MiRock at Rockingham

TEASLEY SCORES AGAIN IN MIROCK FINALE AT ROCKINGHAM DRAGWAY

Results courtesy Rockingham Dragway
Photos by Gary Rowe

Mickey Thompson Performance MIRock Superbike Series champion Jeremy Teasley showed Sunday that his unprecedented success at Steve Earwood’s Rockingham Dragway is due to much more than just the brute power of his high-flying Kawasaki motorcycles.

The versatile rider from Orient, Ohio, used his starting line reflexes to offset performance deficits in the semifinals of both the D.M.E. Real Street and Motorcycle Tire Outlet 5.60 classes on the way to winning both titles at the season-ending Lee’s Fall Bike Nationals.

A total of 524 bikes participated in the two-day event, last of seven comprising the MIRock Series which is produced jointly by The Rock and Maryland International Raceway.  Sunday’s event encompassed added incentive in the form of an increased cash purse resulting from the earlier cancellation of the Schnitz Summer Sizzler.

Teasley (shown), who won his eighth Real Street title in nine races at Rockingham and became the winningest rider in the MIRock Series, shared the podium with Kenneth Edwards of Sebring, Fla., who won for the second time at The Rock in Pro Street; Ronald Procopio Jr. of Wake Forest, who capped off a championship season with another Pro Mod win; and Rockingham’s Kyron Drake, who won in the House of Speed Crazy 8s class.

Tournament of Champions winners were Derek Christensen of Hellam, Pa., in Pro ET and Michael Herman Jr. of Woodbridge, Va., who beat his dad in an all-Herman final to win the Street ET title.  Christensen also won the Nitrous Express Pro ET race on Saturday night, joining Teasley as the only other double winner.

Nevertheless, it largely was Teasley’s day.  In addition to wins in Real Street and 5.60, he raised the Pro Street speed record to 210.14 miles per hour before bowing out in round two.

Although he set national records of 7.77 seconds and 197.80 mph in Real Street, Teasley’s bike was very much in jeopardy in the semifinals where veteran Rickey Gadson of Hammonton, N.J., actually ran quicker – 7.876 to Teasley’s 7.907.  The difference was the eventual winner’s .073 of a second advantage at the starting line.

En route to the 5.60 title, he used those same starting line reactions to make a slower 5.573 time a winner against the quicker 5.656 rung up by Steve Dumas of Pageland, S.C.