Gainesville, FL Prostar Event
November 12-16

6.04 @ 228. mph!!!
That’s the big news from Gainesville. We thought for sure a five was in the cards at this race. But it wasn’t to be. Both runs following the 6.04 pass went up in smoke. What a let-down after the excitement of a 6.04 pass. We ended up runner-up in the MRE makeup race and third in the World Finals race. We actually made it through four days of racing with only two motors. We were really sweating that little problem! The 6.04 pass finished off the first motor that had made three days. The fresh motor only had to make it through Sunday’s eliminations. But the tire went up in smoke both of the passes on Sunday, then we were out of chances for a five second run. Well, it’ll be Gainesville again in March, so we’ll see what happens at that race!

See ya in 2004.

Montgomery, AL Prostar Event
October 4- 5

Nothing new to report. The track is still very bad with several bumps in each lane. We ran some descent times and went to the final against Larry McBride. Came in runner-up again. Still had a lot of fun and had some new relatives show up to visit and cook a feast!

ST. LOUIS Prostar Event
May 31- June 1

St. Louis Gateway Raceway is a fantastic facility. Everyone really enjoyed our first event there. The weather was a little cool, but that was better than the choking heat we were expecting!!! We had two new crew members helping at this race. Robert Webb and Lil John Gaines were unable to attend. So in their place we had Steve Churchman, from Airborn Coatings in Oklahoma City and Will Webb from Anchorage, Ron’s brother. Both were a great help. Steve used to be a member of our team for
years, so he really knew what to do. Will has attended a few races in the past and was glad to be put to work helping with whatever he could. And there was a lot of work to do!

Saturday first round qualifying went up in smoke and was shut down.

Second round was much better running a 6.15 at 226 mph and was shut off early. Everyone on the team was amazed. The tuneups were really working.

In Sunday’s first round of eliminations we realized the motor was dying! We still won the round with a 6.13 at 211 mph. But there were only four bikes running on Sunday, so the top fuelers had to sit out a round, which gave us time to change the broken motor.

The finals were against Larry again. Both top fuel bikes were obviously set on kill and should have been a great race. But final round was drug out late in the day and the track seemed to go away, so the race was mostly a smoke show with Larry getting a hold on the track the best to win. So we were runner up once again.

We are certainly getting closer to that 5 second pass!

RICHMOND, VA. Prostar Event
May 3 - 4

First round of qualifying (actually eliminations from Atlanta) was only a 6.43 at 217 mph. There was severe tire shake again. (We won that round for Atlanta eliminations)

Second round qualifying (final elimination round for Atlanta) was against Larry McBride. We smoked the tire and lost and lost the race. But was #2 qualifier for Richmond eliminations.

First round eliminations on Sunday was against Chad on a Top Fuel Harley. It was a smoke show but we ran a 6.70 at 177 mph for the win. We hurt the motor that round but did not have time to change it out.

Second round eliminations was against Bill Furr on a Top Fuel Harley. We brought the Fire & Ice Top Fueler to the line on only three cylinders. It sounded pretty bad, but made a gallant effort and managed to run a 6.60 at 201 mph for the win.

This paired us up against Larry McBride in the final again. They were kind enough to give us time to change out our hurt motor.
Final round: With a new motor in the bike I felt very confident. We could at least give Larry a run for the money. Burnout was strong, motor sounded good, I was really thinking this could be a career best run. At the flash of yellow I dropped the hammer and the bike immediately yanked the front wheel up and started moving real good. All of a sudden the motor went to the moon and the front wheel started down. We broke the transmission, a component that never gives us trouble. So we were runner up again. But I’m very confident our day is coming!! Maybe at St. Louis.

ATLANTA Prostar Event
April 5-6

First round of qualifying on Sat. we ran a 6.22 at 212 mph. It shook the tire really hard which caused an early shut down approx. 3 tenths early of the finish line.

Second round of qualifying was a 6.32 at 222 mph. The fuel pump went away and burned up the motor, leaving us with no improvement in our times. We changed the motor that evening but did not realize the fuel pump was bad. That was not diagnosed until after the race back at the shop at Motorcycles Unlimited in Oklahoma.

First round of eliminations on Sunday hurt the new motor and was shut down early, but still ran a 6.44.

Then the rain came and the race was called. It would have to completed at Richmond, VA.