Doc’s Harley-Davidson Street Bike Shootout Series events held each Tuesday at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois.
All motorcycles compete utilizing street equipment including Department of Transportation (D.O.T.) approved tires without wheelie bars. All other modifications are permitted. SBSS Track Records can be set during the two official qualifying sessions or championship rounds. The first official Street Bike Shootout qualifying period begins at approximately 7:00 PM, (barring unforeseen circumstances), and the second official qualifying session begins at approximately 8:30 PM. At approximately 10:00 PM, the four quickest qualifiers meet in no-handicap eliminations advancing two winners to the championship final round.
GATEWAY INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, MADISON, ILLINOIS
2009 DOC’S STREET BIKE SHOOTOUT SERIES TRACK RECORDS
Class Name Hometown ST Vehicle Engine ET MPH Date
SBSS Eric Sanzottera, St. Peters, MO 03 GSX1100 Suzuki 8.087 04/08/2009
SBSS Eric Sanzottera, St. Peters, MO 03 GSX1100 Suzuki 185.14 04/08/2009
APRIL 8th, 2009 DOC’S STREET BIKE SHOOTOUT SERIES QUALIFIERS
Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle Engine ET MPH Date
EVENT 02 04/08/2009
1 Eric Sanzottera St. Peters MO 03 GSX1100 1100 Suz 8.205 174.08
2 Janie Palm Bunker Hill IL 02 Hayabusa 1300 Suz 9.195 146.32
3 Charles Willis Bunker Hill IL 04 Hayabusa 1300 Suz 9.332 152.04
4 Ed Biggs Lake St. Louis MO 94 GSX1100R 1100 Suz 9.467 138.47
APRIL 8th, 2009 DOC’S STREET BIKE SHOOTOUT SERIES ELIMINATIONS
Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle R.T. ET MPH
Round One:
W Eric Sanzottera St. Peters MO 03 GSX1100 0.519 8.087 185.49
RU Damon Willingham Cahokia IL 06 Hayabusa 0.059 10.198 138.48
W John Foiles Caseyville IL 03 Hayabusa 0.051 9.471 146.27
RU Ed Biggs Lake St. Louis MO 94 GSX1100R 0.633 9.419 119.40
Final Round:
W Eric Sanzottera St. Peters MO 03 GSX1100 0.321 8.323 176.58
RU John Foiles Caseyville IL 03 Hayabusa -0.160 (foul) 9.531 138.87
To kick off a brand new season of competition with a huge format revision, two-time and defending season champion Eric Sanzottera debuted his own radical changes and ushered in a new era of performance in the first event of the 2009 Doc’s Harley-Davidson Street Bike Shootout Series at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois.
The series, originally contested on Wednesday nights at GIR, moved to Tuesday evenings for 2009 with the provision for any event cancelled by weather to be rescheduled for the following day, (Wednesday). After the first race of the SBSS was revised to a test session with the installation of GIR’s new fiber-optic timing system, rain forced the rescheduling of the first official SBSS Tuesday program to Wednesday, April 8th.
Another format change involved the addition of another qualifying session to give competitors two chances to be one of the four quickest entries. However, Sanzottera opened the season in spectacular fashion long before the first official qualifying period ever began. At first glance, the renowned candy red 2003 Suzuki GSX1100 which has dominated the SBSS for two full seasons appeared to be untouched since its most recent victory at the next-to-last event of 2008 on October 1st. However, closer inspection of the flagship for the QuickTime Motorsports fleet revealed the addition of a turbocharger in place of the nitrous oxide injection system used to set the SBSS Elapsed Time and Speed Records of 8.13 seconds and 181.72 miles per hour almost two years ago. “It was time for a change in our approach to street bike competition both on the AMA/Dragbike series and here at Gateway”, said Eric’s brother and crew chief, Rudy Sanzottera. “It’s not really a completely new engine. We simply took the nitrous system off and added a 54mm turbocharger. In fact, the nitrous ports are still in the cylinder head epoxied closed! Of course, most of the internal parts have been ‘freshened up’, too. We’ve wanted to run in the seven-second zone in the Doc’s series for two years and we knew we needed to step up our program if we were going to do it. The turbo combination has already shown us much more power in testing and at the first AMA event of the year. Now, it’s a matter of figuring out how to get it to the ground with a street tire and no wheelie bar”.
