Riding With the Keytes
Riding With The Keytes
"Superbike Mike" Keyte and his wife Kathy race a Pro Stock KZ1000 Kawasaki.
Mike rides, and Kathy crews.
“We do it because it’s fun,” says Mike. “We like the competition, it gives us a chance to travel, to see new things, meet new people—and it beats the hell out of flying a desk.”
The Keytes, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are a privateer operation—no factory bucks here. “We foot most of the bills ourselves and it costs plenty,” says Mike, a former accountant. “I have a cylinder head porting business in Florida (Superbike Mike Engineering) and we do development work and testing for MTC Engineering, Orient Express, Goodyear, NGK, Manley Valves, Gerex, VP Racing Fuel, Kosman and Tsubaki Chain. Kathy is a partner in a valve and sprinkler system
company. We make some money, but a factory ride is the only way to go.”
At the races, Kathy Keyte handles the between-round chores. “If Mike needs a jet change or something like that, that’s what I get to do. He handles the rough stuff like dropping the pan to check the transmission or rebuilding the motor if it breaks.” On the starting line, Kathy handles the starting procedures. She wheels the kid-sized red wagon with its car-sized batteries and remote starter motor to the burnout box. After giving Mike a good luck kiss on the face shield, she connects the starter to the end of the crankshaft and fires the bike. Next, Kathy observes the burnout, directs the staging position and watches the run. All the while, she records exactly what bike and rider do on a mini cassette recorder. “Everything happens so quickly (during a pass) that nobody can remember all the little details. So, we started recording everything that happens. I watch to see if the bike goes left or right, or the tire smokes or the wheelie bars are right. I watch everything and make notes on the recorder. We both go over the tape after the run and make corrections.”
Superbike Mike and Wife Kathy Are Drag Racing’s Fastest Privateers
Joel Breault
The tape recorder trick has paid off. At Fremont, Superbike Mike set a new NMRA Pro Stock mile per hour record of 54.63—beating Terry Vance’s record by few hundredths of a second.
At the NMRA Suzuki Nationals, held Orange County Raceway, Mike and Kathy had problems. “This is a crazy business,” said Keyte shaking his head. “One week we have the perfect combination of power, chassis and tire. The next week, everything falls apart.”
After qualifying his bright red Kawasaki in the third spot with an 8.81/ 153.84, Keyte went to the line against John Mafaro in round one. “He couldn’t get the power to the track,” said Kathy. “The bike left hard and broke the tire loose a few feet from the start. The tire slip added a couple of tenths.”
“We’ve got too much power for the chassis and tire,” said a disappointed Superbike Mike. “I gave back all the points I got at Fremont. I guess that’s what keeps drag racing interesting.”
Regardless of the results at the Suzuki Western Nationals, the Keytes have been doing very well. By racing all three sanctions (IDBA, NMRA and Dragbike), they’ve set records in the eighth mile, won races and finished runner-up in IDBA races, set the mph record in NMRA Pro Stock and won a couple Dragbike races. Mike credits his motor work with his success.
“Everybody always ports the intakes,” says Mike. “But we’ve pretty much reached the limits of intake design. We’re getting more horsepower from playing with the exhaust ports, pipes and combustion chambers. Our secret is in the combustion chamber. For years, everybody went for porting and polishing. This is okay on roadracers, but not for dragracers. Fuel will atomize faster in a hot motor that has smooth, very polished ports and chambers. Drag motors don’t get as hot as roadracers so we leave the port walls rough as cement to promote turbulence and to vaporize the fuel faster.
Another trick is compression. We have 14.5:1. Terry Vance has probably 16 to 1. And he can run flatter domed pistons and less cam lift because of the 16 valves. We have high domes and high lift cams. The Suzukis of Carpenter and Vance have more air flow and more horsepower. That’s why we get the advantage of the weight break. My bike puts out 190 horsepower at the crankshaft. Vance has, maybe, 210.
It’s harder to get horsepower—I should say more horsepower—out of the Kawasaki eight valve head.”
Mike and Kathy consider themselves lucky to pursue the vagabond touring life of professional racers. Keyte sums it by saying, “In spite of all the hard work, we’re doing what we want to do, and that makes us a winner everytime we come to the line.” El
