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IH R A Nitro H arle y S eries Mid-Mi c higan Motors p orts Park S T O RY BY NINA H EN D ERSO N STANTON, MI, AUG, 19 nf Nitro Harl ey , as a cl ass, has got- Ut en flat at IHRA Nati onals , then Bill Furr ma y hav e j ust don e for the cl ass what Denn is Miller has done for Mon day Ni ght Fo otball . People j ust might tune in t o see what t he outspoken , opinionated Southern er say s about a racetrack , th e c ompetition and an y th ing else that crosses hi s mind. And , li ke Mi lle r, he 'll nail it. Repe at ed ly. W ith eno ug h t roph ies and nat ion al cha mpions hi ps fro m th e ali-motorcyc le sa nctioned eve n ts t o wall-paper th e Harley facto ry team trailer twice , the IHRA Iron Ma n stood lonely on his she lf u n t il this past weeke nd at the co m pletion of th e post-poned due to ra in IHRA Northern Nationals at MidM ich igan Moto rpl ex in Stanton , Michiga n. On ly the class ' reigni ng cham p J a y T urn e r a nd Ma ncuso Ra c i ng T eam ' s St e ve Sto rd eur had y e t to earn an eve nt victory . Un t il Furr. In th e Michigan fin al, Furr to ok on fr iend and nemesis J ohnny Mancu so . Furr isn't shy abo ut th e wi n . " He had a better rea ction time, but tha t's all ," Furr sa id. "I w as ah ead of h im th e whol e time. I had a 6.64 at 206 mph. J ohnny ran fairly good but hit a co ne at th e finish line." Mancuso admitted t hat hi s l oss may hav e com e more fr om d e cis ions mad e ba ck at the truck . "We went th e wrong way o n th e t une up ," M an cuso reve aled. "I th ink what happened was that it was down o n p o w er a nd it d idn 't g o ove r t h e bump in the left l ane well. The bik e st arte d dr iftin g t ow ards the ce nt erli ne afte r t h e bump, c o n t i n ue d in that direction, and I tagged t he cone at th e end of the quarter -mile . Fo rtu natel y, neither the motorcy c le nor I were damaged." Pleased w ith the specific re sult , Furr lo ok s at the big picture sin ce he not o nl y ra c es , but also builds To p Fu el m oto r c ycles and d evel o p s the speci al ty Ni tro V - t wi n co mpo ne n ts. "We r an six 6 .6 0's in a r o w , " F u rr sai d . "I'm real pro ud that the motorcycle ra n so flaw lessly. What a way to win my fi rst IHRA race this yea r. " O ne week ea rlier, Fu rr discovered th at he 'd ru n an engi ne 27 passes , m ore t ha n five races , befor e it failed , an ot her t esta ment to his engineering . In Ni tro Harl ey thoug h, it's more tha n parts attrition that wins races . "T he smarte r yo u le arn how to rac e, the more races you'll wi n," Furr said . " We ran the right lane all three ti mes . Wh en we wer e here befo r e, I r an a 6. 6 5 in th e left l a ne . Th en a 6 .669 in the right. Her e t oday we ra n a 6 .64 and two 6 .62' s." N o ot he r c o m p e t ito r w a s e ven close to th at co nsist ency . Still, th ere w ere o t he r stro ng p erform er s . Th e M an cus o Ra c ing T eam earn ed th e numb er - on e qu a lifying po sit i on in Screamin' Eagle Nitro Harl ey wi t h St ev e St ordu er on a sm ooth 6 .62 in the first attempt at the event, before the r ai n s ar r i ved Au gust 4 a n d 5 . Upon return t o M ichigan August 19 , across th e finish line first. Fo r the first t ime in a lo ng time , Turn er was o u t firs t ro und. In t he se mis , F u n ran Pric e and Vancil ran Mancuso. " Ray ran a 6 .67 in the test session , an d t he n in the first ro und, he ran a bad nu mber against Jay Turner : Furr said setti ng up his pass. " Which gav e me lane cho ic e on our run . He had a gr eat run at 6.57 . I ran a 6 .62 at 208 but won becau se I beat h i m on the tree by nine hundredths of a second ." When Mancuso ra n V a ncil, he chose t he right la ne , putting Vancil in t he left w he re h