Photos by Laura Barkley
Ethan Barkley Takes a Double Win at CMDRA Season Opener
The CMDRA opened its 2006 season with an inaugural event at the Medicine Hat Raceway in Southern Alberta. Ethan Barkley continued right where he left off last season, taking another win in the CMDRA Pro Street Class (formerly known as Streetbike Shootout). Barkley also competed in the Street E.T. class, taking the win there as well. For 2006, Ethan Barkley's team EB Speed has an entirely new program. With support from Suzuki Canada, Walt Healy Motorsports and Velocity Racing, Ethan will campaign two 2006 Suzuki GSX-R1000's. One will be fully modified for the Pro Street class, the other sporting bolt-on performance mods for use in the Street E.T. bracket class. Unfortunately the Pro Street turbocharged GSX-R wasn't ready to make it's debut, so the mild GSX-R was outfitted with a race rear shock and swingarm from the "big bike". A Hindle Street Megaphone exhaust system was installed. Fuel injection mapping was handled on the Walt Healy Motorsports Dynojet 250i eddy current dyno using the latest Tuning Link software. Power was upped from the factory 157 HP to over 167 HP with only a few modifications, but was still no where near the 300HP+ needed to be competitive in Pro Street. Other teams were also facing early season adversity. Glen Fraser's Drayton Valley Motorsports 400+HP turbocharged Hayabusa was suffering air line leaks and was put on the trailer early Sunday. Ken Froese had a clutch failure on his nitrous Hayabusa one round before the finals in Pro Street, but he did manage to out qualify us on Saturday by .1 sec. to take the top spot. The Street E.T. Class is something that Ethan hasn't raced in since 2003. Great reaction times are crucial as well as having a consistent, reliable machine. Ethan qualified second with an excellent .027 light, and made 4 rounds to get to the finals. Rick Baldwin of Oregon was his opponent in the finals, but Rick jumped the start, handing Ethan the win!
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