STEVE JOHNSON – TALKING TWO WHEELS
An interview
with the leader of PRO2, drag racing’s voice for two-wheelers
Johnson’s start in drag racing exemplified the term determination. He raced dirt bikes as a teenager and eventually graduated to racing high performance motorcycles on the street. Seeing near brushes with death while competing on the streets of California, Johnson curtailed his racing to the strip.
Johnson was challenged financially in the early years of his racing career and with that said, he had his first Pro Stock Motorcycle delivered in a crate to Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ. He competed that weekend with some extension cords, a battery charger and some Snap-on Tools. Those days are long gone for Johnson as he competes with one of the leading bikes on the tour. At the end of the season, Johnson will have 232 starts.
Johnson’s hand is on the pulse of Pro Stock Motorcycle racing. He is currently the president of PRO2, the organization that represents the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racers.
Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com caught up with Johnson recently to discuss the latest issues in Pro Stock Motorcycles and where he sees the future of this class headed.
An interview with the leader of PRO2, drag racing’s voice for two-wheelers
You can’t miss Steve Johnson. He’s the 46-year old NHRA POWERade Pro Stock Motorcycle racer with the energy of the 16-year old kid.
Johnson’s start in drag racing exemplified the term determination. He raced dirt bikes as a teenager and eventually graduated to racing high performance motorcycles on the street. Seeing near brushes with death while competing on the streets of California, Johnson curtailed his racing to the strip.
Johnson was challenged financially in the early years of his racing career and with that said, he had his first Pro Stock Motorcycle delivered in a crate to Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ. He competed that weekend with some extension cords, a battery charger and some Snap-on Tools. Those days are long gone for Johnson as he competes with one of the leading bikes on the tour. At the end of the season, Johnson will have 232 starts.
Johnson’s hand is on the pulse of Pro Stock Motorcycle racing. He is currently the president of PRO2, the organization that represents the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racers.
Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com caught up with Johnson recently to discuss the latest issues in Pro Stock Motorcycles and where he sees the future of this class headed.
SJ --I've been told directly from the sanctioning body, not only Dallas Gardner, but Tom Compton that we're a vital part of the show that fans get to see. The reality is that the Top Fuel cars put on an incredible show. There's nothing cooler, more fascinating, and more awesome on the planet than a Top Fuel car. If you ask me, 8,000 horsepower at 330 mph is pretty darn cool. But in the scope of things, the fans come here to see that and they come here to see the entertainment value of the whole deal. We're just an extension of that. That is what we have to focus on. We have to make sure that our property, our brand of entertainment is always striving to be the best. Whether the guys are always in uniforms pitting outside, bringing tours through their pit area, or whatever it takes to put on a show. And obviously, close competition is everything and a lot of that rests on NHRA's shoulders.
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SJ -- (laughter) Absolutely. I love what I do and I represent all the motorcycles through an organization called, PRO2, the 2-wheeled professional racers organization. That's a deal we've been running since 1997 and it's like I said before, we look at ourselves as a business, we're one of four professional businesses out at the races. If we fall down, if our show isn't good, if we don't have at least 16 competitors out here, if we don’t breathe and let it be known that we’re out here, then we fall down as a business. Truly we are just an extension of the company, NHRA. We’re a brand, and we have to constantly be the brand managers, so to speak of NHRA. We have to make sure we are included in everything. We have to go to those in charge and say, “Hey motorcycles are here why don’t you include us in the pre-race activities?”
That includes everything from press conferences all the way down to the commercials. A ten-second tag or a five-second tag would be something that we’re actually focusing on to let people know, hey there’s motorcycles at these races. Our position is, if people are coming to the races and seeing NHRA drag racing and don’t know there are motorcycles here, then you don’t get any motorcycle fans. If you let them know, then you’re going to drag some motorcycle fans in and arguably that would be a tangible return on investment. I think between that and organizing rides, like Harley-Davidson has talked about doing, specific things in pre-race venues such as the Speed Zone that we did recently with Brandon Bernstein and Karen Stoffer. Those are the kinds of things that Winston used to do and frankly I want to get more active in doing those things again.
