Michigan surgical instruments sharpener Mark Paquette cast a big shadow over the NHDRO Mid Season Sizzle at Lucas Oil Raceway near Indianapolis, Indiana. It’s not unusual for his stealthy Kawasaki turbo-methanol Funnybike to be the Schnitz Racing Pro Comp performance leader, but Paquette also tuned young Tyler Fisher to a new McIntosh Machine & Fabrication Pro Street record.
Paquette dominated the eighth mile Pro Comp class from start to finish, qualifying #1 with a 4.14, with multi-time Funnybike champ Keith Lynn and his turbo-nitrous-gasoline Kawasaki close behind. Despite a strong challenge from the nitrous Pro Mods of Louisville’s Deshaun and Courtney Wheeler, Paquette and Lynn faced each other in the final. Lynn took the tree by .007 but Paquette drove around 4.17 to 4.18 for the win in a great race. Paquette also ran a faster-than-the-record 192.06 mph in the semis.
Struggling to move to the next level while tuning and riding two very different bikes, Paquette gave up the seat of his turbo Suzuki Hayabusa to Fisher. The results have been instant. While many teams struggled to get down the track on Saturday, Paquette had Fisher running over 2/10ths quicker than the field.
Not that major players weren’t struggling with major problems. Detroit builder/tuner Ronnie Mitchell had to skip this race and rented his pink “Rizzo” ‘Busa to Ryan Hable. But Rizzo’s turbo bearings gave up the fight in Q1 and Hable climbed on to the RMR trailermate bike of Brad Anassis. The compromised weekend never did pan out for Hable, who lost to John Chant in round 1.
Ohioan Doug Gall won the first two Pro Street races of the year but scattered his motor all over LORP’s left lane in round 1 of eliminations, lifting his ankles out of the way and deftly guiding the ‘Busa out of the groove to a quick stop. “It was kinda neat,” said the unflappable Gall. “I’ve never thrown a rod through the case before.”
Working hard to solve LORP’s tuning riddle on Saturday night was Frankie Stotz, his dad Kent, and crew. Team Stotz lost all their maps for the Honda CBR1000RR and had to start from scratch, but were ready to play by the time Sunday’s eliminations rolled around.
Fisher was super-strong on the other side of the ladder, utilizing what Oklahoma Funnybike guru Tommy Bolton refers to as the “Don King” button (adding an additional hair raising 5 pounds of boost) on an NHDRO record-smashing 7.03 pass in E2. But Paquette’s tuning history doesn’t include much experience with the button, and those 5 pounds leaned out and damaged the ‘Busa’s motor. Fisher took the tree under power in the semi but no-showed for the final, giving Stotz the win.
Veteran Michigan racer Doug Fisher (Tyler’s father) doubled at the May NHDRO opener but had to settle for a lone Hornish Brothers Top Gas win this time around, beating St. Louis racer Mike Wagner in the final.
Another second generation racer, Dalton Markham, took the Super Comp final over redlighting Bradley Shellhaas—a reversal of the Columbus race’s final round result.
America’s busiest racer, Ben Knight, scored the Tsukigi Racing Streetfighter win over Columbus double winner Jason Ditto, who redlit. It was a double race winning weekend for Knight, who also won Saturday’s Street ET final over John “Spooky” Markham.
Fun for All Motorsports racer Ron Arnold redlit against Clark Proctor in the Catalyst Racing Composites Crazy 8s final, but won Sunday’s Dennis Insurance Street ET final over Bill Heyde.
Brunson Grothus won G&G Metal Spinners Pro ET over Brandon Correll on Saturday night, but Correll struck back to win over Darrell Charmichael on 
Sunday.
Friday’s Quick 16 races were won by Quinn Orand and Mark Eskew.
Super Eliminator veteran Jack Seberger won that class and dedicated the win to legendary 2 stroke guru John Jacob, who passed away on March 5th.
Gall was involved with Saturday night’s biggest Port-Tech Grudge races, taking one with the break on an all-motor ‘Busa vs. Jamie Hendricks on a cut seat rails ‘Busa, then giving the break back to Hendricks and losing one aboard the “Chupacabra” grudge bike.
And the bikini show? It was truly more outrageous than ever as these girls pull new tricks out of the bag at every event to win crowd approval. You do not want to miss the next one!
The NHDRO returns to action on August 16-18 for the NHDRO/Manufacturers Cup Pingel Thundernationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Clermont, Indiana.
Find out more about the NHDRO at http://www.nhdroracing.com/
This report was prepared by Tim Hailey. Photos are for editorial use only. Enjoy everything there is to read, see and watch about motorcycle drag racing and more at http://www.eatmyink.com
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High-res images for editorial use are available by e-mailing timhailey@earthlink.net
