Man Cup - MTC Nationals at South Georgia Motorsports Park
The second round of the Man Cup Motorcycle Drag Racing Series brought the Trick-Tools Racing Team to South Georgia Motorsports Park for the MTC Nationals. This race was just the second time having the bike out in 2022 after a good test session in Huntsville, Alabama just two weeks prior to the event. We utilized the first day of the event to continue testing and learn the new Firestorm ignition system from Schnitz Racing. We were able to make a lot of good progress and get the bike in a position where it could go out and repeat runs, along with making small adjustments to really dial in on the index.
On Saturday we made all three qualifying runs, and while our spot in qualifying didn’t reflect it, we made some good progress as far as tuning goes and understanding what the bike really wanted. In Q1, I double shifted the bike and we ran a 4.68. One of the issues we were fighting was a lot of wheel speed in 1st gear, which caused the bike to take longer than desired to complete the shift into second. We made some small adjustments to the bike for Q2 and went a 4.599 which didn’t help our qualifying spot, but we knew we were right there. Q3 brought some challenges as the weather changed drastically with clouds rolling in and the temperature dropping a fair amount. We were aiming to get a run that would put us safely in the field, but slowed up more than anticipated with a 4.64. We ended up qualifying number 16 out of 24 bikes which isn’t what we wanted, but the field was incredibly tough and we knew we weren’t far off for race day.
In the first round of eliminations we were paired up with the number 9 qualifier Geoffrey Hill out of Georgia. We were almost dead even off of the starting line as I was .034 to Hill’s .036, and we managed to pick up the pace after qualifying to run a 4.63 chopping the throttle to Hill’s 4.64.
Second round paired us up with Curtis Winston out of St. Louis on a beautiful Wheeler Racing machine. After the first round win, I really wanted to tighten up the tree and made some small progress as I was .029 to Winston’s .069. Winston encountered some problems during the run and slowed to a 4.74 giving us some room to ease out of the throttle and run a 4.68 and advance to the third round.
The 3rd round of eliminations faced us off against Morris Ball out of Alabama. With our last passes 60 foot and half track numbers being promising, we opted to not change the bike and go try to repeat the consistent runs from the prior rounds. I was able to be a little more aggressive on the line after some consistency in the first two rounds and improved with a .016 to Ball’s .055. We ran a 4.66 to Balls 4.67 after easing off the throttle, but again the front half numbers looked promising.
The semi-finals put us up against our good friend and teammate Chad Otts. Every time we have raced Chad in the past it has been really close so I knew we were in for a good race. Chad laid down a .009 to my .013 reaction on the starting line and ran a 4.61 to my 4.598. It was a tough break out loss but a great race that is hard to be too upset about. Chad went on to race Maegan Petway in the finals and was able to grab the win after Maegan encountered problems on her run. Both Chad and Maegan had fantastic days, so congrats to both of them on their weekends!
We will head to Dragway 42 in Ohio for our next Man Cup race in July. Although it seems like a long time, we will be plenty busy with a lot of exciting stuff in the meantime. Stay tuned to find out what we are up to in the next few months!