<< light and felt air on all four corners of his body. On the plus side, his constantly aching left arm is out-ofmind, out-of-pain for those six to seven seconds it takes his bike to run the quarter mile. If Samu wasn’ t completely healed from the crash, neither was his bike. Chassis fabricator Mike Mullaney reworked the frame’ s steering neck just in time for the bike to be reassembled at No Problem Raceway, and built new wheelie bars that were delivered to the track. First round of qualifying for this class( and the others) was pretty much like the first round of the first race of the season is every year— a lot of struggles as riders and tuners try to find the track, their motorcycles, and their nerve. By the time qualifying was over, it was obvious that times and speeds would be below average. Gapping the field by far was 2025 rookie sensation Paul Anderson with a 6.45 at 215 miles per hour. Samu’ s Chris Stewart Racing teammate Jordan Peterson was second with a 6.62 at 199, followed by the Finn himself at 6.63 / 204. Qualified fourth was the interesting new combination of former 2X NHRA champ Tii Tharpe and Red Rhea’ s“ Long Train a Runnin’” bike. 2024 NPR winner Rickey“ Sharkey” House struggled to just keep his bike running, but got down the track with a 7.16 in Q3 that placed him sixth. Sandwiching Sharkey were Bad Apple Racing’ s Jimmy“ Mac” McMillian and Cameron“ Flash” Gunter in fifth and seventh, respectively. Bringing up the rear of the field in ninth was Hawaiian Spence Aguilar, but in eighth was a most interesting new Top Fuel Harley rider. Louisiana alligator farmer Jerry Savoie had never ridden a nitro-powered anything until this weekend. The
Jim Martin- Hawaya Racing, and White Lightening Racing Pro Fuel winner
former NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion sold his team a few years ago and has been concentrating on his businesses since, with only occasional dips in the burnout box. Savoie has always cast a side-glance towards Nitro Harleys and was now at his local track to see what the smell and noise was all about. He jumped straight into the deep-end on a Steve Horne-owned, Mike Romine builtand-tuned Top Fuel Harley. Wearing his PSM gear that was not up to the abuse of flaming Nitro Harleys, the always determined Savoie would have to learn to swim quickly. Licensed Saturday night, a humble Savoie sounded a little overwhelmed by the violence of the bikes and size of the riders as he was walking to the staging lanes for E1 on Sunday. But as the lights came down with Samu in the other lane, Savoie’ s killer instincts took over. His PSM-style. 028 light left the Finn— who had flirted with redlighting in qualifying— firmly planted with a. 193. Front wheel high in the air, Savoie was racing past his fears towards the finishline.“ I didn’ t pass him until 1000 feet,” said Samu, who crossed the line with a 6.53 at 212 mph. Savoie had eased out to a 6.78 at 169. Anderson’ s 6.48 bye run was quickest of the round. Tharpe also had a bye when Gunter no-showed. Peterson beat Aguilar, and McMillan beat Sharkey.“ E2 we line up against the number one qualifier Paul Anderson, who was on point this weekend,” said McMillan.“ My. 025 light wasn’ t enough for his. 017 light and he got out a couple of bike lengths on me at the hit and stayed there.” Peterson had a round two bye, while Samu raced around Tharpe before getting his own bye in the semis. Anderson raced past Peterson to setup an epic final with the Finn. Samu was exceptional at the tree with an. 014 to Anderson’ s. 057. Down track it was very close, with Samu’ s 6.56 at 210 edging Paul’ s 6.57 / 216.
The Armon Furr Racing Nitro Funnybike class boiled down to former champ Jim Doyle and class newcomer Ken“ Stubby” Hultman. Doyle had a bye to the final while Stubby raced around Walter Halonski to advance. Phillip Crouch entered the event but didn’ t record a time. Stubby put up a strong. 066 reaction time against number one qualifier Doyle, who drove around for the win with a 7.24 at 186 to Hultman’ s 7.43 / 168. Hawaya Racing Pro Fuel was short a
Ken“ Stubby” Hultman Mary Dangrow
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