Mickey Thompson Performance Tires MiRock Superbike Series
event: Fast by Gast WPGC Bike Fest
when: July 17-18, 2010
where: Maryland International Raceway in Budd’s Creek, MD, USA
Johnson Goes Big in Crazy 8’s
story and photos by Tim Hailey
Robert “Crossroads” Johnson
Robert “Crossroads” Johnson worked his way through a 52 bike House of Speed Crazy 8’s field to meet Dr. Rick Bunting in the final. Bunting ran .009 off the index, but gave up too much to Johnson’s .012 light at the tree and Johnson took the win. “Wow, what a weekend!” said Johnson, who just bought this bike from HTP master chef Wayne “Silver Fox” Robertson. “It was only the second weekend out on my new ‘08 Busa and we pulled off a victory!”
“How about that guy?” said Robertson. “They call him Lil’ Rob and he is good. He cut through that field like it was butter, putting points leader (Eddie Who) Chapman out first round and it was only Rob’s second time on the bike!”
“This new Crazy 8's index class seems to be a great sportsmen class, because you can take your average Joe such as myself and pull a rabbit out of the hat and bring home a win,” said Johnson.
And Bunting agrees. “I was entering in ET and someone mentioned Crazy 8’s,” said Rick, who earned the title Dr. as the owner of The Cycle Clinic back in the day. “I hadn’t even heard of the class, but I thought the bike would do it. The first round I ran 8.70, hitting the button for the second stage of the turbo in second gear. The second pass I thought ‘Well, I‘ll hit the button in third gear.’” That bit of wisdom was good enough to nearly hit the number dead-on—8.884, good enough for number 2 qualifier. “We laughed, because we know how hard that is to do and it just happened.”
Dr. Rick Bunting
Rick decided to take his 19 year-old son and new drag racer Richie to the event, and Richie was doing well Saturday night until the last few Pro ET rounds were postponed ‘til Sunday morning. “It takes him an hour to wake up,” said Rick, and Richie lost first thing in the AM with a .161 light. “But I guess it took an hour and a half. I tried slapping him around Sunday morning.”
Rick’s closest round was against Caleb McDougald. “It was a one or two thousandths win, then I smoked the clutch in the quarters. They were running us round robin and now I’ve got to change my clutches!” Bunting, who now runs RB Motorsports in Northumberland, PA, did the job good enough to nail an .024 on Darnell Young in the semi, but slowed to an .051 in the final with Johnson.
“Some may say beginners luck, and I may have to agree!” Johnson said about his win. “An .012 reaction time in the finals was one lucky straw, especially when your opponent runs an 8.889 and you still pull off a victory. One more time—‘Wow what a weekend!’ This was my first Crazy 8's race that I had participated in, and I hope not to be the last.”
“We will be in Rockingham and try to get some more points and see how he can do in a short chase for the 8.88 championship,” said Robertson. “Rob has a talent of being able to focus on the tree I haven't seen too often. We look forward to watching him in Quick 32 at the Rock also on a full tree. Not too many can flip back on forth on Sunday.
“It you were to take that bike with our four different riders and four MiRock events, it would be 100 points in the lead. Wish I had made the rule that bikes get the points for the $1100.00 point fund we started. But it’s a great class and just look at the entry list of pros you get to race with. Great job to Jason Miller putting the 8.88 class together for the guys to have an index class to run and show their skills on a pro tree.”
Dr. Rick Bunting
Bunting, a former Pro Mod racer and longtime associate of Paul Gast, had a blast. “I hadn’t been to Maryland in a long time, since before they’ve done all those track improvements,” said Dr. Rick. “Richie just started running a dragbike, so I wanted to take him down there. I thought ‘I have this ‘Busa for sale, I might as well take it down.’ It was a good time. I’ll probably go down in October. It’ll be cooler then.”
“Last I would like to say ‘Thanks’ to everyone that helped me to pull this one off,” finished Johnson.