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SJ --Absolutely, because the sport is so big. The NHRA, they’ve got their hands full. It’s so easy to throw rocks at those guys. It’s so easy for me to throw them, because I know where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing and I kind of feel like I know the direction. But at the end of the day, to be perfectly fair, if you ask every one of these teams out here, would more money and more staff help your cause? Everybody’s going to say yes, and it doesn’t even have to be a racing team. It could be someone who’s selling Hot Wheels or somebody selling a pet shop and that’s basically where I see NHRA. The tech department, the marketing department, finance, every single department over there could use larger budgets and more staff.
Hopefully this new HD partners thing that we’ve been told about is going to provide that and I’m not the gatekeeper but I’m going to stand there watching who’s coming in. If they’ve made a promise to us, specifically the professional racers, I want to make sure that I heard it and I want to keep them honest with it. I want to make sure that we’re going to see something. I want to see something, not only for our categories specifically but I want to see something that’s tangible. That’s dragging more sponsors over here, more fans in here. Better facilities, Houston, oh my gosh, some of these facilities are just very frustrating to go there and have half a million dollar race rig and park in a place that’s not reputable to the sanctioning body and what the racers are putting on to the fans. We need proper stadiums to put on entertainment. I think they’ve always said that the race track owners have been partners, we need to make sure that they're partners, they need fall like Melvyn Record and Bruton Smith are doing over at Infineon and geez, Bill Bader at Norwalk, what an effort he puts on. The whole tour has got the Bandimeres, these are people that really take a lot of pride it seems, based on their facilities that they love the sport and it’s making money for them.
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SJ --We got a huge short end of the stick at Infineon and I’m unfortunately highly frustrated by that. I think better communication has to go on. Being political as I possibly can, Glenn Cromwell came to me at the event and he said, look I have a plan for next year. I’ll tell you the facts, Geico had a television commercial and presentation there. We couldn’t even have fans around because there was a sign saying this was a restricted area. The fans in theory couldn’t even come see us over there and that was a problem for me. We addressed it and they said they were going to fix it. What I’m really tired of is the problems, they know, I feel like they know what’s going to happen. I don’t want the problems when they know what’s going to happen. You should try to fix them on the front side. I might be throwing rocks a little bit right now but I just know in today’s world with today’s technology if there’s a problem, somebody out there can fix it.
Myself, along with the NHRA and with some other input we chose to park where we parked in Norwalk. At Norwalk, we were right at the gate so the fans saw us when they walked in and when they walked out. If we would’ve pitted where we typically would’ve behind Pro Stock car, we would’ve been past the finish line. Face it. We would’ve only got the fans that wanted to see us. Where we were, the fans saw us whether they like motorcycles or not. It gave us a chance to have a brand new introduction for Bill Bader.
CP -- So how detrimental is this U.S Army sponsorship leave in Pro Stock Motorcycle?
SJ -- I think that’s obviously a mistake. I’m basically figuring it’s a 2 million dollar plan to run 2 motorcycles and to activate the sponsorship. So, on a 2 million dollar plan, on a line item for the U.S. Army I cannot imagine another $2 Million dollars that would be spent better. With two professional people, an African-American and a female, enhancing what Tony Schumacher does, for $2 Million dollars to convey a message and to be legitimized through a professional motorsport, in a professional arena, that’s televised. I can’t possibly imagine how another program for $2 Million dollars could gather recruits.
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SJ --Well Don Schumacher is a businessman for sure. He’s way smarter than I’ll ever be, but I know our category, and our category has to have the funding to go to 24 in 2008 events. There are some teams over here that have the funding. He for sure doesn’t have the funding to go to 24 events and I don’t know if that was detrimental to their decision. I doubt it highly because I’m sure his budget would’ve gone up to go to seven or eight more races. But the motorcycle category, hey we started in 1987, we’re 20 years behind the cars, it’s so easy for people to say you should go to all the events and we should. But the bottom line is we don’t have the infrastructure, not only financially in ourselves and our race teams but the infrastructure in our engines and our chassis suppliers. Those things are obviously a very important part of being at the NHRA Winternationals and we don’t have that infrastructure right now. We’re going to have another race next year, we started out with 5 races and in less than 25 years we’ve quadrupled that. It depends how you want to spin it, sure we need to be at all 24 races, and as long as we keep going one race at a time, my goal is in the next 5 years to be at 5 more races.
CP -- Why do you think it is that Pro Stock Motorcycle sets the pace for diversity as opposed to any of the other classes?
