Mickey Thompson Performance Tires MIRock Superbike Series

Battle Royale Delivers HUGE at MIR

Words and ohitis by Tim Hailey

When the Mickey Thompson MIRock Superbike Series added Orient Express Pro Street’s biggest payout ever—the $10,000 to win Battle Royale—to October 4-6’s Fast by Gast Fall Nationals, NO ONE predicted two Pro Street neophytes would reach the final and battle for the big check. But when the world’s quickest, fastest streetbikes took to Maryland International Raceway’s meticulously prepped quarter mile, that’s exactly what happened.

It was a very tough weekend for Pro Street veterans. Going into the last session, Frankie Stotz and his 6 second, turbocharged Honda CBR1000RR had yet to make it respectably down the track and were unqualified. Stotz squeaked in with a 7.17 in the final session—good enough only for 14th in the quickest streetbike field ever.

All-time streetbike champion of the world Mikey Slowe came out of his retirement slumber for this event, riding Maltese racer Simon Giordmaina’s Rodney Williford-prepped turbo Suzuki Hayabusa. But Slowe—struggling to get a clean pass on the unfamiliar bike—was bumped all the way down to 19th and the B class in the chaotic final session.

Three-peat champ Williford fared little better than Slowe, making the A field on the No-Joke ‘Busa but losing in the first round of eliminations to Bud Yoder, who was on Mark Paquette’s bike.

Joey Gladstone qualified number 1 on the DME ‘Busa with a 6.986 at a whopping 215 mph, .001 quicker than Jeremy Teasley on Ronnie Mitchell’s pink “Rizzo.” Tony Ficher and his ragingly loud supercharged ‘Busa was third with a 6.997 and Aruba’s Terence Angela fourth with a 7.001. Chris Moore’s 7.202 on Williford’s “Purple Nitrous Bike Eater” placed him 16th and last.

The semis boiled down to the top four qualifiers, with Ficher’s 6.95 beating Teasley and Angela taking out teammate Gladstone 7.002 to 7.017. So after all was said and done, the final of the biggest Pro Street race ever would be settled between two riders who’d only very recently entered the class and neither whom had ever won.

It was a pretty sizable performance advantage that Ficher seemed to be bringing to the final, making it that more surprising when Angela posted his own 6.95 to take the win over Ficher’s 6.98—the first ever side-by-side 6 second Pro Street race. “It’s amazing!” said Angela. “To go the final, run my first 6, get my first win, and all the cash—I don’t know what to say. It’s just amazing.”

“Terence stayed in the 7.0s from testing all the way through the 6.90s on raceday,” said DME team boss Dimey Eddinger. “He kept his head straight and I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Another islands racer, Rendolf Torbed of Curacao, won Pro Street C and Wisconsin’s Ryan Hable won Pro Street B.