Carpenter
Racing would like to congratulate Cecil Towner and Ryan
Schnitz of the HTP Performance Racing Team for their
historic assault on the street bike six second barrier.
The
historic, barrier-breaking run was made at the MIROCK Fast
by Gast Fall Nationals at Maryland International Raceway
when Schnitz ran a stunning 6.907 elapsed time at 203.06 mph
during the first round of eliminations in the Pro Street
class on the nitrous injected HTP Performance Suzuki
Hayabusa.

While
Schnitz was unable to back up the mark as an official MIROCK
record, he showed the performance was no fluke one week
later at the “Shakedown at Etown” at Raceway Park in New
Jersey when he ran three-straight six second passes
including a quick lap of 6.96 seconds.
“We had a
goal of running six seconds at the beginning of the year,”
said HTP Performance owner Cecil Towner. “But we did not
just want to break the barrier. We wanted to show that we
could run consistent six second runs. Our performance at
Englishtown shows our competition that running a six is not
a one-time thing.”
The
mark is a significant achievement in the sport. The seven
second street bike barrier was broken in May of 2001 when
Brock Davidson ran a 7.97 on a Suzuki Bandit. It took over
ten years for a street-tire motorcycle to cut a second off
the time and eclipse the six second barrier.
Carpenter
Racing is proud to be part of this milestone. In fact,
Towner has been using Carpenter Racing-prepared cylinder
heads on both his racing and street engines for over eight
years.
“Carpenter
does all the cylinder heads on our own race bikes and on our
customer’s bikes,” said Towner. “I don’t think anybody can
beat his repeatability. When Bob does a head I know what
horsepower it is going to make. For instance, on a
second-generation, 2008 or later Hayabusa I can bolt one of
his heads on it and I know is it going to make 220 +
horsepower. The heads do what they are supposed to do. I am
never disappointed.”
“Cecil and
I have had a great relationship over the years,” said Bob
Carpenter. “It has helped both our businesses.”
The HTP
Performance Hayabusa is equipped with the same “220+ Head
and Cam” package available to all of our customers.
“Cecil
gets the most out of our packages,” continued Carpenter. “I
am impressed by him because he pays attention to the
detailing of tuning. When he sends the heads back to get
freshened up after a season of racing, it looks like it came
off a street bike. We can tell what kind of loads an engine
has been put through. His engines always indicate light
loads on the combustion chamber. Most people in the Pro
Street class want to push it when they are after a record.
Usually after they make their best run its in pieces on the
next run. Cecil has it tuned right. His tune-up is very
happy.”

Photos by Genie
Muldoon |
Even with
the six second monkey off his back, Towner shows no sigh of
letting up.
“We have
run a 6.90 so I feel we have the potential to run in the
6.80s with the right conditions,” he said. “The goal for us
is to do it consistently. Up to this point the bike and
rider have been deadly consistent. We feel we can continue
to push the performance envelope and maintain that
consistency.”
Carpenter
Racing is proud to be a part of achieving that goal. |