Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I D l 'II ... r.ace II II S T OR Y A N D PH OTO S IH R A Empire N ationals could . T hat 6 .60 was what I needed to win . I had a decent reaction time at .480 , but Jay h ad a b et t er on e a t .461. B y l oo k in g at the numbers , I was ahead of him all the way down the racetra ck until the l ast few fee t w here he caught me . I f ee l good about th is run . At least I d idn't go out there and beat m yself. " Th e track co m puter reported a win by four inches. Team Bulldog hunkered down for the sem i - f inal. T h e bi ke wa s sti ll slowing down as the air changed and rain y weather moved closer. " We have a sma ll problem in the motorc y cle and it 's not respond ing like it ought to ." Turner said , prior to his pa iring w ith McClure , the number one qualifier. for the semi -final. McClure won his first round by setting th e bike up for a 6.60, running a 6 .61 . "I di d wh at I wa n te d to d o ," h e said . " Sec ond round , I tried to set th e bike o n a 6 .55. I thought I'd lin ed up straight . but hadn ' t. And . Jay c hopped th e tr ee o n m e . It was nobody's fault but mine. I felt like I had th e field covered th is week and that hasn 't happened in a long time. I hate to just give it away on a m istake. But when you' ve gotta get out of the throttle , you do . I've had a problem By NIN A H E ND ERSO N LEICESTER, NY, JULY 15-16 HRA 200 0 Cha mpio n Jay T u rn er won the IH RA Empire Nationals wi th a total margin of victory of .0 64 of a second from his three competi tion passes at New York International, perhaps the most closely contested overall event in IHRA Screamin ' Eagle Nitro Harley class history. Qualifying slower than normal , Team Bulldog clocked a 6 .689 elapsed time in the quarter mile, fi fth from the number one position 6.493 of Jim McClure on his personal best pass . "We' d changed a lot for qualifying then went back to our normal tune-up for th e fi rst round ," Turner said. The ladder set him ag ain st number four qu alifier B ill Furr. " I love t o race B ill bec ause I thi nk he bring s out th e best in m e," Turner said . "I had th e holesh ot ag ainst him, but I don 't li k e running him in the fi rst rou nd. That was the closest drag race I' ve been in m y whole life." Turner won by one .00 1 of a sec ond . Fu rr, m eanwhil e, qualified with a 6 .60 -second run , then said after the race: "M y plans were to go out there and run as close to that number as I I 48 AUGUST 2 . 2000' cue I e nevvs Jay Turner scored a close w in In the IHRA Empire Nationals In New York, crossing the finish line In 6 .637 seconds at over 207 mph. w ith belt drives, so I went to a new 14mm. That's wha t 's made me abl e to go fast aga in . I've been able to put th e power to it inst ead of pussy-footing around ." Turner didn't say much about the ro und, except that it was close. " I had a great light - .427 some th ing," he said. "It was another cl o se run. We 'd changed the clutch around but i t didn 't really respond to that either. " W ith the masters ousted , Furr an d McC lure , by T u rn er , it came to a y o u n g blood f inal where Turner f a ced Doug Van c il on the Drag Sp ecialti es / Vance £, Hin es Harle y . In Ma rch , Vanc il 's b est ever on the ne w b ike was a 6.45 in Canada , but h e los t hi s combina tion soon after. In N ew York , he qualified seventh on a 6 . and won th e f irst r ound aga in st Steve Storde ur 's bad tire sp in on th e Mancuso Racing n u m ber two qualified entry . In the semi fi n al, Van cil defeated M ik e Romine , who had made the field fo r t he first t ime this y ear. After chasing com b inat ion s w ith his new b ike, Rom ine parked his ri de and m o d i - fie d the 199 9 e n t ry to maint a i n IHRA po in t s . "We sp un the tir e real bad on the starting line, " Romine said . "W e went wi th less clutch than the run before. I beat Doug on the tree, but it struck the tire so qu ic k that I couldn 't even recover. B ut we 're happy. At least we're com petitive now." Vanc il added : "Mi k ey was no on e to take lig htl y . He qua lified w ith a six seventy j ust like me. He cut a light on m e by a h und redth . But he smoked the tire. My bike went left a little bit. I hung ri ght . I hit seco nd gear, then it went st rai g ht and I felt li k e it ra n a pr ett y go od number." Vancil pr ogressed t o the fi na l having found hi s p robl em earlie r in th e race . "W e needed more lube in the t op end so th e titanium va lves were stick ing . we w ere having push rod prob lem s - it was misfiring and doing all ki nds of weird stuff," Vanci l said . With a 6.62 in the se m i's and Turner's 6 .75, Vancil had lane choice. Team Bu ll d og wa s slowing down so team owner Bobby Buckley wen t to his friend Bill Furr for advice. They made dramatic changes to the motorcycle. "W e changed the clutch , the nitro percentage and the nozzles ," Furr said. Nonetheless, the team walked o n pi ns and needles to the stag ing lanes. "I lost on the tree ," Vancil said. "J ay cut a good light so he had .063 on m e the re . He won by .0 22 . I was p robably ahead of him at eig hth mile. I m igh t have been ahea d of h im 330 , but eig hth mi le to 660 he nudged me. His b ik e ran good o n the other end, but at le ast we 've go tten better eac h pa ss . We m ad e n o changes . just rode it better ; I' ve been p racticing on my shift poi nts." In his fourth final of six events entered , Tu rn er's third victory, on hi s 34th birthday weekend, was his clos est yet. " A ll th ree of my races were not only cl ose but also close in each segment of the track. It was back and forth. Yo u didn 't k now until you saw the light or the ticket. It's really sweet to come back here and w in aga in . Sometimes we have to w in races on Bobb y Buck ley horsepowe r a n d somet imes on Jay Turner l ig hts . Toda y the b ik e ran pretty good ou t the back door and it was Jay Turner lights. I'd really like to thank B ill Furr for c oming over to the Dog Pound and helping us . He's my mentor. He taught m e how to ride th is motorcy cle an d I reall y appreciate him help ing us wi n this weekend . B ut it's a tea m effort. D .B.D ., our crew chi ef, is th e ma n [Da nny Lowe]. I'd reall y like to tha n k Bo b b y Bu c k l ey fo r letting m e rid e th is motorcycle." CN IHMEmpire Nationals leicester. New York Results : July 15-16, ZOOO NITRO H-D: 1. Jay Turner (H-D) 6.637 /209.01: 2. Doug Va ncil (H-D) 6.596/207 .08 .

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