wannabe
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Posts: 1931
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posted November 04, 2003 04:41 PM
 Edited By: wannabe on 4 Nov 2003 17:08
Craig Treble's 'slow' bracket bike...and TFA in Vegas
I know that this is mostly a ZX-12 board, but I thought you guys would appreciate the workmanship of this bike. I raced in the NHRA Division 7 race last weekend in Las Vegas.
For those of you who don't know, Craig Treble got his start racing in NHRA Division 7 bracket races. He was the Division 7 champ three years in a row in the 90's.
He has been one of my heros since I started dragracing my bike. So, I can't even begin to explain how cool it was to hang out and race with the man....the whole time doing my best to pick as much information as I could out of his brain.
Long story short, I went out in the second round when I bogged off the line. I ended up wasting the 0.005 light that I cut. I had been having bogging problems all weekend, and I never really worked them out. The altitude combined with the ultra sticky track conditions really had me confused. If I were smart, I would have just lined up out of the groove. By that run, I had added 1.5psi in my tires and lowered my wheelie bars by 2 full turns. I thought that would cure the problem. Now I know...
I'm most bummed because I would have had Treble in the next round. I really wanted to race him.
Well, on to the pics...
  
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wannabe
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posted November 04, 2003 04:43 PM
Edited By: wannabe on 4 Nov 2003 16:56
This was my little pit area. I swear that I had the smallest trailer there by far. It felt like everyone else showed up with stacker trailers. I can't even put my bike in my trailer without taking off my wheelie bars. 
I wasn't used to it, but I was (by far) the slowest bike in the field this weekend.
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wannabe
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Posts: 1931
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posted November 04, 2003 04:45 PM
This was Treble and his bracket bike. He dialed 8.90's all weekend. Vegas is at about 2100 feet. The corrected altitued was about 4500 ft.
This bike has a mostly stock Hayabusa motor in it.
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wannabe
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posted November 04, 2003 04:47 PM
It was cool to hear him talk about this bike because he really did build it himself.
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wannabe
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posted November 04, 2003 04:48 PM
...and you thought I was lying about everyone else having stacker trailers.... yes, this is Treble's, but it was not the only stacker there this weekend carrying motorcyles.
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wannabe
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posted November 04, 2003 04:50 PM
Oh, I almost forgot. Remember how I said that it was a 'mostly stock' Hayabusa motor? One of the reasons I said 'mostly' is that Craig ripped out the fuel injection system and put on carbs. He told me that he didn't want to deal with all the wires.
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wannabe
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posted November 04, 2003 04:52 PM
Edited By: wannabe on 5 Nov 2003 20:10
The funniest thing is that with all the trick components on this bike, what do you think Craig is most proud of? He is actually most proud of his kickstand. If you ever see guys running around with a block of wood to hold their chassis bikes up, you will understand how cool it really is to have a kickstand.
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wannabe
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Posts: 1931
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posted November 04, 2003 04:55 PM
Edited By: wannabe on 4 Nov 2003 17:48
The highlight of my weekend was hanging out in Treble's motorhome watching a videotape of last week's race where he beat Angelle. My eyes just totally bugged out when I saw this. I nearly creamed my pants when I touched it. I've been dreaming about getting one of these for a long time.
I have more pics, but I have to get back to work. I'll post more when I get home tonight.
All-in-all it was a great weekend even though I only went two rounds. I had a great time in Vegas and I got to hang out with one of my heros. What more could a boy ask for?
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RedBull
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posted November 04, 2003 06:57 PM
Craig Treble is an outstanding racer ! ! !
I raced him at Speedworld out side of Phoenix...
I put a tree on him & ran 1,000 th under,
while he dumped the throttle pushing me out.
That was the final round of an NMRA/Prostar event.
He came over after the race & we talked a bit,
He is one of the best NHRA racers period ! ! !
Red, *<(:{)-
____________
1998 Prostar West Super Gas top ten.
1999 Prostar West Super Gas Champion !
2000 NMRA / Prostar Pro E/T runner up.
2001, 2002, & 2003 NMRA Pro E/T Champion !
2004 #3, 2005, & 2006 NMRA Pro E/T runner up.
2007 Pro St. Legal #6, NMRA Pro E/T Champion !
2008 Motorcycle Drag Race Assoc. SS Champion !
www.dragbike.com - www.MDRA4U.com
www.PMRcomponents.com www.NAARDEN.biz
Photos by www.HooliganUnderground.com
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wannabe
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Posts: 1931
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posted November 04, 2003 07:45 PM
I definitely agree with you there, Red. Part of the fun of this weekend was the fact that a bunch of the guys there had raced with Treble since the old days when he was just another Division 7 NHRA racer. I was happy to hear about the old days. My favorite old school Treble story was the one time that one of the older guys locked Treble in a port-a-potty just before one of the rounds. 
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wannabe
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posted November 04, 2003 07:47 PM
Now, on to more pictures...
On Wednesday, the wind shifted and a bunch of the smoke and soot from Southern California blew all the way to Vegas. (Yes, that's a long way from SoCal.)
This was a shot of the sunset that night. The pic didn't come out very good, but the sun was totally red that day.
