Just who are the McIntyre's and how with limited road racing experience, did they blow off some of the baddest bikes in the world today? First of all the McIntyre brothers(Michael and Tracy) are identical twins, 31 year old, and own the Team Mr. Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, SeaDoo, Triumph, Ducati, Arcticcat, Tigershark, Shuttlecraft, Kasea dealership in El Paso, Texas. Which gives them plenty of toys to play with, and (we're only guessing) the bucks to go along with it.
The brothers started motocross racing at the age of 9 and as teens had dabbled in road racing bikes, but until 1995 never attempted open class racing or mounted such an intense program. Michael's interest in power boosting comes from a Chevy V8 background, culminating in the construction of several turbo charged drag bikes. The last of which ( a 355 horsepower FJ1200) sits on display in their showroom. And it's street legal. Tracy's interest in road racing load to the 1994 Secall challenge championship which gained him valuable experience that would eventually pay off in WERA's top class.
Now things get interesting, Michael figured that with his engine building prowess and Tracy's improving riding skills they would have a seriously good chance of successfully competing in formula-USA and WERA's unlimited classes and if all went well, could possibly take one of the championships.
It must have been a difficult decision in what bike to use, since they had their choice of Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, and Ducati motorcycles, right of the showroom floor. In 1994 thought, the best choice was the CBR900RR (Fireblade) Honda because of it's light weight and handling qualities. Work began with Michael constructing his first ever road racing turbo system. He built a unique four into one header that mounted the turbo in front of the engine and up close to the exhaust ports for a more direct shot to the exhaust turbine. He designed his own boost control system and blow-through carburation intake plenum. The compression ratio was lowered slightly and that was about it with the exception of about 30 days worth of dyno time sorting out the carburation and other details. Things looked encouraging as the relatively stock engine was producing about 215 horsepower to the rear wheel at low boost and 250 horsepower at higher levels. The next step track testing.
Since there wasn't a road racing facility in their general area that they could use, the brothers decided to pack up the RV and head for Willow Springs Raceway in the Mojave desert just north of Palmdale, California. There they discovered the wonderful world of wheel stands and eyeball squishing acceleration beyond their dreams and expectations.
The bike handled well and the power delivery was seamless. About the only changes that were necessary would involve lengthening the swing arm two inches to help control wheel stands coming out of turns and some minor suspension tweaks. Other than that, they were ready to go racing. An additional bike was built with stock compression to make it a two man attack and to test the system on a basically stock CBR900. They were obviously thinking turbo kit at this point.
Next was the WERA open class Round #1 at the Texas World Speedway, which Michael (holding down first place at the time) crashed out of, but brother Tracy went on to win, passing the leader on the last lap. In the next five WERA events Tracy McIntyre had acumulated 79 points to second place Steve Patterson's (GSX-R1100) 72 points and brother Michael's second Place tying 72 points. Without belaboring and as previously mentioned, the brothers and crew chief dad(Gene) took the WERA unlimited class Championship in their first try. Something nobody else has ever done before.
SPORT RIDER MAGAZINE UFO SHOOT-OUT
Anyone that reads Sport Rider Magazine knows all about the annual UFO shoot out. But, for those who are not familiar with the contest, I'll explain. Every year the editor of Sport Rider chooses five to six of the fastest street bikes in America to compete against each other in a series of venues that include street riding, drag racing, road racing, and top speed trials. Pretty much in that order.
This year's round up included the Sims Engineering supercharged GSX-R1216 Suzuki, a Hahn Racecraft GSX-R1117 turbo Suzuki, Hyper-Cycle's normally aspirated Suzuki GSX-R1146 Superteams road racer, John Vote's Horsepower Unlimited built GPz880 factory turbo bike, Attack Racing's normally aspirated Yamaha YZF1040 rapli-racer and of course the subject of this article, Team Mr's CBR900RR Formula-USA/WERA turbo road racer.
All the bikes are supposed to be street legal. This year, with the exception of the Mike Chestnut built GPz880, the term street legal is to put it bluntly, broad in it's definition. But, who cares. They all had license plates. And without getting into a lot of detail on the other bikes present, the Team Mr.
Honda did quite well overall, even without a fairing. Unfortunately without the fairing it would only run to a little over 187 MPH. Everyone thought it as probably the best street bike of the bunch as it narowly won that category. At the drag strip it came in second to the Hahn Racecraft tubo/injected Suzuki with a 9.03 second ET at 154.6 MPH. Very impresive and at the road course venue it was bested only by the HyperCycle Suzuki. The Suzuki set a new shoot-out record at 1:49.90 seconds, but the turbo Honda wasn't far behind at 1:50.71 seconds. If it had a fairing for the top speeds trials, it may have taken the whole shoot-out. But, there's always next year.
Powertech Quarterly Magazine Volume 1 Number 2 Winter 1996-97 by Joe Haile