Michael Philips doesn’t claim to be an NFL General Manager but he knew a good player when he saw one on the waiver wire earlier this week.
Philips, of Baton Rouge, La, and rider of the Racers Edge-sponsored Suzuki put Craig Treble to work shortly after Don Schumacher Racing ceased operation of their Pro Stock Motorcycle team.
Last weekend in Chicago, Treble was the No. 1 qualifier. After the first day of qualifying at the NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, NJ, Phillips borrowed a measure of Treble’s momentum to claim provisionally the No. 1 spot with a 6.855, 197.16 pass.
“I had been fighting this bike and was unable to get it off of the starting line the way it needed to but [Craig] Treble came over and showed me a few things on the clutch,” said Philips, who established both ends of the track record on the run. “We’ve always had big power, just couldn’t get the big to run to the 330. I knew if we could get to the 330, we could beat the [track] record.”
The current national ET record is a 6.847 held by Karen Stoffer while Andrew Hines holds the speed mark at 197.45.
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