About Steve Venables, UK - rider of the fastest Kawasaki Super Street Bike in the world














			Photographs by Peter Donaldson

				To contact Steve Venables, click here

I first got into drag racing in ‘99 after having a few too many back injuries due to motocross and enduro. I went to Santa Pod to check out what it was all about and decided to have a go on my street legal Z900 A4 in 10.9 class (index class, the bike has to run as close to 10.9 seconds without going faster). Did 2 meetings in 10.90 and was bitten by the bug to go faster so bought a Z1000 drag bike with nitrous on it and entered 9.90 (another index class). Did 2 meetings in 9.90 and kept breaking out by running 9.4s so went up to Super-Street class (go as fast as possible using a 68” wheel base max, no less than 2” ground clearance, must have a road legal back tyre and no wheelie bars, apart from that anything goes e.g. turbo, nitrous or super-charge). So ended my first season on the Z1000.

For the 2000 season I changed the chassis and built a new 1500cc vortex head engine, this produced approx 400 bhp with nitrous. My best times with this set-up were 8.2 secs at 174mph.

By the end of the 2003 season I’d already decided to follow the Americans with the new generation of drag bike and decided to build a ZX12R turbo, sticking with my love of Kawasakis, an unusual route to go as the hyabusa had already been developed and off the peg turbo kits were available, but I wanted to do my own thing and still be the only Kawasaki in my class amid a sea of Suzuki’s.




		Steve and the other British contenders at Hockenheim