Highlands Team wins World drag-race

By LEWIS SPEARMAN
HIGHLANDS – Gilbert Coronado, 35, of Highlands Kawasaki’s Team Green won the 19th Annual Prostar World Finals (motorcycle drag-racing) on November 12 in Gainesville, Florida.
He thus became Champion of the Real Street World Competition having been the only Kawasaki to tree at the event with a time in the 8.5’s seconds in the quarter mile. In fact Highlands Kawasaki entered the only named brand to run in that class.
Gilbert answers that his favorite thing about drag racing is simply, “Winning.”
Jason Thompson of Highlands, head mechanic of Highlands Team Green, built the winning bike in two days, on a Kawasaki ZX10. The bike “tested” during qualifying. As always a few issues popped up including; the clutch was slipping. Gilbert with Thompson’s mechanical engineering qualified second. There was no way to fix the clutch without going back to the shop so they nurtured the clutch the entire weekend of competition. The motorcycle was under multiple adjustments by Thompson and the racing team the entire time between November 9 through 12.

Team leader Keith Coble says, “Gilbert has been racing for 5 year he has a natural ability to win. He has the passion to win. I am talking with the factory to get him support for the nationals next year. Basically, the principle element to winning is the blend of the mechanic and the rider. Gilbert has snakelike reaction time and the ability to launch that crazy horsepower down the track.”
“We don’t know the extent that Kawasaki is going to step up to help our race program for next year but I told Reed Nordine, the Head of Kawasaki Team Green, I’m going to outrun your motorcycle. Ya’ll are going to race for second. It’s a points championship. We hope they will come up with enough for us to go around the country because fuel costs are outrageous. You have to go to the East Coast and Indiana to make the points in the nationals. We once were doing well in the Texas Shoot-out but that has gone the way of the buffalo. I know there is better time in the bike and the rider. In three years I have never seen a time slip in which Gilbert’s reaction time was beaten.”
Gilbert Coronado is planning to marry Sarah Reyna in March of 2008.