Ray on the Triumph at its second meeting at Waiouru

After a brief fling with circuit racing bikes, Ray started drag racing. There was no point racing anything but the quickest, so a Top Fuel Bike was constructed by Ray and his brother Graham. The bike had a Hagon fuel injected, Shorrock supercharged 650 cc splayed port twin carb Triumph Bonneville motor. The cylinder head was reversed to accomodate the supercharger.

It debuted at a drag meeting held at Ardmore Aerodrome in 1972. The second meeting was at the Waiouru air force airstrip!! Ray competed at the opening meeting of New Zealands first purpose built dragstrip, Champion Dragway, in 1973 after first installing, with the help of his workmates and crew, the first set of digital drag racing timers in New Zealand.

Mark 3 Ford Zephyr powering the Triumphs starting rollers

The bike proved to be too hard to push start, so a set of rollers were made so that a car could be used to start the bike.

Many modifications followed. The cylinder barrels were replaced with Sonny Routt fabricated units for more capacity, which ended up as 810 cc. After the supercharged nitro fueled motor destroyed many factory crankcases, the crankcase was replaced with Puma cases. A small nosecone type fairing was added for aerodynamic purposes.

The first motorcycle drag racing slick imported into New Zealand was mounted to replace the street tyre shown in the above photo. It was an 4 inch wide Avon slick from England. An S&S carburettor replaced the original Hagon fuel injection and it in turn was later replaced by a 2 inch SU carburettor for more flow.

All these modifications contributed to the ETs dropping from 11 to 9 seconds. This bike was the first into the 11, 10, 9 seconds in New Zealand. The bike was retired after the Puma crankcases were destroyed. Its best ET was 9.5 seconds and best speed was 145 mph. The bike was sold to Ron Philips and saw many more seasons racing.

A supercharged Honda powered dragbike was then constructed. It used a Kosman frame, a 970 cc Honda motor, a Magnusson supercharger, Hilborn fuel injection, a Lenco 2 speed gearbox and an 8 inch Goodyear slick. This bike allowed Ray and Graham to resume their preferred position as number 1.

The supercharged Honda dragbike makes its first public appearance at a Hot Rod show in Auckland

Ray aboard the supercharged Honda dragbike at speed on Champion Dragway

On February 24, 1980 at Thunderpark, Hastings, Ray made more history by recording the first motorcycle 8 second pass in New Zealand, with an 8.756 second run at 159.01 mph. Ray eventually had personal bests of 8.463 sec and 166.66 mph in 1981, before retiring from dragbike racing. His records were not broken until 1991.

Ray won the New Zealand Nationals 7 times, 1974 to 76, 80, 81, 83 and 1984.

He made two trips to compete in Australia. The first was with the Triumph at Castlereagh and Surfers Paradise in 1973. He won the Surfers Paradise Speedweek meeting with a best time of 11.87. The second trip was with the Honda, to the 1981 Nationals held at Surfers Paradise. Ray top qualified, but was beaten in the final. His bests here were a pass of 8.79 seconds and a speed of 161.29 mph.

Ray later turned to four wheels and raced an XD Ford Falcon doorslammer. At the 1992 Nationals Ray became the first, and still the only, New Zealand drag racer to have recorded an 8 second pass on two and four wheels, when he ran a 8.831 at 148 mph in the Falcon. Following that car, Ray teamed up with Frank Bogart to campaign an alcohol Funny Car. With Frank driving they won Super Comp at the 1997 Nationals. Ray is currently the manager of Champion Dragway and runs a AA/D dragster with Harry Taylor driving.