Drag Illustrated Issue 182, May / June 2023 | Page 61

Special Section
While the elder Davis was hesitant to unleash all the bike ’ s power with his teenaged son in the seat , he did give him all the power he needed to win . Davis was quick to credit Stuart Crane with Warpspeed Racing , who built a new experimental motor for the father-son duo .
“ It ’ s actually smaller CC and it ’ s showing a lot of potential ,” Davis says of the nitrous-fed engine . “ It ’ s showing promise for [ Crane ] and his business and it ran really good . It stayed together . It had more in it , but we were just trying to play it safe
and make sure we could go down the racetrack and be competitive .”
Continuing on the subject of kudos , Davis thanked his parents , Travis and Brandy , for giving him the opportunity to step up to Pro Nitrous Motorcycle and for all their efforts back at home and at the racetrack .
“ They work hard at this ,” Davis adds . “ It takes a lot of confidence for him to put his son on a bike that has won multiple championships and is fast . He ’ s such a great rider and I just dream of being like him .”
Sounding just like his father in his frequent winner ’ s circle interviews , Davis went on to thank the team ’ s manufacturer partners .
“ The Monster Race Products cylinder head – that thing ’ s awesome ,” Davis begins . “ I also want to thank Steve Nichols with MaxxECU and Dan Wagner with DTM Performance , Fast By Gast , and Worldwide Bearings . There ’ s a lot of people who help us and they know who they are . Without them , we wouldn ’ t be where we are today .”
The Davis family went into the season opener with open minds and modest expectations for Brayden ’ s pro debut . But after winning in his debut , Davis is now focused on joining his dad as a Pro Nitrous Motorcycle world champion .
“ Dad and I talked about this before we got here ,” Davis says . “ We were kind of just playing it by ear , whether we were going to run the full series . After I won , he said , ‘ I reckon we ’ ll be doing PDRA all year .’ When it starts out this good , it ’ s hard not to . You dream to start a year off like this . To not go [ to all the races ] wouldn ’ t make any sense . So we ’ re going to do it , we ’ re going to run for it , and just stay consistent . Consistency is the key to winning championships and races and just being a good racer .”
True to his word , Davis stayed consistent at the second race on the PDRA tour , the Mid-Atlantic Showdown presented by Classic Graphix at Virginia Motorsports Park . In Pro Nitrous Motorcycle , he qualified mid-pack before laying down a career-best 3.963 in the first round . He bowed out in the semis , going red by . 014 seconds to Garner- Jones . However , he found the winner ’ s circle for the second consecutive race in Pro Jr . Dragster , defeating No . 1 qualifier LJ Lewis in the final round .
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