UPDATE FROM PROSTAR GAINESVILLE, NOV. 16-18, 2001

Well, this was the last race of the year. We traveled to Gainesville on a high note after the surprising gains we made at Dallas. We had great expectations for this weekend, which we did get. We only qualified #4 with a 6.57 on a shut-down pass. That matched us up against Brian Johnson in the eliminations who qualified with a 6.42. I knew our bike was doing real good and could run in the 6.40's. We started out fairly even but by the 1/8th mile, we were ahead and moving real good. It was a great race with Brian running in the 30's and us running another career best pass of a 6.19 @ 218. m.p.h.. We then had Spider in the semi's. We knew we had to make another run like the previous one, but got a little greedy on the tune-up. We had extreme tire shake after the launch then went up in smoke and had to shut down. All in all it was a great way to end the season with an all time best. The performance from the last few runs show us that we are on the right track, and that really boosted our crew. We had struggled for so long without any real obvious gains. The fueler is now all apart for the winter in Oklahoma City at Motorcycles Unlimited, with many needed improvements being made for the 2002 season. We're hoping to pick up right where we let off at the first race on March 1st, 2002. Just never know what the tiniest of changes may do.

The Fire & Ice team wishes everyone a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Years. We will post our 2002 schedule as soon as it becomes available. Hope to see you in March.
 

UPDATE FROM NHRA DALLAS, OCT. 19-21, 2001

Our weekend at Dallas started out cold and windy. But conditions improved and so did every pass. All the changes Big Carl was trying was working and Ron was riding extremely well. By Sunday we recorded our best E.T. ever with a 6.22 seconds at 221. m.p.h.. We also took home the win at this race. That's something we haven't done in quite awhile. There was certainly a lot to celebrate this weekend. We also had a small cheering section with the extra friends who came down from Oklahoma City for this race. We really appreciated them being there. This was a very successful and fun-filled weekend. We are really looking forward to the Prostar World Finals in Gainesville in November. Hope to see everyone there.
 

UPDATE FROM NHRA CHICAGO, SEPT. 28-30, 2001

The Joliet racetrack was great this year. We had three days of good weather and little wind. All our passes went well, with each pass showing improvement. By Sunday our final pass was about all that was left of that particular engine. It was starting to go down hill and was showing signs of fatigue!!! Even though we exhausted that engine, it still gave us a runner-up in the finals.
 

UPDATE FROM NHRA INDIANAPOLIS SEPT. 1-3 

As always, the U.S. Nationals at Indy was great. The crowds and participants were huge! The pits were huge! Everything was huge! NHRA had six top fuel bikes at this race. I think everyone had a successful weekend. The fans always love the fuel bikes. We were a little hard to find in the pits since we were separated from the fuel cars and the Pro Stock bikes. But it was OK. 

We did a little tuning here and there and a few changes here and there. Had some good runs and one aborted run. We took out the lights again on one pass causing a little body damage (to the bike). We have some new ideas that we're hoping will help control our occasional handling problems. We'll have a new front end, brakes and rear tire at Chicago, Sept. 28-30th. 

We're just happy when everyone has a fun and safe weekend. Also enjoyed lots of friends at this race.

Hope to see you all in Chicago!!!! 

We finally had a great weekend in Topeka after three years of bad weather. Only had one day of hard wind. We did have top speed of the weekend at 218. mph. All our passes went well with one pass on Sunday being quite a shock due to an "unknown" NHRA rule. We thought the starter had accidentally fouled us with a red light. As it is so loud on the starting line, we couldn't understand what exactly was going on. The starter motioned us to re-stage and we ran a great solo pass. We later found out there's a new seven second rule that requires the second racer to stage within seven seconds of the first racer turning his pre-stage light on. At least that's how we comprehended what was told to us !!! Anyway, we'll have to watch those staging lights a little closer at the NHRA events. Once the computer takes over there's no margin for mistakes.

We have a few months off now and plan on enjoying our great summer weather in Alaska. We will be racing next at the NHRA US Nationals at Indianapolis over Labor Day weekend. Hope to see you there.

Atlanta was a very windy and cold weekend. The wind only got worst by Sunday. We are still experimenting with different clutch settings and had some great half track results. This also caused some handling problems, which the high winds didn't help us any in our analysis of each pass. We made it to the final with Larry "Spiderman" again. We had the final covered until a gust of wind pushed the bike over the centerline just at the finish lights. We took out all the MPH. and E.T. lights and was disqualified. Luckily, Larry had shut down after a bad launch and was not beside us. The Lord works in mysterious ways!!! We have a few repairs to make on our paint job after hitting all the cones at the top end in the finals. We are also experimenting with the paint job by adding a few flames for something new. Let us know what you think!

We're getting ready for the NHRA Topeka race which is over the Memorial weekend, May 24-27. We're hoping for good weather and a chance to get some good passes in. Topeka has a great track and facility if the weather will just cooperate. 

See ya at the races!

HOME