Phil in action on the Destroyer at Santa Pod.
Following a fantastic season racing the Harley Davidson VRSC Destroyer, Phil Wood amassed enough points to take the title in the Competition bike class.
At the start of the season Phil and Kirk, the Dealer Principle at Chester Harley-Davidson and Buell, discussed the options open to them for racing the Destroyer. Noise limitations at some tracks meant that the bike would need to have some kind of silencer fitted if it were to race in the Straightliners championship, the ACU events would mean that Phil would have to give up racing his other bike.
It was decided that Straightliners was the series of choice. Although the Destroyer would be outclassed against the big 4 cylinder bikes the Destroyer had an ace up its sleeve, reliability.
The thought process was that the other bikes in the class are very highly stressed and run the risk of breaking, the Destroyer is a very over engineered in the engine department being developed by Vance and Hines in America, and as such would finish every run it started. So it may not win every race but it would always score points at every round it raced at.
During the year Phil managed to pull in some good times and speeds, with a best ¼ mile time of 9.58 seconds and a best terminal speed of 153 mph. Proving the Destroyer is still the worlds fastest accelerating production motorcycle. The championship winning Destroyer can be viewed in the show room of Chester Harley -Davidson and Buell.