriden, Connecticut, resident Don Hass of Last Minute Racing, who went 211.42642 mph on his gorgeous Suzuki GSX-R1000 that was pressurized by a Velocity Racing turbo system. Taking the win in the all-motor 1000cc class was Doug Uminn from Virginia Beach, Virginia, riding his 2003 Suzuki GSX-R1000 to a very solid 176.49827 mph. Uminn started the weekend running in the power-adder class, but with his nitrous system armed, he was just another victim of MSEFS (Maxton Sudden Engine Failure Syndrome). Instead of packing it up, he just disengaged the bottle and switched classes, earning a cool jacket for his efforts.
Lastly, there were the two 600 classes, which were inexplicably vacant for this event. As mentioned earlier, not a single 600 showed up for the