Although the QuickTime team has tested at Gateway several times since opening day, Eric Sanzottera decided to make a pass during early timed trials before the first official qualifying period. With a relatively soft 1.45-second sixty-feet elapsed time, the burgundy GSX1100 thundered to a 5.442/144.47 eighth-mile and shot to an incredible 8.12 at a whopping 186.10 miles per hour! Although it couldn’t be certified as a record since it was not recorded during official qualifying or eliminations rounds, it was still one hundredth of a second quicker and an amazing 4.38 mph faster than the marks set by Sanzoterra in 2007!
Sanzottera’s run was made when the track was still heated by the sun and, as the night progressed, the track became substantially cooler, (dropping from 79 degrees to 56 by the end of the event). Although the corrected altitude eventually fell to seventy feet below sea level, restraint was the order of the event for the QuickTime team. In the official qualifying sessions, Sanzottera put down an an early shut-off 8.20/174.08 on a run which featured better progressive times, (1.43 and 5.40/145.11), than the 8.12/186 timed trial. Janie Palm, GIR’s most successful female motorcycle rider, and her longtime companion, Charles Willis, qualified their Hayabusas in the second and third positions but withdrew from competition before eliminations, allowing for two alternates to be inserted into the field.
In the first match of the semi-finals, Sanzottera met alternate Damon Willingham’s charcoal-tinted Hayabusa. Allowing a half-second holeshot, Eric eased to a 1.45-second “sixty” but stepped up to an incredible 5.38-second eighth-mile ET. As Willingham fought a wheelstand, the QuickTime beast blasted to both ends of the SBSS record with an astonishing 8.08 at 185.49 mph! The other half of the semis included qualifier Ed Biggs’ absolutely gorgeous purple-on-silver ‘94 GSXR against the uniquely-colored ‘03 Hayabusa of alternate John Foiles. Grabbing a monstrous holeshot, Foiles made the most of his second chance with a 9.47/146.27 victory against Bigg’s quicker 9.41 losing effort!
In the final round, a cold track forced Rudy Sanzottera to back down the power to avoid tire spin but the QuickTime Suzuki still lost a bit of traction off the starting line. Foiles pushed the ’Tree to its limits and fouled while Eric Sanzottera streaked to his nineteenth career SBSS victory with an 8.32/176.58.
“This turbo deal is all new but the biggest news we had for the 2009 season was the addition of Big St. Charles Motorsports as a major sponsor on the bike”, said an elated Eric during winner circle festivities in front of the main grandstand. “This really is a big deal; it’s a brand new outlet in the bi-state area for just about everything involving motorcycles. I mean everything. They sell Suzukis, Hondas, Yamahas, Kawasakis and parts for all of them. It’s an absolutely huge place. They just opened and they’ve got a lot of cool promotions planned for the year, too”.
Foiles was just happy with his first final-round appearance in the first attempt with his Total Lawn/Secom Communications-backed Suzuki. “There wasn‘t much I could do racing against Eric. I had to try for a holeshot and even that didn’t work out too well. Still, the bike ran great and it’s getting quicker each outing. It’s a naturally-aspirated bike. There’s no ‘spray’ or turbo on this thing”. And about that wild color applied to the Foiles ‘Busa? “It’s something one of my sponsors wanted and it definitely stands out. Officially, it’s called ’Emergency Green Metallic’ but, with this paint, I can find my bike anywhere!”.
DOC’S STREET BIKE SHOOTOUT SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS (as of APRIL 9th, 2009)
Pos Points Name
1 (3) Eric Sanzottera St. Peters MO 03 GSX1100 1100 Suz
2 (1) Charles Willis Bunker Hill IL 04 Hayabusa 1300 Suz
3 (1) Janie Palm Bunker Hill IL 03 Hayabusa 1300 Suz
4 (1) Ed Biggs Lake St. Louis MO 94 GSX1100R 1100 Suz
5 (1) John Foiles Caseyville IL 03 Hayabusa 1300 Suz
6 (1) Damon Willingham Cahokia IL 06 Hayabusa 1300 Suz
NOTE: Points toward the 2009 Doc’s Street Bike Shootout Series Season Championship are awarded on the basis of one (1) point for qualifying in the Final Four field with one (1) bonus point awarded for winning the first round of eliminations and one (1) bonus point awarded for winning the final round of eliminations. Ties are broken by (1) the earliest date upon which the final point total is earned, (2) quickest elapsed time recorded during the current SBSS season and (3) fastest speed recorded during the current SBSS season.
Photos of the April 8th Street Bike Shootout Series event are now available for viewing at Bret Kepner Photos.com.
Eric Sanzottera, St. Peters, MO 2003 Suzuki GSX1100R
Eric Sanzottera and the QuickTime/Big St. Charles Motorsports team
John Foiles, Caseyville, IL 2003 Suzuki Hayabusa GSX1300R