Once veteran sportbike drag racer Barry Henson has his eye set on something, he will go to any length to get it. For years, Henson has wanted to see the Pro Street Bike racers given an opportunity to run at large, NHRA-sanctioned drag-racing events. At the same time, Henson-an AMA/Prostar champion racer-has also possessed an intense desire to add a coveted NHRA "Wally" award (the famous "driver-with-a-tire" trophy named after NHRA founder Wally Parks and awarded to winners of NHRA national and divisional events) to his personal trophy shelf. Henson saw both wishes come to fruition at the NHRA Sport Compact Fall Nationals at Englishtown Raceway Park in New Jersey, where he rose to the top of a record-setting Pro Street Bike field.
This was the first time that sportbikes ran as part of the Sport Compact event, and Henson was instrumental in putting the program together with NHRA Sport Compact director Javier Ortega. Once Henson sold the NHRA on the idea of high-tech, 200 mph drag bikes, American Suzuki sealed the deal with sponsorship, which only makes sense as the class is almost totally dominated by Suzuki Hayabusas. It was all set. The bikes would be given star status, running in one of the best-attended events of the progressive NHRA Sony Xplod Sport Compact series.
Thirteen riders showed up to qualify for the eight spots available in the final event, and all the bikes were Hayabusas with the exception of Kent Stotz's lone Honda Blackbird. They were all turbocharged save for the "cheater" 'Busa of E-Town motorcycle prime minister, Del Flores. It would be the quickest and fastest field the class had ever seen.
This event signified the first time all year that Henson pulled up to the starting line. He had decided to sit out the 2006 racing season to recover fully from an ankle injury, but wasn't about to miss the opportunity to compete in an NHRA event. Henson booted top rider Mike Slowe off of his Team Velocity Racing Suzuki so he could ride the bike himself, leaving Slowe, one of the most talented riders in the class and a local celebrity in drag bike circles, without a ride. Anthony Navarro offered his MIROCK-spec Pro Sportbike for the weekend, and Slowe took advantage of Navarro's offer to good result.
Slowe led opening qualifying with a 7.42/200 mph blast that got everybody's attention. Phil Stoll, riding Ronnie Mitchell's Mirror Image 'Busa, jumped ahead of Slowe with a 7.35 that would end up on the pole. In the final qualifier, Henson beat out Slowe by a thousandth of a second with a 7.376, and Kent Stotz took the fourth spot at 7.40. This was the first-ever all-seven-second Pro Street Bike field, and the top six riders were under 7.50 seconds. Unprecedented.
Eliminations were the all-Barry-Henson show. He held low ET of every round, starting with a 7.30/198 mph drubbing of Sam Boles in the opening session. In the semifinals he overcame a holeshot by Slowe to take the win 7.27/199 mph to Slowe's 7.37/202 mph-the quickest and fastest race in Pro Street Bike history and first 7.20 run since the three-inch ground-clearance rule came into effect for the class last year. Stoll made the final when Stotz hit a red light on his blackbird. Stoll had a big holeshot in the final, but Henson would not be derailed on this day. He took the win (and the Wally), going 7.30/199 mph against Stoll's 7.43/200 mph. Pro Street racing has never been better, and Ortega and Henson are hoping to put together a partial schedule of events for 2007 so car and motorcycle fans can look forward to more of the same.