Bike Nights are go at Sydney Dragway

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A new venture for Sydney Dragway has been the introduction of “Bike Night” sponsored by Harley-Davidson of Blacktown and they are starting to gain momentum in popularity with the addition of some dial your own racing for spice.

Sydney Dragway’s Harley-Davidson of Blacktown Bike Night is designed to complement the very popular weekly Race 4 Real street meets but for bikes only.

Sydney Dragway said the Harley-Davidson of Blacktown Bike Nights maintain the same message as their Race 4 Real events – keeping it safe, legal and off the streets – with monthly events specifically designed to cater for all motorcycle enthusiasts and continue to provide a community service, the main focus of which, is to provide young and old people a safe, controlled and legal environment to race their vehicles.

The pits are a full of a variety of two wheeled machines from v-twin cruisers to highly tuned Japanese sports bikes.

With numbers continuing to grow it was decided to throw in some dial your own racing to generate some more action on the night and it is a good chance to introduce new blood to racing. Each Harley-Davidson of Blacktown Bike Night will have a theme to the bracket racing and at this event it was dubbed a Hayabusa shootout, where racing would be contested between the ‘Busa clan.

Mod Bike racer Ron Welch overseeing scrutineering.

With over 100 bikes showing up on the night and before we get to the racing part of the night, all new riders are summoned to the start line for some basic from Mick Withers from performing the burnout to the operation of the Christmas tree.

It provided racing rookies with a chance to understand how the drag strip works and see an example.

If only everyone could cut a .016 reaction time!

Riders checked out each other’s machines.

The event was highly successful numbers wise, with the staging lanes looking great.

Before long it was time to put the learning into practice.

Micheal Limbrick was one of the quicker bikes on the night – his GSXR hauled to a 10.12/144mph.

David Riley kicks up the front of his SV650 (14.76/91mph).

We haven’t seen Laurie Capogna for some time on the track but Bike Night has drawn him out (12.01/108mph).

Paul Kuchin assumes the tuck aboard his BMW (10.59/145mph).

Have we found Mick Withers’ long lost twin?

Adam Hall duking it out on his Ninja (15.16/82mph).

Eden Adela put away the Modified Bike and smoked up a storm on his Hayabusa, running a quick 10.01/146mph.

Over 2000ccs was under the tank of Ben Broadbent’s Triumph Rocket (12.36/106mph).

Ian Docherty out pacing his opponent with his Honda VTR (11.69/119mph).

Adam Sandios clouds up the burnout box (10.57/140mph).

What did Michael Micallef think of Bike Night? “It was my first ever night on a drag strip and I had an absolute freaking BALL!”

Neil Fraser and Neill Horsman twist the throttles of their trail bikes. Variety was indeed the spice of life on Bike Night.

Shane Phillips utilising the wheelie bars.

A few dedicated circuit bikes tested out their straight line speed, Dustin Goldsmith’s Kwaka clocked 10.26 at 148mph.

Marty Abrahams generally doesn’t get to do this on the circuits.

Adam Layton jumped aboard a dedicated racing HD Destroyer for the first time.

I think Brad McLaughlin spotted our photographer (10.53/134mph).

Chris Patten gets his Honda stuck into the burnout (11.04/128mph).

Stunt bike riders were in the house for some extra entertainment.

Tony Marsden trying to tame his Kawasaki (10.49/137mph).

Moving into the Hayabusa shootout there were nine bikes featuring a cross section of seasoned racers mixed with first time contenders contesting a three round dial your own format.

Heidi Pritchard picked up two wins, but was out gunned by Alex Borg in round two.

Alex Borg recently ran his first seven second ET on his new Hayabusa bullet, but was really struggling for traction on the night. After two wins dialling in with a “soft” 8.20, Borg couldn’t round up Ken Collin in round three.

Former Modified Bike track champion Robert Simmonds cleared three wins but lost making the final on a count back.

The final shook down to Competition Bike rider Glenn Northridge and Queenslander Ken Collin.

Both riders dialled in with identical 9.50s, Northridge overcame a start line holeshot to take the win with a 9.76 to Collins’ 9.96.

Drag News spoke to Glenn about Bike Night and gained an insight into his night of racing.

“I’ve been to two Bike Nights prior and I think it’s a great initiative which I try and go to each time to support the event,” he said.

After riding his A/SB at the first couple of Bike Nights and a street meet track being a little challenging for a eight second bike, Glenn thought it would be a perfect chance to test customer Wally Hosta’s A/SB.

“The racer in me sees the strip like Ian Thorpe would see a 50 metre pool so it took a bit to adjust to the social, more relaxed intent of the night. What that translated to me was to turn up on a slower bike and still try to ride the wheels off it.

“As the Hayabusa bracket was coming up and Wally Hosta’s bike was in my garage for me to run my eye over and to fit a new data logger to, it was decided that I would ride that.

“The first pass I forgot to pull the strap down and with the bike set up for Wally’s weight it bogged and just went down the track like nothing and ran a 9.4. So I pulled the strap down and started to launch a bit firmer and ran a 9.35, still crap but I was now turning the tyre.

“As the night progressed I deliberately went to sleep on the last amber to cut very safe 0.2-0.3 lights after my red lights at the Nationals, I wasn’t letting that happen again. Alex Borg was doing his wild laps in the low eights and I had the second quickest ET.

“As the night went on the racer in me would try and bring the ET down but I just got more aggressive wheel spin. Having said all that I dialled in 9.50 and that’s all the front wheel wanted to do whilst the back wheel was in the low eights.

“Each Hayabusa rider had their own issues with either wheel spin, wheelies or mechanical dramas. In the final against Ken Collin we both dialled in 9.50 for a heads up final, I had wheel spin to half track and Kens air shifter gave up, so we both scrambled for scraps to the finish line. I tell you as the track was running out and the wheel spin wasn’t, the tacho went into slow motion clawing him back when I got grip.

“A win’s a win and tonight it ended up in my lap, as it was a dial your own bracket it was good to see some hot street ‘Busas front up and mix it with the regular racers. It was another good initiative and it would be good to encourage a similar all brand litre bike bracket and 600cc class etc to keep the race ya mate on like equipment theme alive. I’ll always try and support the event as I believe with some good ideas put in place it could become a mainstay event that can really help feed the grass roots of motorcycle drag racing in Australia.”

The next Harley-Davidson of Blacktown Bike Night is scheduled for February 13 with the feature bracket being All Harley Street Bikes.