Dunigan wins chilly Shootout

From Graeme Jones/canadiandragbike.com

Jason Dunigan (Jackson, MI) outlasted the competition on a chilly day to take home the championship at the 6th annual Suzuki Canadian Fastest Streetbike Shootout last Sunday.

Dunigan qualified on the pole, running the Grand Bend Motorplex quarter-mile in 7.464 seconds at 198.89 MPH. That run was the fastest ever by a Pro Street motorcycle on Canadian soil, barely 1 MPH short of 200.

Fellow Michigan racer Rob Budgell qualified in the second spot at 7.470/187.14. John Poretti was the quickest qualified Canadian, taking third on the ladder with a 7.88/171. Mike Bayes qualified fourth on his new turbocharged Kawasaki ZX-14 and ran the first seven-second pass by a Kawasaki in Canada, 7.904 at over 174 MPH.

The 14-bike field at Grand Bend was an event record for entries and the biggest Pro Street field ever assembled in Canada.

The top four qualifiers managed to get through the field to each earn a spot in the semi-finals. Dunigan's turbocharged RMR Hayabusa got the best of his teammate Bayes on the Kawi, running 7.67/177 to advance to the finals. On the other side of the ladder Budgell turned in three straight runs of 7.63, 7.61 and a 7.59 victory over Poretti to reach the final round.

An epic battle between the top two qualifiers was run just after 10pm in single-digit temps. Dunigan got the holeshot off the starting line but Budgell had made it up by the 60-foot mark. The two were still tight at half-track, where Budgell started to lose traction and lose ground, allowing Dunigan to pull ahead over the back stretch. The scoreboard lit up a 7.522 at 191.69 MPH in Dunigan's lane to a 7.74 at 164 MPH from Budgell's turbocharged '08 Busa.