e'd smoked t he t ire earli er in th e d ay . " I wanted t o try th e right lane t o s ee h ow I w ould d o but had m ore t ro ub le th er e t ha n t he left, " Mancuso sai d. " A nd , we ra n it aro und 5: 30 or 6:00 p .m. when t he t rac k surfa ce was hot . At th at t ime, the right lane had st arte d to go away ." Still , M ancuso beat Vanci l. " But as n ig ht c am e, th e ri ght lan e got better : Man c uso said . "F o r th e final, B il l had l ane c h o i c e and he went wi th the rig h t as I'd ex pect ed . Fo r t he final , we basically m ad e some changes on th e bik e and went in the wrong d irection. We hu rt th e b ike. I k new in th e burnou t it d idn 't hav e the power. Ev en thoug h I pu t a ho leshot o n B i ll in th e fi n al ro u n d , h e was aro und m e at th e 330 ." Furr w on th e r a ce with a 6 .64 elap sed t im e at 206 miles per hour and ra ised inte rest in the " fl at " 200 mph two -wheeled e ntertainme n t. W inning the ra c e, however, was only half of t he battle for Furr. He ha d to ge t there to wi n. The ten -day , th ree race to ur ear lier in Aug ust left Furr's motorhome limping . Du ring a week in th e Cumming s sh o p i n Columb ia , pers onnel th ere pro v ed less than ade qu ate t o perform th e tasks necessary to get her tr avelwo rthy . Frustrated on Frida y , B ill and T ommy Fu rr left the Cummings sho p at 7: 4 5 p .m., headed to war d Michigan. " It' s 800 -something m il es and we got th er e at 10 :4 5 a .m . Saturda y ," Furr sa id . "We co uld hav e m ade it a littl e bi t q u icker but h ad a d el ay in A shev ill e because of a wreck . We had t o be he re b y 1:00. IHRA ru les sa y that if y o u' re n ot at th e r acet r ac k three hou r s p ri o r t o fi rst round of eli min ati ons, you can't run . We were sh ooting for th e 1 1:3 0 morn ing test se s si o n and didn ' t th ink w e were go ing t o m ak e it. " Furr ob viously m ad e it , ready to go . " It mak es a ll o f the nightmare s w orthwhile , " Furr sa i d p o st - r ac e . "A bso lutely . I'm a happy m an . It was a good day . A good , good day . Everythi ng was just rig h t today . We won ." eN Bill Furr towed all night to make the IHRA Northern Nationals, then went on to score his first IHRA Top Fuel w in of the season at Mid-Michigan Motorsports Park. St orduer clocked an impressive 6.52 in the o n e and onl y t est se ssion before racin g el imina tions b egan. Shocking ly, Stordeur spun th e tire in th e f irs t r ound at the st art ing line , damaging an eng ine, ag ain st Van c e f, Hines' Doug Van ci l. Man cuso complet ed the picture . " T h e w ea t he r c h an ge d fr om t he 11:3 0 session to the 4 :00 sess io n and it m ust have affected the tu ne-u p o n Steve's bi k e , because he smoke d t he ti re at the h it of t he throttle: M an cuso sai d . "Va nci l also smoked the ti re, so Steve go t in and o ut of the throttle to try and c atch Doug , and we d am age d t he engine . I ra n Jim M cC lu re fi r st round , wh o 'd qual i f i ed h igh er t ha n I d id . He c hose t he ri g h t lan e , p utti n g m e in t he le ft , w h ic h h ad proved to be th e troublesome lan e of th e race . I won the ro u nd on a 6 .6 8 and he smoke d t he tire. " Fu rr had lane choice i n th at first round . " I h ad Mike Ro mi ne who 'd quali fied w ith a 6.85 and was having a problem in th e left lan e," Furr said. " I went for th e right lane and wo n th e ro und with a 6.62 and no problems ." The legendary Ray Pri ce to ok on the re ign ing champion Ja y Turn er first ro und . Both competitors br oke , but Price br o k e las t and limp ed c ue I e n Mid-Michigan Motorsports Park Stanton, Michigan Results: August19, 2000 TOP Fa a FINAl: 1. sm Furr (H· D ); 2. Jo hnny Ma nc uso (H· D). e vv S • S EPTEMBER 6 , 2000 51