MIR’s Bike Fest Hotter Than Ever!

Words by Tim Hailey
Photos by Genie Muldoon and Terrence Belton

It wasn’t just the thermometer and humidity that were sky-high at Maryland International Raceway’s Fast By Gast WPGC Bike Fest on July 23-24, it was also the level of competition. The annual sportbike culture party that marks the mid point of the Mickey Thompson Performance Tires MIRock Superbike Series was run at the climax of 2011’s great American heatwave, but the hard working MIR staff, the greatest motorcycle drag racers in the world, and the finest bikini models on the Eastern Seaboard refused to wilt.

No Orient Express Pro Street racer thrives in the heat better than defending champ Rodney Williford. His tuning skills have been honed at humid Budd’s Creek and blistering Rockingham and he put them all to work at the Bike Fest. While the number 1 qualifying HTP Performance nitrous Hayabusa of Ryan Schnitz boiled the tire just past the 330, Williford’s turbo ‘Busa calmly streaked away to a 7.23 at 197 mph for the win.

South African Pro Street racer Brad Anassis came all the way to the Western hemisphere just for this event. He teamed up with Motor City tuner Ronnie Mitchell and laid down his quickest, fastest pass ever before his fuel pump crapped out at the starting line against Schnitz in round 2.

Number 1 DME Real Street qualifier Johnny "Turbo" Dobrin took his second straight win, this time with a 7.86 over superstar Rickey Gadson’s nitrous Kawasaki. Defending class champion Jeremy Teasley had to enter his own Kawasaki ZX14 streetbike this time around, but carried it to the semis where he lost to Gadson.