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.