East Devon’s drag racing ace Mark ‘Wolfie’ Smith was in action at the opening of a new South West season of action when he rode at the Dakota Raceway meeting on the penultimate Saturday of March.
Amongst a large number of riders were ‘Wolfie’ and young Baxter Williams.
Smith was racing his bike using nitrous oxide for the first time, but the weather was unkind and so there were no record times on this occasion.
‘Wolfie’ says of the opening event of the new campaign: “The weather put paid to any hope of super fast times, but, as ever, it was great to be back on the bike and there was another great turnout for the event.”
He continued: “Young Baxter [Williams] was primed and ready to get up the strip as quick as possible and, taking into account the damp conditions, did a great job. His quickest on the day was 20.23, which is slightly off pace, but understandable given the conditions. The next meeting at Dakota Raceway is on April 28, when hopefully, things will be better in some late spring sunshine!”
At the meeting Baxter Williams was presented with the trophy he won as last year’s South West Champion.
‘Wolfie’ says: “Baxter scored a superb 406 points throughout last season and I am sure he will be looking for more success – and will enjoy it – in 2018. What must be said is a huge round of thanks – once again – to Big Paul’s of Cotford, Lets Talk Mobiles and Exmouth Motorcycles, the latter who came to our rescue when a nail was spotted in Baxter’s rear tyre, swapping it for a new one”
As for the Smith show with his new nitrous attachment, he clocked a time of 11.09, reaching a top speed of 143mph – but expects to be much, much quicker in better conditions!
Smith was racing with 45 per cent nitrous and now his prized bike goes back for some more tender loving care from Cross Customs of East Kirkby, Lincolnshire – they are nitrous tuning experts – and then down to Essex where Mark ‘Skinny’ Patman of DAA Racing, Southend, who will look after the engineering and fitting before the bike will be hooked up to the dyno (rolling road) for ultra fine tuning prior to being returned to East Devon for Smith to use at forthcoming meetings.
The final word then with Smith ,who says: “Although the net result from the first meeting was disappointing, the bottom line is that now, with many thanks to Texas NX Nitrous Express, I feel very confident that at some stage this year we will deliver the super fast time I know is now in the tank!”
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