SJ --That is probably the best question that I’ve ever been asked. That is such a cool question. For starters, a child at five years old can hop on a bicycle. A bicycle is the closest thing to emulate a motorcycle that there is. Yeah, you can get in a little go cart I suppose and you can do that, but typically the first thing a child gets on is a bicycle and I think that sticks with everybody. Obviously one of the things is that it’s so much more economical. You can run a Pro Stock Motorcycle for $800,000 per year or you can run a top fuel car for arguably $3 Million dollars a year. It’s a lot easier to put together your own team and race out of your garage when you don’t have to get a big truck and trailer. You can have a small truck and trailer. The reality is that you can put it in an El Camino and have a drag bike and go to the race track. You can add water to that flower and pretty soon it’s going to grow up to be a Pro Stock Motorcycle.
To race a Top Fuel car, that’s a big hit. Where do you start with that? Larry Dixon used to have a Nova, he still has it. I kidded with Lynn Prudhomme before Larry started and said, “Hey he’s ready to drive that fuel car ain’t he?” I joked with her and said, “Hey Larry went 11 seconds in his Nova, how much different could it be?” It’s got four wheels and she kidded with me. I think the bicycle, the motorcycle and the fact that kids of all ages and all color can see that. I think it’s just frankly a lot easier to get involved in. Having everyone from Angelle [Sampey] to Peggy [Llewellyn] to Antron [Brown], our diversity is over here, I mean we just keep knocking them out of the park, we’ve got all kinds of diversity over here and I think it’s just perceived as being easier, but I think when they get over here they see how hard it is but it’s still an easy deal to get into and it’s a professional motorsport, it’s covered on ESPN and you can do it for $100 Million bucks.
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SJ -- I take advantage of it every time I can. I do school presentations and I talk about African-American all the time. I mean face it, when you go into Louisiana, you go into some of these other states, New Jersey, Alabama, and Indiana. I mean there are all kinds of schools out there that just thrive off, Texas, Hispanic and the African-American areas. If I could grab Antron, Hector and Fred Camarena and put them on my arm and drag them out there with us, I’d have them at every one of our school visits. It’s so much power and it’s unfortunate that people recognize race, I only recognize it as ‘he’s my homey’ or ‘she’s my homey’ out here. The girl thing at the same time, when I say there are girls racing, the girls go crazy at these school appearances. So I want to use that as much as I can because I think it’s a great way to promote our sport, not only from anybody can race but it’s a great way to promote. We don’t have a race issue over here. We’re just all about when you put the helmet on they’re gonna try to tear out my throat and I’m going to probably try to tear out theirs. It doesn’t matter who it is.
CP -- So the 6.90 dial in [reported limiting performances to 6.90 seconds], is that still in effect?
SJ -- (laughter) I tell you Don Taylor has the hardest job in the NHRA as far as I’m concerned. There are some huge issues on parity in our class, it just depends who you ask. You could ask this guy and he’d say ‘no,’ and you could ask this guy and he’d say ‘yes,’ It depends if they’re going faster or slower but the main thing that we always try to put forward with PRO2 is have NHRA treat us fair and consistently. When you make a precedent, stick with it. When you do something for one class, let the other classes enjoy it. Don’t discriminate, we just talked about that, don’t discriminate with the class. It spins all the way back to anything else that goes along with all that. At the end of the day we want to go faster, we’re racers. I can’t imagine there being an insurance clause out there saying, ‘Hey if they go 6.80s, we need a different insurance policy’.
We’re gonna go faster and NHRA has a word for it, it’s called creep. We’re gonna go faster, all the time and they’re going do their best to I guess, hold us back. I guess that’s their view of parity way or a parity issue. I don’t know if that’s the issue but I know when the Suzuki engine comes out they're going to have their hands full because they’re going to have another engine out here to try to create parity. If you try to tell somebody, ‘I want you to tell me that this orange tastes the same as that apple and I want you to tell me it tastes the same as a banana and as a pear.’ It’s never gonna taste the same. It’s gonna be a very, very difficult class to have your thumb onto. That’s why I think it’s so important to create this precedent where you’re learning stuff and when you see something that works, you stick with it.
