Rain Can’t Dampen NHDRO Champs

Words and photos by Tim Hailey

Rain may have put an early end to eliminations at the NHDRO Fall Fury Season Finale at Lucas Oil Raceway near Indianapolis, but it couldn’t stop record-pace performances and the crowning of season champions.

Big-time numbers are starting to be the norm when the Midwest’s largest motorcycle drag racing series takes over the beautifully prepped racing surface at LOR.

There have only been two bikes burning anything but nitro to ever cover the eighth mile in less than 4 seconds—Ashley Owens in the ADRL, and Billy Vose in Bahrain and Qatar. But Mark Paquette, sporting a new copperhead paint job on his turbo-methanol Kawasaki Funnybike, came within .001 of that achievement when he qualified number 1 for Schnitz Racing Pro Comp with a 4.000 at 176 mph.

That lap blew early pace setter Keith Lynn’s 4.13 right out of the water. So it’s a bummer that Paquette didn’t have the chance to either back up the 4.00 or go one better and nail a 3. Or maybe Lynn’s consistency would have triumphed over Paquette’s record-setting distraction.

It should also be noted that Chris Cutsinger’s program is improving, with the Corydon campaigner running a 4.20, and he might have inserted himself as a raceday player.

But the rain put the kibosh on all of that, and Paquette claimed his season championship without having to turn a wheel on Sunday.