Saturday Drag Racing at Firebird Raceway

Took the GRiSO drag racing with my buddy Jerry on his new Tiger 900.  He wanted to see what it would do and I decided to bring GRiSO because I thought it might be a close race between these 2 bike. My Rocket III and ZX14 would just blow it away.  Turned out to be a great day and we had a ton of fun.  It was the annual Spring Swap Meet day at Firebird and the place was packed with vendors and buyers.  Well over 10,000 folks.  Only about 100 racers (90 cars/10 bikes) so we were able to get 4 runs in.  

Beautiful blue sky day and mild temps. The only BAD thing was the wind was blowing hard right down the track in our faces about 15 MPH with higher gusts.  

Turned out as I expected. Here are our times/ETs.  Keep in mind this drag strip is at about 2700 feet above sea level.  Our density/altitude is often higher in the summer heat.

1) G 12.694 @ 103.34  Even though his time/mph is fractionally better, I crossed the finish line first with a better reaction time off the line.
   T 12.459 @ 104.94

2) G 12.740 @ 102.85  I won because he only put 1 gallon of gas in his tank at the start of the day trying to save weight.      
   T 13.198 @ 38.02    Unfortunately it was not enough for the bike to draw on at the start of the second race and his bike sputtered a couple of times.

3) G 12.697 @ 104.15
   T 12.426 @ 102.70  He won because I buggered my launch and had a bad reaction time as I wasn't quit ready to go when the triple tree cycled.

4) G 12.439 @ 103.33 We had almost exact reaction times. I won by .0305 seconds. I saw Jerry in the corner of my right eye almost all the way.
   T 12.466 @ 103.44

Video Jerry made for us.
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thanks for sharing Bill!
looks like a good time

Between you and Jerry, who's the fatter bastard?

My GRiSO would be a LOT faster if I lost fifty pounds...

Yeah, true enough.

Lots of people Hot Rodding their machines but overlook upgrading the operator.

Years ago the I understood the rough calculation was something like 7 pounds = 1 Horsepower.

I'm in the same boat as Steak, I could pick up an easy 7 HP if I could just get around to changing my lifestyle. Probably less expensive with better long term outcome as well. As we all know that's just crazy talk.



This could be the main reason you don't see a lot of 6 foot 200+ pound motorcycle racers. I think, could be wrong though, maybe.

Pretty much a draw...despite 25% greater displacement  
Ah well, I didn't buy it for the quarter mile..and I enjoyed the vid/comparison- thanks!! Fun is fun!

True enough, if you are not having fun you are doing wrong.

                                   

I'm the chubby one.  I have a good 40 pounds on Jerry right now.  My GRiSO is currently stock. Planning to install a Mistral muffler and Beetle map some time this year.

Yeah that didn't happen. Still Stock.

Put four big hams in that Tiger's saddlebags and see how the next race goes...