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.

Jessie
Harris, famed drive of the Hanna Motorsports Jets’ BIC Lighter "Queen of
Diamonds, can sense she is on the cusp of a wonderful new chapter in her racing
career.

Smiling
from ear to ear in Dinwiddie (Va.) recently, Harris could hardly contain her
emotions following a test run in an Evan Knoll-owned Top Fuel dragster at
Virginia Motorsports Park the day after Clay Millican had piloted the racecar in
the Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals.

That
introduction to nitro racing was the first time Harris had driven a Top Fuel
dragster and even though she’s been 300 miles per hour in a 6,000-horse, jet
dragster, there was something about the short hit that tickled her
fancy.

“That
was just testing, I don't have a deal yet," Harris said. "I have to continue to
go out there and prove myself both on and off the track.  But, I can tell you,
after that day in testing I know I was born to drive these
cars."

Unable
to put her finger on it, there is something that has always caused Harris to
gravitate towards fast dragsters. Maybe it was her
upbringing.

When someone passes from
this earth, our most treasured keepsakes are our memories, our way of
celebrating life.

So it is, with Wally
Parks.

He had many, many friends,
coworkers and associates whom he touched in his busy 94 years.

As were probably you, this
writer was shocked by Wally's passing, even at age 94.

The memories came flooding
in – memories of our times together, in interviews and just an after-the-race
dinner with he and wife Barbara.

Ah yes, interviews.

One of my favorites was
when he took time to detail to me the very first Winter Nationals.

On
Saturday, September 29, Rickie Smith stood at the starting line at Maryland
International Raceway and wiped away a tear as thousands of appreciate IHRA
fans acknowledged his selection as Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com’s No. 1 All Time
Mountain Motor Pro Stock Driver.

It was
the second of two major honors bestowed upon the King, North Carolina, resident in 2007, and
significant because it coincided with the 30^th anniversary of the
class Smith helped pioneer.

In July,
Smith was named to the inaugural Legends of Thunder Valley class at Bristol
Dragway in recognition of his being the driver with the most wins in the
history of the venerable facility. He was in impressive company that summer
day, joining “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, IHRA founder Larry Carrier, and NHRA
founder Wally Parks. It was high praise indeed.

“I’ve
had some really big honors laid out on my plate this year,” Smith said. “It’s
been over 35 years of hard work – I don’t know how to explain it – I’m just so
thrilled over it. The good thing is that I’m still racing and I’m still able to
enjoy it. Thank God Evan Knoll is helping me right now. He loves drag racing
and he’s helped a lot of people. I’m just glad he’s not a NASCAR freak.”

When
asked about his inclusion in the legends of Thunder Valley
class, Smith said, “Wally Parks started this stuff. If it wasn’t for him waking
up one day and having a vision for all of us to go racing I wouldn’t have had
the opportunities I’ve had. Wally and Larry carrier, who started the IHRA, are
both gone now. Me and Don Garlits are the only two left from the four who were
honored at Bristol.
I hope this isn’t a sign. I’m going to watch Garlits because if he goes away
I’m going to stay by my doctor’s office. Seriously, though, I really appreciate
all the honors.”

The plan for Team
Northwind prior to the NHRA Schuck’s Auto Supply Nationals at Pacific Raceways
was to have Jack Coonrod stay at my house in Issaquah, which is about 20
minutes from the racetrack. He would bring the Northwind to the track from
Vancouver, Washington, and I’d meet him there Thursday, a day before the event
began, to help set up of the display.

I thought I’d beat Jack
there and scope out the display area, pick up the credentials, and then wait
for him on the entrance road. After spending most of my adult life there I knew
the place pretty well. I also knew that there had been some major changes since
I left at the end of 2001 and I wanted make sure where everything was to make
it easy for Jack.

There was a special area
set aside for the dozen or so nostalgia cars that were scheduled to be on
display. The weather that day was pretty decent, but there was a huge threat
looming in the form of a “Pineapple Express” where the jet stream from Hawaii
takes aim at Seattle, picks up water the whole way and then dumps it on Western
Washington for days. It certainly sounded like the weekend was not going to be
too conducive for racing events. After all my years at the track I knew that
the track employees and the NHRA race crew were in for trouble.

We set up a canopy to keep
the car protected from the rain along with another cover that engulfed the
whole car. It wouldn’t keep the car completely dry but we could gather
underneath the canopy for a good old ‘jaw’ session. Most of the other nostalgia
cars would be arriving the next day but we wanted to get everything in order so
we could be ready to display early the next morning.

Brian Gahm could only pump his fist in elation back in July when he was told that he was the first driver to run in the 6.20s.

You’d think a man who was first into the 6.40s and then the 6.30s would
get used to breaking down barriers. Gahm said he understood that Pro
Stockers just weren’t supposed to run 6.20s – in his mind that was pure
science fiction.

