A NEW uniquely Australian motorsport involves drag racing custom-built V8 motorbikes across dirt or sand tracks at speeds of up to 170km/h.
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And Narooma tradesman Steve Henness of Montague Tiles is a key part of one of the most successful teams in the unlimited class in the sport of dirt or sand dragging.
The bike is ridden by the man known only as “Stork” with whom Steve has been mates with for 30 years.
Their competitive partnership began when they first built a V8 burn-out bike before moving onto their first V8 dirt drag bike when the unlimited class was devised.
Their current bike is the second machine designed and built by the Stork powered by a 5.7-litre Holden Commodore engine and since last year has been fitted with nitrous oxide.
Steve, together with another teammate from Injection Perfection, maintains the bike at events, adjusting the nitrous, cleaning the chain and just “looking after” the machine.
After beating a field of nine other unlimited competitors at the recent Bad Penny event at Penola, South Australia, after coming second place last year, the team next month is headed to the North Queensland Dirt Drags event at Mackay.
“It’s the culmination of three years hard work,” Steve said.
They hope to acquire the title of fastest V8 motorbike by beating the competition after placing second in Queensland last year.
The track in Queensland measures 180 metres and the bikes reach up to speeds of 170km/h.
It is elimination style drag racing with two bikes racing each other and the clock down the dirt track often hewn out of bush land just for the event.
Steve said the sandy coastal soils around the Narooma district were perfect for a dirt track and some day he would love to build a track on private land and invite a few teams to compete.
Team Stork has already been featured in many biker magazines and are a favourite of the television show Blokes World, who will again follow and broadcast to a national audience their racing at Queensland.
They continue to work on getting major sponsorship and are regulars at bike shows including the Bermagui CRABS bike show earlier this year and most recently at the Bankstown Bike Show where they were actually able to give a demonstration, unleashing the power of the bike on a makeshift dirt track.
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