Man Cup presented by Vance & Hines
41st annual Man Hill Garage World Finals
South Georgia Motorsports Park
November 16-19, 2017

words by Tom McCarthy

DME Racing All-Star Shootout Coverage

The DME All-Star Shootout, for the second year in a row, kicked off on Thursday as part of the 41st Annual Man Cup Mann Hill Garage World Finals. The race-within-a-race, which pits the best in Pro Street bike competition head-to-head for $10,000 cash is popular with the baddest Pro Street bike racers, and they showed up in force for qualifying on day one of this five-day event.

It was a fast paced very tough day of racing for the Pro Street bikes, they were allowed one test hit between 11AM and 12 Noon, with the caveat that Q-1 was looming in the 12 O’clock hour. Because there were a few racers who rolled in late to the pits, Man Cup slid the schedule a bit, to allow them time to get ready. Qualifying began just after 12:30 and lanes 2 and 3 were full of Pro Street bikes.

After round one of qualifying, because it kicked off a tad late, this made the call for Q-2 come up quicker and the pressure was on for everyone. This furious pace was necessary to fit in two rounds of qualifying and two rounds of eliminations, between 12:30PM and 5:30 PM. That’s right, four rounds of Pro racing in five hours. It was fast paced and the competition was furious.

With two rounds of qualifying completed, the man to beat emerged as Mark Paquette, of Howell MI. His 6.74 elapsed time was just a tick better than Jeremey Teasley’s 6.77 and Ehren Litten’s 6.79 time slip. These numbers are the best indication of how tight the racing would be for this prestigious event. 30 Pro Street motorcycles, the world’s quickest and meanest, showed up to feed, and eat the weak they did.

As E-1 kicked off, Frankie Stotz, the #30 qualifier, was no match for Mark Paquette, and Justin Shakir, Chris Connelly, Rodney Williford, Steve Venables, Dave Roisen, Jake Henderson, Jeremey Teasley, Mike Kovacevich, Gabe Fredrick, Brandon Mitchan, Ehren Litten, Rudy Sanzottera, Bud Yoder and Jason Angela – all won their first round match ups.

Round two of eliminations kicked off, under the lights at SGMP and the lighting system at South Georgia Motorsports Park is just delightful. The entire track, including the shutdown area is well lit, making it a real joy for the fans, as well as safer for the racers.

Mark Paquette led off the round with a bye run, stopping the timers at 6.92 seconds. Then Justin Shakir took out Chris Connelly, (7.01 vs 7.02), Rodney Williford stormed to victory over Steve Venables (6.73 vs 10.64), Dave Roisen over Jake Henderson (7.29 Vs 7.41), Jeremy Teasley over Mike Kovacevich (6.94 vs 7.38), Gabe Fredrick defeated Brandon Mitchan (6.97 vs 7.03), Ehren Litten eliminated Rudy Sanzottera (6.88 Vs 7.05) and Bud Yoder posted a 6.81 while Jason Angela broke. This action pares down the competition filed to the elite-eight, Paquette-Shakir, Williford-Roisen, Teasley-Fredrick, and Litten-Yoder; who are all headed for E-3, during Friday’s racing.

After round 2 of eliminations, racing stopped for the day and the entire Pro Street field and their crew headed over to the Midway for a free dinner provided by Dunigan Racing.

Pro Street Shootout Sponsored Prize Winners

Thank you to all the performance companies that contributed to our over 30K in prizes for the 2nd Annual DME Racing All-Star Shootout. To see the complete list of prizes that were awarded, click here to view the prize list.

