Ahra Championship Drags
AHRA CHAMPIONSHIP DRAGS
Murray Turns Quickest ET, But Smith Sets New Record And Takes Meet
RALPH SPRINGER
THE QUESTION WAS: Who's going to be the tough one to beat? Joe Smith fiddled with his Harley-Davidson fuel bike a moment and looked up, smiling. "Everyone's gonna be tough. Everyone," he said.
Smith’s prediction was right on the money, but at the end of a warm, breezy evening of hot eliminations it was Joe Smith who came out on top in the American Hot Rod Association’s Fuel and Gas Motorcycle Championships at Beeline Dragway near Scottsdale, Ariz.
The 42-year-old Harley-Davidson mechanic from West Covina, Calif., set a new AHRA AA/F bike record in blazing desert heat, qualified a solid 3rd for the Top Fuel eliminations, and beat perhaps his toughest rival, Boris Murray and his dual-engined Triumph fueler.
Most of the superstars of the small but growing world of motorcycle drag racing were at Beeline. Smith and Murray were there, along with Dave Campos and Bob Abels of Alburquerque, N.M., top North Carolinans Henry Moore and Danny Johnson, Bill Chambers of Mt. Baldy, Calif., veteran Californian Leo Payne, and Jon Kuip of Oklahoma City, Okla.
The Gas class was equally starstudded with the immaculate Action Fours duel-engined 750 Hondas from Santa Ana, Calif., taking the spotlight. Ron Fringer of Woodstock, 111., trucked out with his Harley and Californian Tony Nicosia showed up with his recently completed 750 Kawasaki stroker.
Boris Murray and his 175 mph+ rocket stole the spotlight in qualifying for Top Fuel. Murray served notice he was going to be extremely hard to beat by winking the lights in 9.03 sec. Danny Johnson put his single-engined Harley through a hair slower at 9.09. Smith was 3rd at 9.14 sec. Dave Campos, Jon Kuip, Bob Abels and Henry Moore completed the Top Fuel elimination list with the bump E.T. being a very quick 9.30 sec.
Bill Hahne led off Top Gas qualifying by taking the Action Fours Honda through at 10.05 sec., although the machine has cut quicker times. Rick Tyler (H-D) was 2nd with a 10.08 and Ed McDonald turned a 10.34 for 3rd quickest. Ron Fringer, Arnold Richardson, Tony Nicosia, Troy Pegues and Jerry Hawkins set the stage for Top Gas eliminations.
Joe Smith then moved his Harley to the line during an official AHRA record period and smoked down the quartermile in 9.14 sec. at 168.53 mph and backed it up with a 9.17 to annex the AA/f bike record. Smith’s record run was a counterpoint to the fantastic qualifying of Murray and the enthusiastic crowd of 10,000 knew a hot night of racing was ahead.
Top Fuel and Gas eliminations were interrupted only by a boring procession of pro stock cars and the antics of a gifted but crazy stunt pilot by the name of Rick Volk. Promoter Rick Lynch tossed in some stunt parachutists and wound up his spectacular with Rex Blackwell and Gary Davis, two Phoenix area youths who jump cars simultaneously from different directions. After a varied selection of wheelies and other tricks, the pair cleared 117 ft. and a collection of Honda cars, bowed to wild applause and then disappeared into the wings so Smith, Murray and friends could have at it.
And have at it they did! Boris Murray easily disposed of Jon Kulp. Danny Johnson whipped Bill Chambers. Joe Smith trailered Bob Abels, and Henry Moore beat Dave Campos.
The second round eliminations initially paired off Danny Johnson and Boris Murray with Smith running Henry Moore. Johnson, anticipating a tough 9-sec. free-for-all with Murray, mixed a potent load of fuel in his Harley. However, the line-up was altered and Johnson found himself next to Henry Moore.
In the crudest stroke of racing luck, Johnson bent a rod and broke his cases while staging for his race and watched, frustrated, as Moore took a single run for the win.
The light banter which Boris Murray and Joe Smith exchanged in the pits evaporated into,stony silence as the two roller-started their machines side-by-side and were pushed to the staging line. Despite his fast qualifying time, Murray’s front Triumph engine had been suffering ring troubles and a plug kept cutting out at speed. Perhaps these things were working on his mind when the Christmas tree blinked downward to green and he lit up his rear tire.
Smith cooly put his 108-cu. in. Harley down the strip with hardly any wheelspin and took the race. In the pits, Boris changed clothes, inspected his machine, and with his wife, walked back to the start line to ponder his one mistake and watch the Top Fuel runoff.
The run for the Top Fuel title was really anti-climatic after the SmithMurray face-off. Henry Moore’s 9.29sec., 16 9.8 5-mph run would have downed anybody anyplace else. But this was Beeline and next to him was Joe Smith. Smith turned a 9.14 with an astounding trap speed of 170.44 mph and picked up a tidy $750.
Little Tony Nicosia squared off with the Actions Fours Honda in the second Top Gas elimination round but, as the saying goes, “there ain’t no substitute for cubic inches.” Ed McDonald of Paramount, Calif., took his Harley through two rounds to get a shot at the double Honda.
But Bill Hahne and 1500cc is very hard to beat and McDonald fell to a 10.10 and 152.44-mph run by the Action Fours bike. Hahne collected $500 and Top Gas crown for his ten seconds in the saddle.
Joe Smith’s initial prediction certainly proved true. Everyone was tough at Beeline. But Joe Smith was the toughest. [Oj
