MiRock Superbike Series at Rockingham

Hot Racing in Cool Weather at The Rock

Words by Tim Hailey
Photos by Tim Hailey and Gary Rowe

The annual Lee’s Performance Fall Bike Nationals at Rockingham Dragway also serves as the finals for the MIRock Superbike Series, but this year—as always—it was more than just that. A family reunion atmosphere took over Nov. 5-6 in the bright sun at Steve Earwood’s racing facility in North Carolina’s Sand Hills, with dueling cook-offs, hugs, and handclasps all around as the motorcycle drag racing community celebrated the end of another season.

It was also a good time and place to set a national record, and no class saw an all-out assault on the books as did DME Real Street. Jeremy Teasley rolled into Rockingham with his second straight Real Street championship already in hand. But his bike owner/tuner Roger Starrette likes records and the nitrous tanks on the Starrette trailer were extra full for the weekend. And so in Saturday’s second qualifying session, Teasley ran the first Real Street pass quicker than 7.80—a 7.770 at 197.80 mph on Starrette’s nitrous huffing Kawasaki ZX14.

That was a number to celebrate for sure, until the Sunday morning qualifying session when Joey Gladstone unleashed a mind-blowing 7.69 on his little turbocharged Suzuki GSXR1000. But Gladstone failed to back it up and left the bike out of gear when he launched the 1000 in the semi against Super Dave Stewart. Teasley beat Rickey Gadson on a holeshot in the other semi to set up the final with Stewart. Once in the final Jeremy rarely loses, and that was the case this time. Although Ohio racer Teasley lost a couple of Maryland events, he won every round this year at The Rock and took home both ends of the national record this weekend. Joey Gladstone claimed the turbo MPH record.

Teasley wasn’t quite finished with records, recording the first ever 210 mph Orient Express Pro Street pass on Coby Adams’ turbo ’14. But Caleb Holt qualified number 1 with a 7.200 on Trae Heath's "Wigsplitter," dominating that team's ongoing qualifying match-up battle with Eric Hart on the BNL/Chachi Racing Hayabusa. Dimey Eddinger and Greg Wallace packed a mean DME Racing 2-3 punch with 7.204 and 7.28, respectively. HTP Performance builder/tuner Cecil Towner was in Aruba over the weekend, so Ryan Schnitz and the 6 second HTP Hayabusa weren't at The Rock.

Holt fought vacuum and boost problems all day, but made his way to the final to face Kenny Edwards, who won last time out in Maryland. Holt’s semifinal pass was riddled with issues, so Edwards had lane choice. That didn’t seem to help at first, as Kenny blew the tire off at the hit. Caleb streaked out to a seemingly uncatchable lead. Edwards ran off in pursuit and, at around 1000 feet, Holt’s plenum popped off. Edwards had a full head of steam up and nipped him by .001 at the finishline.

Rougemont’s Rodney Williford wrapped up his second straight MIRock Pro Street championship (and third MIRock championship overall) at MIR in October, so although he wasn’t pleased when he spun and lost to Edwards in the second round, he was happy with a good year. Edwards, on a roll the second half of the season since abandoning retirement plans, could have used the cancelled August Rockingham race for his own points quest.