2019 XDA Pro Street Riders Break Records at MDIR - All Rounds

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Orient Express Racing Pro Street
Winner – Rodney Williford
Runner-up – Richard Gadson
#1 Qualifier – Jeremy Teasley 6.492
ET Record – Rodney Williford 6.515
MPH Record – Rodney Williford 230.37

Saturday as teams prepared for round one of qualifying, you could feel the excitement in the air, along with a strong crosswind. The Penske Shootout competitors got the first hit at the track, Teasley was in the first pair out, while Williford was the third pair. Teasley took to the tree, everyone held their breath and off he went, but the GSX-R1000 wanted to wheelie, and it was pulling hard to the right making him get out of the throttle to run a 6.85, not what everyone was expecting. Then it was Rodney’s turn. He left fast and hard, and it looked like he was going to do it, but the bike drifted a bit to the right as he fought the wind and ran a 6.606 to get him almost there again. But forget about that 6.60 because the MPH on the board said 230.37 MPH and everyone was in shock! The top MPH before this pass was a 226 set by Williford in 2017. It was amazing to see this performance on the first qualifier.

Ryan Schnitz on the HTP Performance GSX-R1000 turbo, who was rumored to have run a fifty in off-season testing, came out next for his shot. He left hard and made a beautiful straight pass to give him a 6.65 ET. It did not better his ET as he went 6.62 last year when he won the Haltech World Cup Finals presented by Wiseco at MDIR.

Then several passes later Frankie Stotz, who was parked closest to the staging lanes but opted to stay in the back of the pack, rolled into the beams. None of the other heavy hitters did it, could the little Honda do it this round? The winds died down, the flags stopped flapping, and Stotz left the tree like a bullet, the front wheel stayed down, the bike went straight, and the scoreboards flashed a 6.581 at 204 mph making him the first racer to enter the 6.50’s! Everyone at the starting line went wild! It was an extraordinary moment for Kent Stotz and a well-deserved milestone for them as they had been sitting on that cliff for months. But the day was young and we weren’t done dropping records.

In round two of qualifying the same butterflies returned for the racers that thought they had a chance to break their own records. Dunigan ran his 6.64, and then Williford came out and finally broke the seal and ran a 6.56. The starting line went crazy!

Teasley came out next and destroyed the world with a 6.492 at 193.79 while lifting to avoid hitting the cones! LIFTING!! No one knew what to do anymore, it was record after record, and the fifties were now a thing of the past in a span of a few hours.

Here comes round three of qualifying, what could happen in the night air? Well Richard Gadson on the Brad Mummert Old School GS came out and got his piece of the fifty pie running a 6.58 at 209mph. And while everyone hoped to see another forty on the board, Teasley no-showed for the third round leaving us to see what Sunday had in store.

When qualifying finalized XDA had delivered the fastest Pro Street field to date with sixteen riders in the sixes ranging from Teasley’s 6.492 to Mike Kovacevich’s 6.999, and creating a twelve bike ‘B’ class.

On to Sunday where the riders are more focused on making clean A to B passes, as opposed to blowing up their motors to run records like Stotz did on his 6.58 milestone. In round one of eliminations Teasley, Gadson, and Williford would run 6.56, 6.54 and 6.55 respectively. Ryan Schnitz would get taken out by Chris Moore, and Dunigan’s bike would have problems staying fired to give Shakir a free pass into round two.

In round two of eliminations, Williford would put teammate Ehren Litten on the trailer, Darion Payne would upset Teasley, Gadson takes out Shakira, and Frankie Stotz tells Chris Moore he’s done playing for the weekend.

In round three of eliminations, Darion Payne and Frankie Stotz were both broke sending Gadson and Williford on to the Finals. Williford won $2K on Saturday in the Penske Shootout and was looking to put another $3K in his pocket with another win. Both riders cut decent lights, Gadson gets out on Williford, but he catches him at the eighth mile and stays ahead of him for the win, and the first official side-by-side fifty passes with a 6.543 at 223mph and 6.594 at 208.20 gets logged into the record books.

Read the full report a https://dragbike.us/2PIqFkr

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