• APE Hayabusa Stainless Steel Valves – Justin Doucet
• APE Adjustable Cam Sprocket Set – Steve Venables
• Cycle Gear Sedici Helmet – Frankie Stotz
• Cycle Gear Sedici Gloves – Chris Connelly Jr.
• DME Racing Swingarm – Ehren Litten
• HTP Fuel System – Rocky Tinker
• Man Cup Tech Card – Brant Rossi
• MPS Racing $250 Product Certificate – Rodney Williford
• MRE $250 Transmission Service Certificate – Mike Kavos
• MTC $300 Product Certificate – Jordan Haase
• Penske Shock – Mark Gargiulo
• Portable Shade Crew Shirts – Ryan Hable
• Pro Street Luck $100 for R/T in Eliminations – Sydney Marshall
• Robinson Industries Billet Output Shaft – Gaige Herrera
• Rob Bush Motorsports  M2 Shock Certificate – Jamie Lopes
• Schnitz Racing $200 Product Certificate – Jason Angela
• Two Wheel Werkz Electric Water Pump – Jeremy Teasley
• Vanson & Hines Cylinder Service – Sydney Marshall
• Vanson Leathers $800 Certificate – Dave Roisen
• Vanson Leathers $400 Certificate – Brad Christian
• Williford Racing $500 Cylinder Head Porting  Service – Mike Bayes
• Wossner $300 Product Credit – Mogens Lund
• Wossner $200 Product Credit – Justin Shakir
• Worldwide Bearings Wheel and Engine Bearing Combo Kit – Jake Henderson

When racing resumed on Friday, the elite-eight going into the next round was a whos-who of Pro Street bad-boys. It started off with Bud Yoder and Ehren Litten on the starting line and it was one tight even match up. Yoder’s .033 RT was better than Litten’s .040, but only by seven-thousands of a second. As they screamed down track, it was a hell of a drag race with Bud Yoder’s 6.812 just a whisper ahead of Ehren Litten’s 6.811. At the moment they crossed the finish line, neither racer knew who won that one.

Then Jeremey Teasley matched up with Gabe Fredrick. Jeremey’s .114 RT was almost his undoing as the .098 RT of Gabe, gave him a half a bike off the line. But the DME horses under Jeremey allowed him to reel in Gabe, and at the finish line it was Teasley with the win light in another very close race 6.79 to 6.82 respectively.

David Roisen then had the task of playing David vs. Goliath by facing Rodney Williford in the next matchup. Williford had been going progressively quicker every pass since Thursday, so Roisen KNEW he had to chop the tree on the deadly W in the next lane. David’s -.001, was a valiant effort, but a red light is a red light and Rodney answered with a 6.70 performance, just the same.

The last pair out for the round was again – just phenomenal racing by great racers. Justin Shakir, knowing he was facing a monster, with Mark Paquette in the next lane, went for the jugular at the flicker of green and produced a .001 reaction time – which was not quick enough! Paquette knowing his opponent was after a starting line advantage gave Shakir a perfect .000 reaction time! Out on the 1320, once the bikes left the line, it was all Mark Paquette with his 6.71 elapsed time becoming no match for Justin’s off-pace 7.29.

Barely one hour later, when the final four came to the line, the conditions were, great with cool air and sunny skies greeting the racers. Jeremey Teasley with Bud Yoder matched up first. Yoder got out on Jeremy with a .048 RT to JT’s, .082, and that made for wheel-to-wheel close racing, all the way to the stripe. Jeremy’s 6.80 to Bud’s 6.86 presented yet another too-close-to-call race for all to see. This sent Jeremy Teasley to the finals and a crack at $10,000.

The next pair set the stage for the final round matchup. Rodney Williford’s 6.73 was no match for Mark Paquette’s troubled 7.89, so it was game-on for Teasley vs. Williford.

In the late afternoon, as the sun was setting, the two big guns brought all their best to the starting line with a full contingent of Pro Street faithful lined up behind the racers to see the final match-up of the DME All-Star Shootout. With ten large on the line, in cash, and a humongous trophy created by DME Racing: this was it!

Rodney Williford was off the line first with a conservative .073 reaction time to Jeremey’s .087, and they stormed down the track side-by-side giving the crowd the most thrilling matchup of the day. When the win light came on in Rodney Williford’s lane, his crew went wild! His 6.73 to Teasley’s 6.76 was all it took to end the day giving Williford Racing the trophy for the second year in a row. In 2016 teammate Ehren Litten took the win in the inaugural DME Racing All-Star Shootout.

Round-by-Round Video Coverage

Shootout Gallery

Editor’s Note

Personal thanks to Jason Dunigan, Dave Dunigan, Chris Connelly, and Dimey Eddinger for putting up so much of their own cash to make this event happen. To all the performance companies that were willing to post prizes and all the racers that showed up a day early to support this event. You guys make all the hard work for these events worth it.

– Brandi and the entire Dragike.com team.