Schnitz and HTP Team Report
Team HTP traveled to Budd’s Creek Maryland for the Fast By Gast Summer Nationals this weekend for the 3rd event of the Mirock Series. The Team came prepared for battle with 3 Pro Street entries ridden by Ryan Schnitz, Danny Cox and Richard Gadson along with a Pro Mod Hayabusa also ridden by Schnitz.
With just a handful of full nitrous passes, the Pro Mod called “NJECTED” qualified 4th with a 4.25 @ 172mph – Top MPH of the class – with less than perfectly smooth passes. Team owner Cecil Towner says, “Chassis setup on a drag bike is all new to us. We are making a number of changes each pass and looking to see how it affects the bike. We’re starting to get a handle on it pretty quickly.”
Schnitz, Cox and Gadson were able to qualify 1st, 3rd and 5th respectively in Pro Street with a 6.99, 7.15 and 7.22. “Ryan and Danny made some perfectly smooth and consistent passes today,” says Towner. “Richard is riding his tail off and we just need to work out some wheelie problems and we’ll be good to go.”
Sunday started with the Pro Mod class and Ryan Schnitz winning over Jamie Emery with an improved 4.23 @ 173 mph.
In Pro Street, Cox defeated John Gover with his personal best, 7.144 @ 192mph. Gadson did his best to handle his wheelie happy ride, but lost with a 7.72 to Neal Riddle’s 7.38. Schnitz blasted down the track with a 7.06 @ 200mph.
Second round of Pro Mod ended the teams hope for a final round appearance when a fuel injector o-ring failed at start up. Crew members quickly alerted Ryan in the burnout box and the bike was shut off. “We just ran the bike and had no issues a few minutes ago,” says Towner. “I have never had an O-ring go bad on a fuel injector over time. This has been the only item to fail on this machine. We’ll be back and ready.”
Pro Street fared better for both Schnitz and Cox as both went on to win round 2 with a 7.00 and 7.18 respectively. The semi finals paired Schnitz against Neal Riddle and Cox against Joey Gladstone. Schnitz advanced with a 7.03 while Cox lost with an incredibly consistent 7.18 to Gladstone’s 7.02.
The finals were set to be a great race with both a turbo and nitrous entry running similar ET’s the round before. Schnitz got a slight lead with a .044 reaction time to Gladstone’s .046 and kept it until 1100 feet. Gladstone won with a 6.98 @ 213mph to Schnitz’s 7.01 @ 200mph. “That was a great race. The only thing wrong with it was the win light came on the wrong side,” joked Schnitz to Gladstone at tech inspection.
Ryan Schnitz also reset the nitrous Pro Street record to a 6.991 and was torn down and verified to be perfectly legal by Mirock Tech Director Phil Davis.
The HTP Pro Mod will compete next in the ADRL US Drags V event at their home track, Virginia Motorsports Park in Dinwiddie, VA, June 22-23.
The team would like to thank our 2012 sponsors:
APE Race Parts
Calico Coatings
CP/Carrillo
DME
Full Spectrum Power
JRI Shocks
Marine Crankshafts
Mickey Thompson Tires
Montgomery Motorsports
Motec
Motul
No Mar Tire Changer
RSR Drag School
Vance & Hines
Wizard of NOS
Worldwide Bearings
Find us on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/htpracing
Visit us at www.htpperformance.com <http://www.htpperformance.com/>
Category: Team Reports
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