Mickey Thompson Performance Tires MIRock Superbike Series

MIR’s Raging Bike Fest Delivers!

Words and photos by Tim Hailey

Like the postman, Maryland International Raceway’s WPGC Bike Fest always delivers the goods. A rain shower on Saturday only served to cool the racing surface for the world’s quickest streetbikes of the Mickey Thompson MIRock Superbike Series. By the time another shower fell Sunday night, nearly all racing was complete and the bike club, stunt, music, culture and lifestyle events that are hallmarks of the Bike Fest were in under the wire.

Orient Express Pro Street boiled down to a final round match-up between three-peat champ Rodney Williford and points leader Joey Gladstone. Williford’s own bike is getting revamped, so he was once again racing the Roger Starrette owned “No Joke” Haybusa in the day and testing Maltese racer Simon Giordmaina’s bike at night. Williford raced his way to the final, while with two broke byes and one earned, Gladstone waltzed in without ever facing an opponent.

Maybe the lack of competition all day left Joey’s senses a bit dulled. Williford nailed him to the tree with a .015 light (to Gladstone’s .091), and when Joey wheelied luridly at 100 feet it seemed all but over. Once the bike settled, though, Gladstone laid on the “Don King” button for extra boost, powering the DME Hayabusa to 207 mph at the stripe. The heat of the day had Williford on and off the throttle in the other lane, but he kept up just enough momentum for a 7.28 to 7.26 holeshot win, some 13 mph slower than Gladstone.

While the MIRock Pro Street season championship has boiled down to a two-man race, 40 of the world’s quickest, fastest streetbikes are expected to fight it out at MIR’s $10,000 Pro Street “Battle Royale” coming up in October—the season and place of the world’s first 6 second streetbike pass.