Dragzine

Image credit: DragBike Live.com

Like their four-wheeled counterparts, many of motorcycle drag racing’s major performance barriers have come and gone over the last several years. But one heralded mark has remained illusive, despite taking on years of heavy fire from a host of challengers. But on Sunday afternoon, the race to become the first Pro Street motorcycle under seven seconds  came to a close, as Ryan Schnitz took full advantage of the cool fall air to power his way into the history books with a 6.907 at 203.06 MPH during the opening round of eliminations at the MIRock Superbike Series Fall Nationals at Maryland International Raceway.

The Decatur, Indiana native, who helps operate the family-owned Schnitz Performance shop and has won multiple championships and national events in the NHRA and AMA, rode the HTP Performance ’08 Suzuki Hayabusa to the top of the qualifying order with a 7.15 at 185.00 MPH, but took full advantage of the cool fall conditions on race day to ride into the record books.

Schnitz encountered troubles and dropped his round three match to Greg Wallace, but illustrating his dominance, no other rider in the class came within .015 of the sixes all weekend. Schnitz’s incrementals were 1.203, 3.056, 4.531 at 171.03 MPH, 5.809, and 6.907 at 203.06.

Our thanks to Doug Ray over at DragBike Live for the tip!