SPRINGVALE — Tony Ferland Jr. accomplished something on a motorcycle last Sunday that no one else in the world ever has. Competing in a street fighter elimination race at New England Dragway in Epping, N.H., Ferland completed a run in 8.67 seconds on the quarter-mile strip, reaching a speed of 161 mph. He became the first person to ever cover that distance in a stock wheel-base 1000cc motorcycle in less than 8.7 seconds.

“I got back and I read the time slip, and I about lost it. I was hooting and hollering, yelling, screaming. I couldn’t even get off the bike; people were surrounding me,” Ferland said. “It felt really good to be the first person to ever do that.”

It’s a milestone that the 23-year-old Springvale native, and his father, Tony, hope can jump-start his career in drag bike racing. It’s a career that began in 2009, but was almost derailed just a year later. After learning how to drag competitively at the Rickey Gadson Drag Racing School in New Jersey, Ferland began racing in the AMA Dragbike series, where he elevated from greenhorn to second in the point standings by the fourth race. But before the end of the season, and before Ferland could win his first event, the series folded.

“When the economy hit AMA Motorcycles, they went bankrupt. So it pretty much left us with no national series to run at,” said Ferland Sr., who owns and runs Tony Ferland Racing.

“That was a big heartbreaker. That was a really good series,” said Ferland Jr. “When that folded, it was kind of one of those things that, I looked at my dad and I said ”˜what do we do?’”

The father-son combo decided that it wasn’t worth it to continue, and they sold everything but the bike, which was eventually sold after trying their hand at some local races.

Fate turned for Ferland Jr., however, when his girlfriend broke up with him on his birthday in 2011. Ferland Jr. said he went down to Northeast Motorsports in Lebanon that day to buy the new Kawasaki ZX-10R motorcycle, which Gadson suggested he purchase. Ferland Jr. said Gadson called the bike “a bad machine.” That motorcycle was the same one that Ferland Jr. broke the record with, and he said that day, and that breakup, revived his career.

“That kind of started the career up again,” said Ferland Jr. “Ever since I bought that bike, that’s what got me back into it.”

Ferland Jr.’s original plan at the street fighter event was to try and break the record during qualifying, but the clutch broke down. Ferland Sr. told him to just hope that someone would “red light” during one of the elimination rounds. In the third round, Ferland Jr. got his chance, and he just “held it wide open all the way ”˜til the end of the track,” and hit a top speed of 161.88 mph on the record run.

“It’s one of those things that nobody ever thought would happen,” Ferland Sr. said about breaking the sub-8.7-second threshold.

Ferland Jr. said the achievement “completely 180’ed my career.” Ferland Sr. said his son now has drag bike owners from around the country, and even Canada, asking him to race their bikes, and that he is garnering attention by the drag bike community.

Ferland Jr. is looking to begin racing in the MIROCK Superbike series that competes in Maryland and North Carolina, but has his eventual sights set on the NHRA’s Pro Stock Motorcycle division.

Until then, Ferland Jr. is still stuck on cloud nine, he said.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Ferland Jr. “There’s no feeling out there like it, that I am the only person in the world to go that fast on a short wheel-base, stock motor, foot-shifting 1000.”

— Contact Wil Kramlich at 282-1535, Ext. 323 or follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.