An Australian set a world record on the weekend – but it hasn’t had anywhere near the attention it deserves.
Sydney drag racer Niki Zakrzewski became the quickest woman in the world on two wheels following a 6.720 pass in testing at Darlington Dragway in South Carolina.
Zakrzewski said the record wasn’t really planned, with her nitrous-assisted Pro Mod Bike geared for the eighth mile (shown by the relatively low 179mph speed). The team were making lots of test runs with Niki’s Walt Timblin-built bike showing pace.
“There were three bikes that were testing, mine has small jets and isn’t using the import fuel and it was outrunning all those bikes,” she said.
“We thought we would give it a go (on the quarter mile) and see what happens. It just felt so slow, when I got told I had done alright I looked at the time and said I was the quickest woman in the world on two wheels.”
The previous quickest run was a 6.730 by Angelle Sampey in Sonoma last year.
Zakrzewski is riding a motorcycle prepared by DTM and Dan Wagner and she said the experience has been fantastic.
“DTM and Dan Wagner are awesome and have showed me so much and every day they are about ‘let’s go faster,’” she said.
“I am feeling totally comfortable on the bike and now my plan is to work on cutting a light for racing.”
Zakrzewski isn’t finished with the world record yet. She wants to put it beyond doubt and the team will be testing later this week and into the weekend to aim for 6.5s before competing at the PDRA event on May 18-20 at Darlington.