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SJ -- Suzuki’s have an engine, a 2-valve engine and a 4-valve engine. Harleys have their engine and the Buells have their engine and Kawasaki’s have their engine. If Honda or Yamaha wants to come in then they’d have their engine. I think those things will be a standard then they’re gonna float with engine size if the parity thing gets too out of control and you can’t control it with weight. In reality, they can keep strapping weight onto it over and over and over and it’s just going to get hard to maintain. They’re gonna have to try to come up with something else. Like I said, it’s a job I sure wouldn’t want to deal with but I know weight is a big issue. When you’ve got someone that’s 100 pounds and you’ve got someone that’s 170 pounds, it puts a note out to the team owners, ‘you better find some 100 pound drivers out there because 170 pound riders aren’t going to get it. All you’re doing is shooting yourself in the foot and that’s me included.
CP – Has PRO2 commented and/or protested the fact that the motorcyle competitors had fewer races in which to qualify for the final portion of the Countdown?
SJ – That all falls under the bigger picture, and the bigger picture is what the financial support the teams are getting. Some of the bigger teams are able to go to more races than some of the others. It’s a multiple impact kind of thing. Don Schumacher is the biggest advocate of (the motorcycles) going to more races, and he doesn’t have support for his two motorcycles, so his request (for more races) is diminished greatly. Having said that, you don’t ever want to pull out of races, or out of a race track. As the “brand manager” I would never want to pull out of a race track. The only reason I can remember for us leaving Dallas was a finish line issue, and I’d be the first to say that it’s great over there now. We also had an issue in Reading, but they’ve fixed their track, too. The bottom line right now is that the class isn’t funded well enough to handle that kind of additional expense.
CP – What’s been the result of your conversations with Don Taylor of NHRA about adjusting the weight breaks for Buells, Harleys and Suzukis?
SJ – It’s the same conversation I have with (NHRA president) Tom Compton, Graham Light, Gary Darcy and Glen Cromwell about fair and consistent treatment. If there’s anything I’ve learned in 21 years is the thing to ask for from the sanctioning body is fair and consistent treatment. A lot of things we get it on, and a lot of things we don’t. Having said that I’ll go on record as saying Don Taylor probably has the toughest job in NHRA of creating parity in the Pro Stock Motorcycle category. I still believe it’s the right thing to do to bring Harley-Davidsons and Buells into the category, but it’s very, very difficult to compare those engines and the Suzuki engine. It’s like a fruit salad. An orange is never going to taste like an apple, and when you’re trying to mix them together you’re never going to get parity. However, there is a rule of thumb that they follow, that they have discussed with the competitors and with the Competition Committee and while some of us are frustrated at their design of their rule of thumb and then not following it based upon their view of their rule of thumb, that begins to create some animosity on our category. To make it short, they talked about five hundredths of a second being the point where they’d take a look at the parity. In other words, there’s five hundredths of a second between one of the brands then NHRA would look at that and say, Wow, do we need to make a weight adjustment, do we need to make some kind of adjustment to create parity so the fans get a good exciting race, and the competitors are on an even keel to be able to provide the same opportunity to win the race. I’m pretty sure we’re all in agreement that you shouldn’t have to buy a certain brand of motorcycle in order to win.
SJ – Well, I believe we’ve got to talk about that. Right now I still believe the answer is no because I believe that, despite what many people think, NHRA see themselves as an entertainment opportunity for corporate America to be involved in, and having said that, it doesn’t make sense to close the class down to only a Harley-Davidson brand of motorcycle, meaning a Buel and a Harley-Davidson. If the teams and potential businessmen work hard enough then Honda and other brands would be involved. If they were involved the Suzuki program would be enhanced. Let me back up a second. NHRA has just given Suzuki what they have asked for, and they’ve asked for the right to be able to make an engine somewhat like the Buels and the Harleys, meaning it’s a bit of factory-involved engine that’s designed specifically for NHRA drag racing.
CP – Will this engine be branded as a Suzuki engine?
SJ – Absolutely. It’s branded as a Suzuki engine. It’s a model of the Hayabusa. It’s arguably the quickest and fastest production motorcycle since 1999 in the United States.
CP – How soon are we likely to see this engine in competition?
