Well the Maxton October Nitrous 250 Shootout was held under gorgeous weather conditions of sunny, cool air, and some tailwinds. Unfortunately the nitrous bottles don’t exactly like cold temperatures if you want the bottle pressure to actually push out some nitrous to join the extra fuel you are adding. We had all three of the expected 250s show up. Eric (Dark Horse Racing) and I (Moto Madcap) both made it through Tech Inspection Friday afternoon without any defects found. Since the September meet Eric had rebuilt his engine and clutch and added a new methanol tank to go with the NOS as well as a gorgeous new much more streamlined aluminum custom gas tank. I had repaired my exhaust pipe and added a bottle heater for the NOS.
Then we went out to dinner together and spoke eloquently about all the amazing merits of our bikes and just how fast they would be on Saturday
Meanwhile Ali (RnR Cycles) was working feverishly in his shop all through the night to get his Kawasaki Ninja 250 built with a Nitrous system installed.
Saturday dawned cold and clear with a mild headwind. I decided to wait for the afternoon’s warmth and expected mild tailwind. That way my bottle heater would not have to fight the 45deg cold and the engine would not have to fight the headwind. Eric tried to fire up his bike in the morning but it refused. Then we switched it to my DocZ roller starter and found out his Ninja also did not want to change into 2nd gear, like something was jammed inside. So Eric pulled his carbs apart and found something amiss inside. He had just finished rebuilding his engine from last month so he is very familiar with how it looks inside. But it still would not shift, so he pulls his engine completely out of the bike and puts it in the back of his van. There he splits the cases and carefully inspects the clutch and tranny. He finds some small pieces of metal, probably part of last month’s piston, one of which was jammed in the gears. So once that is cleaned up he reassembles everything. He eventually gets it fired up in time to make a run in the afternoon!
Meanwhile I work my way up to the line. Because of my inefficient mounting the bottle heater can only get the pressure up to 800psi. I make a run with the engine sounding happy, firing the nitrous just before the ¾ mile mark and I put down a 125.1mph speed on my prior record of 108 in the APS/BF-250/4 class.
Eric finally gets to run his yellow Ninja at about 5pm. But on the run he said the engine kept feeling like the clutch was acting up. Then when he fired his new methanol/NOS it made a bang heard even in the pits. He said he had been up to 108mph then coasted through the trap at 91. The highs and lows of Nitrous.
Now finally Ali shows up with a new nitrous system on his old Ninja250 which he has also lowered both in the front and rear. He gets through tech inspection and rolls up to the waiting line but to no avail. Track is shut down for the night with both Ali and myself almost to the front of the line.
Sunday morning Ali makes his 1st run which he says is a shakedown to make sure the chassis is good and stable. It is and he briefly fires his nitrous with low pressure in the bottle and goes 117.4mph. An hour later he and I go again 3 runs apart. I have my fastest time of the meet at 125.5mph! Ali then goes through with pulsed Nitrous firing this time in 5th and 6th gear and goes through with new record of 122.0mph! This beat the MPS/F-250/4 class record of 119. Later in the day he did several more runs with his best increasing the record to 122.4mph.
So the Maxton Nitrous 250 Shootout came to a close with me retaining the title of Fastest 250/4 though I did not beat my track record of 126.6 set last month. Congratulations to Ali as he now has wrested the Worlds Fastest Ninja 250 crown from Eric.
I need to say kudos to Becca and Dan of Chicago Vintage Racing for bringing an absolutely gorgeous 1954 BMW R25/3 250cc single and setting multiple records in the Pushrod 250 classes. Their fastest was 72.0mph in the Production Pushrod class with Becca as rider. She was just a little bit excited by that. I would also like to congratulate Zack Millholland of Team Millholland for getting the fastest ever all-motor 250/4 at 118.6mph!! Nice job on their Ninja. I can't wait until April to see what everyone does over the winter. I hope everyone has enjoyed reading our Maxton Mile 250cc hype and adventures. We have had a blast this year!