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wannabe
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posted November 04, 2003 07:50 PM
This is actually one of my favorite shots. I snuck into the VIP suites above the main grandstands and took this shot of the pits. There were over 900 cars competing there that weekend.
See? I told you I had the smallest trailer there.
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wannabe
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posted November 04, 2003 07:55 PM
OK, back to the pics of the bikes....
This was also in Treble's trailer. He got a lot of ribbing from the guys because of the bike's paint scheme. He was adamant about telling everone that the bike is 'futia not pink!'
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wannabe
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posted November 04, 2003 08:00 PM
and for another Nitrofish bike...
This is Larry Eperjesi's bike. (If you race in Texas, you may know Larry and his family.) Even at the Vegas altitude, Larry ran in the 7's at almost 169 mph.
Larry lost to Treble in the second round when his bike misfired. He had to win the round to take the Division 4 championship. Sadly, Larry came up 1 round short for the second year in a row.
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wannabe
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posted November 04, 2003 08:03 PM
This is Chris LeBouf. He beat out Larry for the Division 4 championship. The cool thing is that Larry & Chris drew each other in the first round of eliminations. Larry beat Chris in the first round when Chris broke out with an 8.90 run on an 8.92 dial.
I purposely tried to line up in the back so that I could watch these guys run. It was a great race.
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wannabe
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posted November 04, 2003 08:07 PM
Not only is Chris the Division 4 champ, but he also won the King of the Coast championship earlier this year. Congratulations goes out to Chris for his great season.
One little side note about how great of a person Larry Eperjesi is.....Larry was cool enough to trailer Chris's bike back home. And, during the race, Larry let Chris use his pit area and his tools. How many guys do you know that would do that for someone you are competing with for a championship?
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kegie
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posted November 05, 2003 06:55 AM
There is something to be said about being the slowest one there. The slower you go the more consitant you seem to be. Also when you leave a secont or two in front of the guy next to you they get really antsee and have a tendency to red light. In bracket racing being consitant is better the being fast. If you are diled in at a time that is the fastes that you can do on the day and you have a suttle hickup in the beginging of the run there isnt any wat to make it up. The slower you are the less it hurts.
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wannabe
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posted November 05, 2003 01:59 PM
I partially agree with you, kegie. I know that it's really hard to cut a good light when you're leaving second. There are too many distractions going on in front of you when the other guy leaves first. Plus, word on the street is that the person who leaves second is more likely to redlight.
But, there's a huge advantage to having more horsepower than the other guy in bracket racing. It's much easier to pass the other guy and regulate the throttle enough to keep a wheel in front of the other guy than it is to try to back into him on the top end when he's got 10 or more mph on you.
So, even though I said that I was the slowest guy out there, that didn't necessarily mean that I was the most consistent. I think that everyone in the second round was a terror when it came to consistency. Everything else being equal, I'd rather be the guy going 160+ mph than the guy going 140mph.
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02zx12rbob
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posted November 05, 2003 06:42 PM
Looks like a good time, great pics too !
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ZXALAN
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posted November 05, 2003 06:43 PM
I can't believe Craig is still running the first generation cam chain tensioner on his bracket bike with the busa motor. That thing is a freakin time bomb! He better change that before next season or he will have a short one.
COOL PICS. I like the one with your lil trailer around all the big ones. LOL
BTW, atleast your trailer is enclosed, unlike my lil 4'X8' flat bed utility trailer.
I AM "trailer trash". LOL
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DR JOE
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posted November 05, 2003 07:08 PM
Hey Wannabe
Thanks for the great pictures. I got to meet Craig in Chicago and he was a real down to earth guy. He sign some of his pictures for all of us at the school. The best part was when I was looking at his bike he said can you please hold this for me. What was I going to say "NO" I said sure can I please sit on it and he said go ahead. So that was my first time to see a real NHRA Prostock bike up close and him. He stayed around and watch us make some passes. It was real cool to talk to him and see the bike.
Also Larry Eperjesi races PMRA with us and he won the 2003 Top Gas Championship.
How many bikes were there??? It looked like a hell of alot. Very nice turn out.
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wannabe
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Posts: 1931
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posted November 05, 2003 08:22 PM
Yeah, it was cool hanging out with Treble, but it was even cooler to see all the other guys treat him just like another Division 7 racer because he really was. What's cool is that Sean Connor also stopped by to drop off Chris LeBouef's bike. What's even cooler is that Sean remembered me from the Firebird (Phoenix) race earlier this season. And, to keep the name dropping going, we just about convinced Shawn Gann to race with us too this weekend. He said that he had another motor that he wanted to test. We told him that we do run a 0.400 pro tree, and we would be nice enough to help him pick a dial since he had never bracket raced before. It still amazes me that the boy went straight from street racing to pro-stock bikes.
Dr Joe, I'm glad you know Larry Eperjesi. He and his wife Donna are a class act. It still amazes me that with all the years he's been shooting gant hits to nitrous into his motors, he still has yet to blow any of them up. He told me that he used to shoot nitrous into his H2 back in the day. That must have been a scary ride.
As for the bike count, I think that there were 22 bikes running there this weekend. Two of them broke before eliminations, so that left 20 of us running for the Wally.
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