Chris Matheson made the quickest ever run on two wheels on Saturday night at Perth Motorplex.
Matheson’s semi-final run of 6.009, agonisingly close to the first five-second pass in Australian history, was one of three incredible passes he made during the night.
A first round 6.07 set the scene, while the 6.009 came against newly crowned Top Bike champion Greg Durack.
In the final round, Matheson was due to face Wayne McGuinness, but ended up on a solo run. There he made a 6.02 pass, with the bike making a little wiggle in the middle of the track, perhaps costing a few vital hundredths of a second.
“It was a bit dodgy in the beginning, as we only ran some low sevens while trying to find our feet. Once we got in the groove with it we were pretty right. It was a matter of working with the conditions, and the track was very good,” Matheson said.
“On all three runs in eliminations we had to keep it soft in the middle because we were on the limits of the back tyre. It was marching along especially as we brought in more power in the back half. We had another go at running a record time in the final but we couldn’t take too much risk. It got a little out of shape down the other end and I got a bit close to the wall but the bike pulled up fine and we are looking forward to our next race meet in Sydney.
“The new engine program has really paid dividends, and we are now in the process of trying to get to eight championships. We build the motor ourselves and the reliability has made a big difference. We ran three 6.0s with the same motor and no engine damage. We were able to fuel it up, run our checks and away we’d go again. It underlines the reliability of what we are using.”
Runner-up Wayne McGuinness suffered from some handling dramas on his big cube nitro Harley.
Greg Durack’s turbocharged Kawasaki was perhaps unlucky to run into Matheson in the semi-finals, after running an early shut off 6.80 in the first round.
Ricky Wood’s Kawasaki was in the running for the championship, but couldn’t return to its low seven-second capabilities.
