How many Race Frames did you build

Keith,

I built five singles and one double that I altered four times during it's career, I also built another Double Engine frame that I believe Marion Owens now has. They were all built to fit me and I rode them all. Jim Cook rode "Rat Too" one year at Indy and got Runner up, he was my size and weight at the time. Ron Fringer rode the Double the last year I was in Drag Racing and I had to move the rear pegs to the rear a little for him.

MPH verses ET

Speed, ET and why did it happen.

My Double Harley ran a pretty consistent 176 MPH, give or take, at every track I raced on. Those times were with ET’s between 8.12 and 8.40 on any track, night or day.

Talking about unusual Speed’s, I did turn 181, 182 and right at 183 MPH at the Ontario Super Nationals with ET’s between 8.02 and 8.12 and at Indy I had a run of 188 MPH with an ET of 8.77. Ron Fringer ran a 187 MPH on the same bike with Injectors at Orange County Raceway with a mid eight second run.

The thing is those ET’s from the 176 MPH to the 180’s is quite a span. But, I notice on all the faster runs there was something different, it was a feel they had that I tried to duplicate many times but could not seem to do it consistently. The bike seems to have a floating feeling through the traps and was harder to get stopped so I never doubted the MPH plus they were done at an NHRA National Events.

In those days the only instruments we had was the Air Density Gage and I kept a record of all runs that included spark plug range, jetting and nozzle size, rear tire air pressure, shoe size, sh*t everything and on those runs the air density in the record book was right at 104 which was in those days was perfect air.

So, on those runs some place on the track there was a different acceleration rate that I can’t explain, I just knew there was a different feel on that run.

Is that Joe or Gordon

1976, Ron Fringer

http:// www.nhra.com/2006/gallery/pow/photo34.html

Triple-Triple

I think anything with two or three motors is going to go fast. My Double was a blast.

Yes, I knew about that Triple and Boris, he ran some amazing times with it. He could ride almost anything and do a good job but it still sounded like a whole bunch of grass cutters.

Puppet

And Pup, I would give my left you know what to go back in time and work with you on my Double!!

When you making a run

Yes, I remember some of the guys doing that. I was at that track once, for a Truitt and Osborne all bike meet. The track paid me $400.00 to show up, when I got to the track we unloaded every thing, got it all set up in the pits. They had me drive my tow truck down the strip before every thing got started and during that drive my wife and I found the strip was to rough for the clearance on my double for safety. When we got back, I went to the tower and explained the situation. The manager understood and said that’s OK, he gave me the 400 which I tried to return but he wouldn’t take it. We went down to the pits and loaded everything up and were working our way out the pit area. Three guys walked up to the driver side and said, “aren’t you Joe Smith” I said yes and the one guy says “when are you going to make a run, we came all the way from Idaho to see you ”. I looked over at my wife, turned back and said, about 30 minutes. As it turned out I won Top Fuel that day, setting a new track record, broke the front chain guard mount, broke the left fuel tank mount in the back and broke the frame. One run I got into a wobble and almost went down. I was only at that track once, even thought they tried to get me back a couple times more.

Family Racing

Beech Bend, 1976

I love all you guys that come up with such great memories for me. Pictures like this brings tears to my eyes, that picture of my daughter was use a lot. A lot of people didn’t know, when I was doing the Exhibition runs at the Nationals she sometimes worked the tower for the NHRA and when I was ready to run you could see her running down the steps from the tower to the bleach box to be part of the crew. My wife Pat, passed away two years ago this July, Bless her. My wife was such a good fuel mixer sometime guys would come to my pit to get their plugs looked at and for her to mix them a two gallon can of fuel. We were a great racing team.

Indy 1974

Indy Nationals 1974

Hello to all,

I hope I'm not getting myself in trouble again, I use to do that a lot when I had a Drag Race career. I've not said much or maybe I should say "nothing" about some of the stuff I've seen in print over the years! Yes, I enjoy doing this kind of stuff. When I'm in the mood I like to put those short stories together, like "Summer of 69". I have a couple more, I sent one to draglist.com but I never heard anything about it. "Drag Racings 1st Eight Second Motorcycle" and there was another that they would not print for sure. It was true but it made someone look bad.
I won Indy in 1974 with my double. It was so new there was just primer on the frame. The other years I ran there I don't talk about much because I didn't win.
I would like to do some more in the forum but I find I can't post a photo or I don't know how, I guess every thing has to be edited before posting, such as stories.
Anyway, look for some more, maybe!