Mark Drew might have won the recent East Coast Nationals at Sydney Dragway but it came at a price, with the rider of the Perth Harley Davidson Top Bike sending his motor into flames.
Drew is back to compete in this weekend’s Home Group WA Nitro Slam at Perth Motorplex and though the incident looked spectacular, he said the damage was limited.
“It burnt past the piston and wrecked two pistons pretty well, we were very fortunate not to tear the motor in half,” he said. “I just thought it was spinning the tyre.”
With the damage contained, Drew was able to repair his main motor but in recent testing he was unable to give it a full blast.
“I just put new pistons and rods in and another set of barrels,” he said. “But then on our only run I took off in second gear, that’s why it never went.”
This weekend’s event, the second in the 400 Thunder championship, is expected to be a better hunting ground for Drew as he sets out in search of 6.3sec. times.
“Hopefully we will run (into the 6.30sec. zone), if not better, we’ll go out with a tune up that is a little bit better than the best we ran before and see how we go,” he said.
There may very well be more to come from Drew’s machine as he has some upgrades planned which will make his tuning spectrum easier to manage.
“We’ve got a whole new clutch set up I am waiting to finish, which will give it more adjustment.
“This is a new thing they have started doing in America and they have done quite well.”
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