Perth Motorplex’s home grown Nitro Bike series has been gathering pace in recent events and class veteran Greg Durack is seeking quicker times from his Kawasaki thanks to a new motor combo.
Durack’s turbocharged motorcycles have been a staple of drag racing events in Western Australia for decades, and the current iteration takes advantage of all the latest technology available to make some serious steam.
After taking a short break to make some changes to the machine, Durack has returned to racing with power output approaching four figures.
“I had a season out building up a new stronger engine,” he said. “The capacity has increased to 1570cc. with stronger custom rods and custom pistons, and now with a solid billet block.
“A significant development is the solid billet ZX12R cylinder head, which was re-designed by Lou Cotter, a four-valve Kawasaki drag racing aficionado from years past. This new head flows significantly more than the stock head all round, and I just had to get one to develop the bike further. The turbo has also been upgraded to support 950hp at 50psi of boost.”
The new equipment didn’t take long to produce improvements for Durack, as he improved his personal best time to 6.82sec. at the January 4 round of the series.
“On the 6.82sec. I was off the gas at 6.1sec. and rolled through the traps at only 278kmh, our best speed in the past was 345kmh,” he explained. “The boost was only at 35psi so we will be increasing power steadily over the next few meetings now that I have a baseline tune up.”
Durack has chosen to run a methanol-fuelled, turbocharged bike in a class where nitro-fed bikes are permitted. That could be seen as a disadvantage, but Durack’s performance is more than capable of matching his sometimes consistency-challenged foes. He currently leads the points.
“I would like to run consistent and reliable mid sixes, I think I would be happy with that,” he said. “If that is achieved this season, a bucket list item would be to compete in Top Bike at the European Finals at Santa Pod, England in September. The crew are keen, and I would like to enjoy that experience with them as they have been supportive of me for many years through all the ups and downs.”
Durack and the other riders of the Nitro Bike field will be on track for the February 1 Night of Fire at Perth Motorplex this Saturday.
