Slim is Dead

Are there two Steve's, Slim is alive now? Sure makes me feel better after posting about him in kind of a jest, the hat, the hair.

In all the years I was racing, I never seen Slim without that hat or that hair, he was an intense guy and very loyal to Russ.

AMA and Motorcycle Drag Racing

Does that mean you have to be a AMA member to race at AHDRA Motorcycle Events??

If it does, as time progresses there will be rules you will need to follow and meet in order to be an AMA (Drag Racing) member that will probably affect Motorcycle Drag Racing in some order.

I know I would be as I'm sure the people that are involved on the Motorcycle "Drag Racing" side of this new adventure will stay on top of all issues.

5.79 E T, new Record

I hope AMA is "not still hooked" into there "old ways" about Motorcycle Drag Racing, which was small print and none.

The biggest star in Motorcycle Drag Racing and no mention.

Low Budget

When I fell down in the traps at Irwindale on my Knucklehead, tumbling and finally sliding on my back, my leather jacket rolled up and I ended up with a very big asphalt burn on my back. Shown in this picture how low bucks the Hobby of Drag Racing was in those days. My wife is buckling my jacket to my leather pants so that won’t happen again.
Notice the Air Density gage in rear window of tow car.

You are entertaining Spectators while racing

When you are racing you are putting on a show. The deferents is from the spectators point of view it is entertainment while watching you race and when you sit on the bike it is racing. Just because it's called entertainment doesn't make you lesser of a racer.

Still Wheelie Bars

I'm sure some bike events the spectator stands have a lot of local loyal people that come to watch street bikes run, that's good. But at a large event where there are different classes of pro bikes and top fuel bikes and you are sitting in the stands and all the pro classes are done and the street bike classes are called to staging why do the stands began to empty? Don't get me wrong I not against "no wheelie bar" racing, I did it all of my racing career. But don't tell me they are what make spectators, been there, done that. Personally it hard to call some of those bikes street bike, some are going as quick as I went on my Top fuel bike in the 70's and the guys that ride them without wheelie bars are either awful good or nutz. I can understand if the track has nothing but really fast street bikes with no wheelie bars, maybe the spectator is waiting for that wheel stand to see if the guy can make it, that could draw some fans.
My Example: You could have 50 bikes of different classes, and have 100 spectators, throw in 10 Fuel Bikes, get another 100, throw in 10 Funny Cars get another 100, throw in 10 Top Fuel Dragsters, get another 100 and in my day, throw in 10 Fuel Altered and get another 500. The more variety of pro stuff you have the more spectators you have and still when the street stuff comes to the staging lanes the stands began to empty. It's been that way since drag racing started.
Wheelie bar or no wheelie bar, just have a class for each. I think it's kind of hard to discuss because we have the V-Twin and the In-Line which are two different kinds of racing bikes.

Gambling while racing

Street racing is illegal and yes every time there is an accident on the street that involved racing the media would call it "Drag Racing" , still do. You must be talking about riders that ride there bike to the drag races. If so why not make a set of collapsible quick disconnect wheelie bars and carried them somehow to the races or a set that folds into a sissy bar. It could be done, maybe someone should manufacture something like that. Night racing where they turn off the clocks, why would you want to do that, to make it like street racing, still sounds illegal. There must be some sort of insurance problem for a lot of the Drag Strip with some of these ideals. To me a real street bike has nothing to do with racing, it's illegal to race on the street even if it has a turbo. Today they sell race bikes right off the show room floor and every body that owns one is looking for someway, someplace to race them, you can see that in the morning going to work on the freeway/interstate when the traffic is moving 15 MPH and some guys goes by you doing 60 MPH white lining it.

Wheelie Bars

I don't know, I guess I'm just lucky. I crashed six times in my racing career, (twice in the traps). Broken collar bone (both), punctured lung, broken ribs, crush right hand, broken right foot, numerous stitches, bruised chest cavity, whole lot of rash burn. I walked to the ambulance every time and I think the worst thing is you love Drag Racing so much that you keep going back. And by the way I wore boxing shoes. Plus none was ever from a wheel stand off the starting line.

No Nitros Oxide allowed

Drag Racing started with Gasoline, Alcohol, Nitro and the igniter, Propylene Oxide.
It should still fit the classes it was used for in the beginning, you want to go faster go up to the next class or all the way.

The cheating part, that's how Nitrous got introduced to drag racing, hidden in some body's car truck.

No offence guys.

How we got M&H Tires

The last time I smoked a tire on a good run was at Irwindale Raceway, 1969. 9:20 ET, 164 MPH, it was on a 4” Avon drag slick. Tires were one thing that the drag bikes needed badly in those days, all we had was a 4x18Avon Slick. I could get six smoke runs and I had to put on a new tire. I think Boris Murray got less than that. One day when I went to Venolia Piston (Sponsor) to pick up some pistons and as I was leaving, Joe Pisano, (Mr. Venolia Piston) called me into his office for a chat. We had been talking about 30 minutes when he asked me if there was anything he could do to help my drag racing. He had already hooked me up with Mondello Heads and Joe Mondello and I had come up with a good port for Shovelheads. I said we sure could use a tire. He said OK lets see what we can do and he picked up the phone and called M&H tires and talked to Marv the owner. They kicked it around for about 30 minutes, he ask me if I would test some tires for M&H if they started to make them. Of course you know my answer. Five weeks later a freight truck pulled in front of my house and dropped off seven M&H drag slick with a list of different compounds and instructions. I don’t remember how many engines I broke or how many clutches I went through but it was a lot. I tested tires off and on for a year, and that’s how the tire thing got going. I don’t think any body knows that the thanks for the tires we have today goes to Joe Pisano of Venolia Pistons. I wish he was still around, Bless him