“I think we’re as far as we can go now,” Gahm proclaimed in July in
Ontario. “You’re not going to run any faster than that. Don’t get me
wrong, there’s going to be someone else that will run in the .20s,
there are at least four other guys who will do it before the year is
over.”

Gahm’s words would prove prophetic. During last weekend’s IHRA Torco
Race Fuels President’s Cup Nationals at Maryland International Raceway
[MIR], four drivers qualified with a 6.299 or better.

When qualifying was complete, Gahm was the quickest. He said it still
amazes him that he retains the quickest and fastest Pro Stock run in
the world at 6.281 seconds and 223.95 miles per hour.

John Force’s potentially fatal crash
really bothered Jim Head.

The accident bothered him so much
that he said he spent hours, and he doesn’t exaggerate, hours watching tape of
the crash and analyzing what happened.

Head resolved to prevent the same
thing from happening again. Head was so intent in his efforts he was prepared to
be the lab rat in a high horsepower experiment.

Head flew to Indianapolis to look at
the remnants of the Force chassis. The thought of what could have happened
scared him enough to put his engineering education to
work.

“I’m not going to debate anyone’s
theories,” Head said. “I’m just going to build something safer for myself and if
anyone wants to look at it, more power to them. There are just too many opinions
and the debate doesn’t need another one.”

Head has designed one of the
initial, if not the first, encapsulated Funny Car
cockpits.

Bob Vandergriff
Jr. is definitely someone who looks at the glass as half full opposed to half
empty.

He has to.

How else would you explain
his ability to keep going? Vandergriff, over a career that began in 1994, has
had his cake. He just hasn't tasted it yet. He's advanced to 11 final rounds
his NHRA career without earning his first national event victory. But he
understands that even a racer has more to his life than a little gold trophy.

"I think it used to
(get to me)," said the Top Fuel veteran, who has advanced to four finals
this year and comes into this weekend's Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals in
Richmond, Va. with a shot at qualifying for the final four in the NHRA's new
Countdown to the Championship. "I realize now that it's not such a bad
thing. It's not like we have a bad car and lucked into the final. When we get
to the finals, we're running good and things for whatever reason take place and
we don't win the round.

"I tend to look at the
big picture of things. I look at the success of us getting to the final and
winning rounds. And eventually, when we do knock that door down, (those wins)
are going to come in bunches. But like I said in other interviews before,
there's nothing in my life that I can complain about. And I'm certainly not
going to complain about losing a drag race."

The ins and outs of why
Bruton’s drag strip was voted down

W. Brian Hiatt has served
as Concord's
City Manager since 1998. He came to Concord from
Hickory where
he served as Assistant City Manager for over 10 years. He holds a Bachelor of
Science Degree in History and Government Service from Appalachian State University
where he was a summa cum laude graduate, and a Master of Public Administration
from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Hiatt serves as the
Past-President of the Concord Rotary Club and is currently on the board of
directors of the NC League of Municipalities as well the Board of Directors for
the Economic Development Corp and the Academic Learning
Center. 

Torco’s
CompetitionPlus.com spoke with Hiatt on Tuesday morning, following the City of Concord’s decision to
create a zoning ordinance preventing drag strips in their city.

CP:  I understand last evening that the area that
the drag strip was to go into was rezoned and no longer will allow drag
strips.  Is that correct?

BH:  That is correct, yes.

CP:  Was this decision based solely on the
opposition from local residents or were there other people opposed to this?

BH:  Basically, the council had asked up
front for information related to noise studies to determine what kind of impact
it had on surrounding properties and whether or not there could be anything
done to medicate that noise with any improvements and such.  They had also asked for specifics on how many
times per year the track would be used and they did not receive any information
related to that.  They did decide to
consider changing the zoning and had a public hearing and there were most of
the people who spoke in favor of changing the zoning were from residential
areas.  There were a few from other
areas, but the primary region was residential property owners from not only the
immediate area but some of them were from a little bit further beyond.

The NHRA had better go to
‘Plan B’ for the 24^th event.

NHRA officials had
reportedly planned for the new drag strip being constructed by Bruton Smith on
the grounds of Lowe’s Motor Speedway outside of Charlotte, NC,
to be the site of that extra September date. Gainesville was to be the fallback if it
wasn’t done in time.

Charlotte may be the motorsports Mecca but only if you drive in circles. Even
the mayor reportedly has a NASCAR tag on his car.

The Concord (NC) County
Council reaffirmed their loyalty to auto racing and in the same meeting voted
to halt construction on the new drag strip.

The opposition for the
drag strip comes from local residents who complain of the added noise a drag
strip brings. Smith’s Speedway Motorsports Inc. [SMI] representatives didn’t
provide any data on noise for their defense, according to a Charlotte Observer
report.

Mayor Scott Padgett has
said this decision could be reversed if SMI provides the necessary noise
information.