Featuring everything from top fuel motorcycles and nitro bikes to street bikes, altered and super twins, Competition Bike is shaping up to be one of the most interesting fields at the 43rd Westernationals this weekend at Perth Motorplex.
Blattt Racing’s Wayne McGuinness recently debuted a new nitro bike from Johnny Vickers at Hawaya Racing in North Carolina after attending his nitro bike racing school.
“We obtained an AMRA 6:90 licence and entered the Jim McClure Nitro Nationals in which we qualified third outright with a 7.45 at 156 mph,” he said. “We made it through to the third round before being defeated by Rich Veerland, one of the top riders.”
At the Pro Showdown Perth Motorplex track championship round for Comp Bike, McGuinness again qualified third and made it through to the semi-finals where his night would end due to some confusion in calculating the indexes.
“We were burnt down and had to shut the bike down due to a lack of fuel and cylinder head temperature. Unfortunately due to the event time schedule we were unable to turn the bike around and had to concede defeat.”
Leading up to the Westernationals, the Blattt Racing Team has been busy preparing the nitro beast mainly focussing on clutches, as the bike uses a new pack every run.
“Looking at the data from the previous meeting we found some interesting facts, and have taken steps to improve our tune up,” McGuinness said. “And with a debut PB of 7.37 at 156 mph and 60′ of 1.14, we were not far off the national record. So hopefully we can improve on that.”
Riding the Mining and Civil Australia A/CB, Ryan Learmonth is hoping to spring a surprise coming off a final win at the local track championship last time out over Ross Smith, Comp Bike Westernationals winner the past two seasons.
“At the start of the season we purchased the latest Star Racing Pro Stock engine featuring the billet 4 valve cylinder head from George Bryce in the US and couldn’t speak higher of the after service from George,” he said.
Buoyed by the defeat of Smith, Learmonth has reason to feel confident having completed a personal best of 7.51 at 176 mph on a soft tune earlier this season.
“The records for A/CB are 7.47 and 171 mph so we are hoping to give them a shake-up. It’s going to be a tough fight with some big names in there but we are ready.”
Catch all the action at the 43rd Westernationals this Friday February 28 – Sunday March 2, 2014 at Perth Motorplex.
For full details and event schedule please click here.
Image of Ryan Learmonth courtesy Phil Luyer / High Octane Photos