The AHDRA / AMA All-American motorcycle drag racing series took its first look at the recently upgraded Kuhnle Motorsports Park in Thompson , Ohio , in June and local hero Jason Pridemore came out on top in the marquee Top Fuel class at the Advanced Sleeve All-Harley Nitro Buckeye Nationals . Pridemore ' s unique blown , nitro Harley-Davidson " Gunslinger " is a selfengineered , home-built , one-off piece of art . Even with his proximity to the track , Pridemore was unsure that he would make the event . " It was a challenge to get there . Three weeks earlier I broke the engine and exploded the intake plenum on the bike . " Saturday we qualified in the number two spot , welded up some cracks in the exhaust pipes , reset the clutch , and came up with a tune-up and plan for Sunday . As we went through the rounds on Sunday , the plan worked on a very tricky track to get down ." And no round was trickier than the final against Smokin ' Dean Comunal on a Bad Apple Racing bike . Comunal took an enormous . 069 to . 229 lead at the start . Both bikes looked on good passes until the transition from concrete to asphalt broke the tires loose . From then on it was a peddlefest between two riders looking for closure from dramatic incidents years earlier . Pridemore had a terrible back half crash at Norwalk in 2014 , while Comunal was very seriously injured in a Nitro Harley explosion in 2017 . Now , both were on and off the throttle , trying to reach the stripe for a healing win . This particular afternoon belonged to Pridemore , whose low 157 mph at 6.82 shows just how much track this bike eats in the front half . Ryan Peery made it two straight Nitro Funnybike wins on his " Big Nasty ," vanquishing Armon Furr in the final after Furr put out champion Michael Balch in round 1 . Peery and Furr left nearly lockstep together , with Furr having a . 004 advantage . Peery had a 4 / 10ths ET advantage by half track and held on for |
Jason Pridemore
Chris Hoppe
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the win . Defending Hawaya Racing Pro Fuel champion Sam White has won all three AHDRA races this year , but " Bad Apple Mary " Dangrow didn ' t make it easy in the Kuhnle final . Neither rider set the tree on fire , but White took an . 070 advantage before struggling on the big end . " I left the barn door open for ' BAM ' to close ," said White . " The front end washed out because of rider error , but we pulled it out for the ( 7.53 to 7.57 ) win ." Charley Douglass took a knife to the GMS Racing Engines Xtreme Outlaw gunfight , which proved to be the tool for the job as Mike Motto ' s bike could only fire bullets the first third of the track . Douglass showed up to Kuhnle with his Hot Street bike because his turbo Outlaw bike wasn ' t ready . So it would seem to be an " Easy Button " weekend for Motto and his nitrous bike . But Motto doesn ' t have an " Easy Button " |
and stays locked into " New Record " mode , which sometimes results in finding the weak link in his combination . The weak link this week was the shifter , and Motto couldn ' t make a full lap in anger - handing the win to Douglass and his knife . John Price is having a good year so far in Zipper ' s Performance Products Pro Modified , taking the Kuhnle final over Kimberly " K-Charm " Deshields . Kim had a slim . 004 lead on Price at the start , but his 8.68 at 150 mph was miles ahead at the stripe . Deshields may have lost the Pro Modified final , but she snagged the win in Axtell Cylinders Super Modified against Gary Douglass in the final . Kentuckian Jeff Workman took the Pingel Modified final , made easy when Dru Conner redlit . Louisianan Scott Tomsu took two Bagger wins at Kuhnle - Pro Bagger and Bagger Street - driving around Perry Paugh for the Street win . Bagger Street runner-up Perry Paugh |
rebounded with the MTC Pro Comp Outlaw Bagger win on his 2000 Street Glide . " It ' s a 128 engine with a best ET of 11.81 at 111.00 mph - not too bad for a total weight just under 1,000 pounds ," said big man Paugh . Ken Strauss lived at the edge of the Kuhnle track before moving to North Carolina , and he made his Thompson homecoming extra special by doubling up in 9.30 and Vreeland ' s Harley- Davidson 9.90 . The 9.30 win came at the expense of runner-up Chris Hoppe , who took the tree but was unable to run the number . Strauss ' Vreeland ' s Harley-Davidson 9.90 final round opponent was Gary DeZee . Strauss took the tree by a very wide margin and was able to ease up at the stripe for the win . 9.30 runner-up Hoppe came back around in 10.30 index , taking the final round tree by a wide margin and maintaining his edge for the win . Hoppe also won Eliminator class both days for a triple ! Cody Hayworth continues to come up with a win pretty much every time he hits the track . He took the Universal Fleet & Tire 10.90 win against Larry Stevens in the final Racin ' Ray Robinson continues to tear up the track on his rough and ready , short wheelbase Buell . Robinson won the 11.50 index final by taking the tree and pushing Erik Nelson to break out . Jaden Hines won Junior Junior Dragbike both days at Kuhnle , with Blake Harper the runner-up both days . Jaden ' s brother Michael Hines Jr . won Junior Senior on Saturday , but was shut out of Sunday ' s winners circle by Kylie Himmelreich . John Pace won Trophy class both days . Bill and Chrissy Rowe look forward to welcoming the AHDRA / AMA family back for their second trip to Milan Dragway in Milan , Michigan , July 29- 30 , for the Second Annual Southern Michigan Bikefest . |