Growing up surrounded by motorcycles and drag racing, Ryan Schnitz was
destined to become a star in the sport. Ryan's Father Dave Schnitz turned
his love of wrenching on motorcycles into Schnitz Racing the same year he
was born.
Spending countless hours at the track watching, learning and helping his
father and customers gave him the chance to "watch what the pro's do."
In 1996 Ryan began racing with the help of Dave and went to nearly every
test and tune night at the local track, Muncie Dragway. His competition
debut came in 1997 running a nitrous injected Kawasaki 8.20/7.90 index bike
(the quickest index at the time). Always wanting to push the bike harder,
they started pushing the bike harder and harder to see just how quick they
could go and eventually ran a best of 7.37 @ 187mph. Unheard-of at the time
on such a small 7" wide rear slick. The performance of that motorcycle
convinced AMA Prostar to create a new heads up class called Top Eliminator.
600 Supersport was a popular and growing class in 1999 because of it's
limited modifications and factory support. Ryan competed on a rented Suzuki
from Brock Davidson and did fairly well for a 2 year old motorcycle by going
rounds and learning how to launch and manage the throttle and clutch while
being very aggressive. In 2000 Ryan became a member of Kawasaki Team Green
to complete on a Kawasaki ZX-6R in the class.
Ryan also began racing a nitrous GSXR-1100 built and tuned by Coby Adams in
the Streetbike Shootout class in 2000. This was his first experience on a
large cc non-wheelie bar streetbike. He finished 2nd in the Top Eliminator
class and 3rd in 600 Supersport.
The first milestones came in 2001 when Ryan became the first rider to make a
9 second pass in the 600 Supersport class along with his first Championship.
He also finished 2nd in the Streetbike Shooutout category and become a
member of the 200MPH Club at the Maxton Mile on a stock engine Kawasaki
ZX-12R
Rob Muzzy Racing signed Ryan to a multi-year contract in fall of 2001 to
compete in AMA Prostar and NHRA with the new ZX-12R. Now a true
professional drag racer at the age of 19, he competed in 600 Supersport,
Superbike and Pro Stock. He earned another 600 Supersport Championship in
2002 and finished 2nd in Superbike.
NHRA Pro Stock competition with the best engineered awarded ZX-12R had its
ups and downs. The team developed many new products and innovations in 2003
and 2004 with the project ZX-12R machine. The team also built a 1000
Supersport ZX-10R and Ryan became the first rider to run an 8 second pass in
the class and secure his 3rd Championship.
In 2005 the team completed on an S&S powered Buell Pro Stock Motorcycle and
won 3 national events and finished 4th in points. Ryan won 1 national event
in 2006 and finished 7th in points. Ryan also test rode a number of new
project bikes built by Muzzys including a Turbo ZX-10R and Turbo ZX-14.
Ryan and Muzzys teamed up with Kawasaki again in 2007 through 2009 to
develop a Pro Stock ZX-14 for NHRA competition. Muzzys designed and built a
billet ZX-14 cylinder head in house and the team was able to run a best of
7.14 @189 mph with a limited schedule.
HTP Performance teamed up with Ryan in 2010 to complete on a Nitrous
GSXR-1000 in the competitive Mirock Real Street Class. The team set a new
ET record of 7.81 @ 184mph. Brocks Performance also had Ryan test the new
BMW S1000RR and was able to run an 8.49 @ 158mph with a stock engine. Later
that year he began riding the HTP Pro Street Nitrous Hayabusa and helped the
team develop their program.
2011 was a historic year. Ryan Schnitz and Cecil Towner at HTP Performance
became the first Pro Street Motorcycle to run a 6 second pass. An
astounding 6.90 @ 203mph with a Nitrous Injected Suzuki Hayabusa Streetbike.
This year is already shaping up to be another great success.
Team HTP has built a Hayabusa Powered Nitrous Pro Mod Dragbike
to compete in the Mirock and ADRL series and have been very
competitive within just a few passes. 2012 is sure to be a
good one!
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