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.
McKinney’s second round opponent was to be teammate Owens, but a
defective clutch basket gear sawed through Ashley’s cases in round 1
and ended his day then. Eric ran a 4.10 on his bye to the final. Gast
faced the upstart Fisher. Paul had blown the tire off badly on his E1
bye, and again spun out of the groove on this pass. Fisher ran a
steady 4.14 to gain his first final.
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!”
McKinney felt a little guilty about his “Last Man Standing” win.
“There was a lot of luck on our side this weekend,” said Eric.
“Procopio just broke the beams first round, Ashley was broke the
second round, and then they shut Fisher off in the final. That was a
tough break for those guys. That was his first final and they did an
excellent job this weekend. I wanted to run him.
“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.
“And it was a good start for the PDRA too. We really want to thank
Jason Scruggs and everybody who put this organization together, and
also all the sponsors who stepped up to make sure that bikes are a
part of the show—especially Vance&Hines and Fast By Gast.
“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 fastbygast.com
Schnitz Racing
store.schnitzracing.com
ProFab
profabperformance.com/jm
McKinney Motorsports
facebook.com/eric.mckinney.35?fref=ts&ref=br_tf
Vance&Hines vanceandhines.com
McKinney Farm
Eatmyink eatmyink.com
PMFR pmfronline.com
Contact Eric McKinney:
mckinneymotorsports06@yahoo.com
This report was prepared by Tim Hailey. Enjoy everything there is to
read, see and watch about motorcycle drag racing and more at
www.eatmyink.com
Photo Credits: Gary Rowe / Raceworks.com
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