SJ – I believe that the Schumacher team has been contracted to facilitate the building of the engine. It has all of the Suzuki parameters, and Suzuki has final say-so. With that I believe there is an agreement to build and race that model engine for a number of years through the Schumacher banner. What that’s going to do is possibly give Suzukis a way to compete at a little bit different level. Hopefully, people will then be able to say, I want to be involved in Pro Stock Motorcycle racing, and get involved with the Hayabusa engine and they could do that more or less like buying an engine from WalMart or Target stores when you pick up a Hot Wheels. I’m sure it will be more involved than that, but you get the idea. I think the plan is to see that engine on the track in 2008. The frustration is fair and consistent treatment because the second that thing is released the teams that want to be able to buy it need to be able to buy it. When you look at all of NHRA drag racing, all the way to Pro Stock car, the manufacturers get to promote and sell what they’re racing, and Suzuki's not been able to do that. That’s a huge frustration for that brand, and the loyalty that Suzuki’s shown to NHRA and their racers has been way above anybody else that’s a manufacturer just from the standpoint of that they support the teams, and they don’t have a way to sell product. The only thing they can rely on is branding. Suzuki has always been behind because they’ve never been able to sell the engine or the body they have available.
CP – Why were those things not legal for use up until now?
SJ – Suzuki has been able to use the Hayabusa body, but that body is so much wider than the TL-1000 that it wasn’t feasible, so it’s more or less saying anybody can go and get a hundred million dollars, but it’s a little harder than that. The engine that we’ve always used is based on an engine that was manufactured in the early to mid-80s. That’s what we’ve used forever. It’s been highly polished and makes just under three-and-a-half horsepower per cubic inch, and it’s always been a great runner for us, but it’s old, old technology. The Hayabusa engine is state-of-the-art technology, with four valves per cylinder, downdraft fuel injection and downdraft ports. It’s all the latest and greatest technology. Why it’s never been used is obviously the cost. Suzuki went with Vance & Hines in the early 80s and Byron Hines developed that engine. To them as businessmen they’ve always been able to sell stuff and have been very competitive. They’ve also manufactured all the pieces to be able to grow that industry, not only in NHRA, but in every other type of motorcycle racing as well. The engine cases mandated by NHRA to be used are built overseas, and when those engine dies are done I do not believe Suzuki will rebuild or re-modify those dies or molds to produce the cases, and therefore that was one of the reasons Suzuki decided to be proactive here in the United States in manufacturing an engine that will keep the Suzuki name alive in NHRA and alive in high performance motorcycle racing period.
CP – Does PRO 2 have an official position on how you’d like to see the Countdown changed for next year?
SJ – We do not. The reality of trying to deal with the sanctioning body under the PRO or in alignment with the PRO is very difficult. As strange as this may seem, the survival of our category relies on the business and entertainment value of the category. There are so many issues on the table for our livelihood that to survive and enhance our brand, which will bring more sponsorship to our teams that frankly, our business is like many businesses – it’s a little under-funded and it’s way under-staffed, so when you look at hospitality, television time, purses, safety, new race tracks and parking, those issues are so much more important to our members than how the points are put together. At the end of the day, if we can’t keep our businesses afloat, the points don’t mean much. As much as we’d like to look at helping to decide that system, it’s difficult for us to allocate the time to sit there and stare at it. But, at the end of the day we think it’s a fantastic program to have the Countdown. I know there are people asking what about Numbers 9 and 10 (for which there’s no bonus money at present), but that develops into other conversations. What we’re trying to do now is to have a summit meeting with sponsors during the Las Vegas race and get their input. If the sponsors and team owners think that’s a Top 5 issue, then PRO2 will chase that on their behalf and present whatever people in the category think is important.
CP – Do you realize that if you wait until after Las Vegas to make your feelings known to NHRA it could be too late?
SJ -- Absolutely, we know we could have missed it by that much. But at PRO 2 we try to stay right on top of the pulse of the category and right now or priority is sponsorships and purses -- things like that.
CP – Do you have an official position regarding an expansion of your schedule that would include up to competing in all 24 races?
SJ – Absolutely. We’re pushing for at least one more race each year. What’s so flattering is that in the old days the tracks wondered about the tangible value of the motorcycles, and today track owners are asking PRO 2 how they can get us to their race tracks. That is a true changing of the tide. Let me be perfectly clear about this: Every single NHRA track that doesn’t now have the motorcycles competing wants them.
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