Bad Luck Puts Moore in the Winner's Circle

On Saturday, May 9, Rick Moore made his debut at the Thunder Valley Raceway in Noble, Oklahoma. He qualified second place and went on to win the Funny Bike class of the Professional Motorcycle Racing Association (PMRA) event.

But his weekend was hardly 'funny." In fact, it was actually a series of unlucky events which got him to the winner's circle. '

Apparently, Moore's connecting flight from Chicago was overbooked, and he was stranded overnight. He was to return early the next morning for an 8am departure, however, that flight was cancelled.

He ended up taking a flight to team owner, Mike Bahnmaier's home town of Wichita, Kansas (but of course, the airline could not guarantee that his luggage and leathers would get re-routed to the correct destination). At this point, the plan was to haul booty from Wichita Airport to Noble, Oklahoma (a 3-hr drive minimum) - by 2pm, for first round qualifying.

The Mid-Continent Team pulled into the track just in time, at 1:30pm. Everyone worked feverishly to get the bike to the line. But Moore's bad luck streak didn't end in Wichita. They missed the call when they fired the bike in the pits and the pump seal failed, creating a massive nitro leak. Good news, though. This would be an easy fix for the Master Technician, Crew Chief/Tuner, and AHDRA Pro-Wrench of the Year - Mike Bahnmaier.

Second round would have to be better. Not! 300 feet out, the nitro Harley smoked the tire and the pass amounted to a mere 7.80 seconds.

The Team was still optimistic as they prepared for a third round. At the hit of the throttle, the bike was on a good pass and ran a 4.46 in the eighth at 170mph. Just past the grandstands, a gust of wind blew the 100-pound rider into the wall, grinding the foot peg, the outboard bearing support bolts, his boot, and brand new leathers, too! This slowed the bike down to a 7.17, which was good enough for #2 qualifier.

First round of eliminations, Mid-Continent Motorsport's Harley spun its tire, dropped a hole, and broke the chain at eighth mile mark. But the competition struggled even more, and the Harley advanced to round number 2.

Moore's opponent was unable to fire during second round eliminations. He broke the beam and progressed to the finals.

he Mid-Continent Motorsports team is supported by: Harley-Davidson of Salina, Mike's Metal Polishing of Ransom, KS, Gates Corporation, Saum Engineering, CP pistons, Nungesser Engineering, CMMR, and the Nevada Auto Mall. For more information, go to www.mooreperformanceracing.com.