Kawasaki rider Scott Wilkins is no stranger to speed, with a lifetime of racing bikes of many types and engine capacities.
With five years of land speed racing experience and his team pouring countless hours into perfecting the set-up of the Kawasaki Ninja H2R for Landspeed NZ Records – Aucklander Wilkins was able to etch his name into the record books on Sunday.
The Landspeed New Zealand Association hosted the 2022 timed speed event in the Central Plateau region on March 6.
The event is in its fifth year, having first been created in 2015 by John Seccombe and a small group of speed enthusiasts. The maximum limit of 40 cars and bikes registered for the event, with competitors travelling from as far as Dunedin and Kerikeri to take part in the action.
Across the Tag Heuer-certified ¼ mile timed section, set in the centre of the 6km stretch of Goudies Road near Reporoa, conditions were near perfect. Cloud cover and minimal wind setting the perfect stage for records to be broken.
With the event limited by Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and no spectators permitted, the camaraderie between competitors and supporters was electric. Co-operation and unity common themes of the day with racers bouncing advice off each-other to achieve their best times.
Auckland’s Scott Wilkins takes the Kawasaki Ninja H2R to over 350kph. Photo by Steve Knowles.
Attendees were seeing green with three of the top five motorcycle positions held by Kawasaki riders.
The fastest speed was set by Wilkins on a Kawasaki Ninja H2R bike, setting 364.5 kph one way and 358.4 kph being the two-way average. Not only did the time eclipse the motorcycle record, it broke all NZ records for wheel-driven vehicles.
Patrick Nussbaum (Turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa) briefly held the NZ Motorcycle Land-speed record by recording an average two-way speed of 348.35 kph earlier in the day. Cole Scammel rounded out the podium for the day aboard his Turbo’d Suzuki Hayabusa with Seccombe in 4th aboard a Kawasaki Ninja H2R, despite battling with a slipping clutch.
First of the naturally-aspirated motorcycles was piloted by seasoned campaigner Walter Rands-Trevor.
Rands-Trevor is also no stranger to land speed racing, having experienced Bonneville Salt Flats, USA. He managed to increase his Naturally Aspirated 1050cc NZ Motorcycle record by 1.55kph on the day. This was just enough to log a two-way average speed of 323.35 kph and break the coveted 200mph barrier.
The road to the top hasn’t been easy for Wilkins and his team starting their land-speed objective in 2017 with each land-speed event since being another milestone toward the ultimate goal.
Knowing that minor tweaks to aerodynamics, ECU settings, tyres and bike setup can have major consequences at high-speed, getting as little as 10kph extra while travelling upward of 330kph is a mammoth task.
The years of knowledge within the team proved indispensable on this journey to NZ Records.
Brett Roberts (BRM) expertise to interpret data and tune the bike both in pre-race prep and on the day adjustments proved to be an unbeatable match.
As the day wore on, richer mapping was necessary to get the most from the motorcycle – ensuring the possibility for man and machine to make NZ history.
Scott’s father, former Kawasaki New Zealand owner Mike Wilkins, along with his wife Pam, were ecstatic to see the record fall. They purchased the bike in 2016 when Mike retired from his role as managing director of Kawasaki NZ.
The “for closed-course only” Kawasaki Ninja H2R is a different animal when compared to the road-legal Ninja H2 and H2 Carbon models, featuring a factory claimed output calculation of 326hp.
Scott Wilkins’ team, with the help of Roberts, were able to push this phenomenal number even further to over 350hp at the crank. This equated to a 303hp at the wheel in dyno conditions, an achievement in itself with only 998cc of displacement to play with.
From the stock H2R in 2017 with 267 hp at the rear wheel achieving 330.5 kph at the Cliffhanger speed trials in Masterton, to the highly tuned & modified H2R with 350 hp at the engine and 303 hp at the rear wheel achieving 264.5 kph in 2022 on Goudies Road, Reporoa.
Asking team owner and manager Mike Wilkins what the key thing in achieving his goal was, he replied: “Two things. One; we needed a machine that had the engineering strength to absorb the power increase we gave it. For that we thank Kawasaki, and number two; we needed a rider who has the courage and skills to ride the bike at that speed on a 5-metre-wide country road, who else but my son Scott. I am so proud of him.”
Now that Scott Wilkins and his family’s goal has been realised, he plans on hanging up his boots within the land speed racing discipline.
However, Wilkins has his hands in many pies and is a major driving force in the motorcycling fraternity, particularly within the NZ Flat Track scene so you’re bound to spot him wherever two wheels are involved.
Main photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ
Action photo courtesy Steve Knowles
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