(Top ) Roland Stuart pushed his Suzuki t hrough a tough field to take Top Fuel honors. with fast reactions winning it
for him in the fina ls. (Above) Funny Bike w inner Bo O'Brochta poses w ith bike owner Bill Hahn and crew.
'DBA National
Cham~ionshi~
Drag. Racing.Series: Round 2
Louisville Top Fuel win to Stuart
By Truman Williamson
LOUISVILLE. KY, MAY 14-16
Roland Stuart top p ed the Top Fuel class a t
th e rain-delayed IDBA Super Nationals a t
Ohio Valley Raceway. Inclement wea th er
stretched the two day progra m to three. L ate
Sunday, race director Tony Lee
ga thered the riders at the timmg tower and marked off a lin e
with minibikes . In th e manner
of Co lone l Willi am Travis a t th e
Alam o. Lee a sked th ose wh o wanted
to race into th e night to end the program or wait unti l Monday for better
weath er co n ditio ns to form into
., • .K.r9~ PJ PJ1. ~iJ !.t~r. ~i !l~ pJ _t l) ~ !I!\.:ipl t:!g
14
line. The vote was to race, but a
shower wash ed that pla n aw ay and
th e decisi on to stay or leav e was a
hard o ne for man y to make.
Saturday's practi ce began with Top
Fueler Elmer Trett a nd his blown
Kaw asak i taking a MX rid e off the
en d of th e track a fter a 4.94 second,
155 mph run on th e eigh th -mi le
!t:.a_c.!'~ _T ~ ~. ~ ~q S_toc~ . fi ~ld. !la? 2!
entries separated by two-IOths of a
second Top Fuel a nd Funny Bike,
each with eight bik e fiel ds, were also
tigh tly bunched.
T he S unday rain show was a spectator disaster. T he pi t p arties and a n
occasional burst of engi ne n oise from
Trett's camp were the o nly entertainme nt. T rett h ad fro zen an engine on
Saturday a nd had tried everythi ng
bu t R oto-R oo ter to get the pistons
out. Things fina lly worked out, bu t
the problem occurred agai n on Mo nday and Trett was out of ac tion.
In Top . F ue l P u shro d , J am es
McDonald's high tech single-engine
Harley-Davidson lost out to Frankie
Spittle's double Harley in elimina tions. Spittle met Anson Holly in th e
_.. _f~l!a) , ~ p~t!l e:S.b i k e co ugh ed a nd died
