Life's anything but a drag for racing's Brookes team

The bike ran at an impressive 9.9 seconds over a quarter of a mile at more than 130mph, with plenty of room for improvement. The bike is still in need of a custom fuel map and front fairings.

Previously Brookes, from Barnham, has competed in the Supertwins ET drag racing class with the National Association of Supertwins (NAST), an organisation dedicated to the drag racing of single-engine twin cylinder motorcycles in the UK.

He won the Supertwin ET Championship trophy last year with his nitroused Suzuki TL1000R, taking home a number of wins and high-ranked placings.

For the 2012 race season he has built a bike to compete in Top Gas, an engineering class for v-twin drag motorcycles, which will be ridden by his wife Joanna Brookes.

Built in just four-and-a-half months, the motorcycle is a one-off build based on a TL1000R engine. The frame is custom-made by Martin and race team member Shane Van-Outen, based on a previous design used by previous Top Gas champion and club vice-chairman Les Harris.

The wheelie bar and all precision machining are courtesy of Steve-o and Rob of Wynn Engineering, and Paul Milbourne, builder of the show-winning chop Weird Fish, provided his skills in tig welding.

The bike has since been to Doubletake Motorcycles, Southampton, to have the fuel mapping set up. They have achieved an additional 20bhp from the original output.

With sponsors including NGK Spark Plugs and Rock Oil, the team are appealing to the interests of many of the high-end manufacturers as recognition for one man’s passion and dedication to the sport.

Rider Joanna is already recognised as a worthy competitor, winning drag racing awards at events both on Martin’s previous motorcycle and her own street bike, the most notable being awards for the fastest lady at the 2008 and 2011 Bulldog Bash events at Avon Park, Stratford-on-Avon. The class is open to engineering performance enhancements only, including superchargers and turbochargers.

After this season, Martin’s future plans for the championships are for a supercharger and to further develop the bike to run to its full potential at the Bonneville Salt Flats in the USA.

Joanna, Martin and the bike can be seen racing throughout the year at the national championships at Santa Pod in Northampton and Avon Park, Stratford-upon-Avon.

The dates and competition results can be found at www.supertwins.co.uk