With two ADRL Pro Extreme Motorcycle championships in their rearview, Eric
But despite pre-season testing in Valdosta, McKinney and teammate/tuner Ashley Owens had to chase legendary racer Paul Gast in Rockingham qualifying, and finished the sessions second (McKinney 4.067) and third (Owens 4.088) behind number one qualifier Gast (4.036). “Paul just knocked it right out of the park from the get-go,” said McKinney. “He was
The first round of eliminations was admittedly a poor showing for the whole PXM class, as not a single pair went down the track side-by-side. Gast had a bye when broken Chuck Wilburn no-showed. Ditto for Owens’ E1 opponent TT Jones, who broke in Q4. John Collins sprung a leak at the line and was pulled off against opponent Jay Fisher. And McKinney’s opponent Ronnie Procopio installed a fresh motor overnight, only to simply take the tree in hopes of a McKinney miscue. There was none, and Eric advanced with a 4.07—low ET of the round.
Sadly for Fisher, he was pulled off the starting line for the final by the PDRA’s Traction Twins when his beautiful yellow bike sprung an oil leak out of the water box. And McKinney was beatable with a 4.12, stretching out second gear with a startling new tune-up from Owens. “The shift points were different,” said McKinney. “It was like a Sunday drive at first, then turned into ‘Game On.’ It hit the rev-limiter going into third gear, and I’ve never done that. It probably maybe would’ve been an .06 or .07, but it caught me off-guard. Ashley’s got a new idea going on and it’s gonna be a pretty good deal for us….if I could just learn how to ride it!”
“So this win was a gift. I like to win, but I don’t want to win like this. I don’t feel like I earned it this weekend, but a win’s a win. And to win the first PDRA race is pretty awesome. I’m excited about it. Now we’re gonna move on and try and do it again.
“I don’t know if we can be as successful as we’ve been the last couple of years, but we’re gonna do what we can do. If people don’t like us because of that, we’ll keep trying to stomp ‘em. The more they hate, the harder we’re gonna work. And this was a good start.
“We get our cranks from Vance&Hines and our cylinder heads from Fast By Gast, so I want to thank them for their help with our program as well. And all the people who put this rocket together and keep it going so I can come up here and let the button go. Ashley’s behind this thing. He’s the mastermind, along with Dad. My Uncle Steve’s on the clutch, and Mom’s keeping everybody in line.”
Eric and the McKinney Motorsports team unload their winning program at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta for this weekend’s Manufacturers Cup Spring race, April 11-13, 2014.
Eric McKinney and the McKinney Motorsports team would like to thank Fast By Gast http://www.fastbygast.com , Schnitz Racing http://store.schnitzracing.com , ProFab https://profabperformance.com/jm/ , McKinney Motorsports https://www.facebook.com/eric.mckinney.35?fref=ts&ref=br_tf Vance&Hines http://www.vanceandhines.com , McKinney Farm, Eatmyink http://eatmyink.com/ and PMFR http://www.pmfronline.com
Contact Eric McKinney: mckinneymotorsports06@yahoo.com
for media inquiries: Tim Hailey timhailey@earthlink.net
find out more about the PDRA at http://www.pdra660.com
This report was prepared by Tim Hailey.
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