The annual AMRA Jim McClure Memorial Finals Harley-Davidson drag race is exciting and dramatic enough on its own. But when the Top Fuel points leader had to be airlifted out of Rockingham Dragway after a vicious 222 mile per hour crash, and his teammate met number two in points in the final to preserve or lose his championship, that drama amped up tenfold.
That’s exactly how it happened at the biggest Nitro Harley drag race on the planet, dedicated to the life and exploits of the late, great Jim “Da Judge” McClure.
Johnny Mancuso’s Circle M Ranch Top Fuel
With the previous two events rained out after qualifying, Finland’s Samu Kemppainen had a commanding Johnny Mancuso’s Circle M Ranch Top Fuel lead when he and his Chris Stewart Racing team unloaded at The Rock. The apparent inevitability of a championship was further solidified after a very successful test day for Samu and his SPTR mount.
“I got to the track on Thursday morning to help some friends testing Thursday and Friday,” said second-in-points Ryan Peery. “The air is great—like record setting great. Top Fuel teams are testing and off the trailer running .40s. then .30’s, then .20s. Everyone notices. It’s the biggest Top Fuel payout ($10,000 to win, $4000 for runner-up) in years and everyone is on their game, or dialing their game in. There’s over a dozen bikes on the property two days before the event actually starts—that’s saying something.
“It’s the last AMRA race of the year and everyone knows the point standings. We felt like we had a good bike the previous couple of races, but Mother Nature wasn’t giving us a chance. We came into the race 180 points back. That’s a long shot at best. That’s a… ‘If I qualify better, if the points leader loses first round, if I can just get to the finals that would be enough….’ That’s a lot of ‘ifs.’ It never happens that way.
“On qualifying day the air is great again, as we expected. We run a .40-something off the trailer in Q1 and I wasn’t too impressed. Our 60-foot time was horrible.”
The script then turned quickly as Kemppainen hit the finishline on his first qualifying pass with a 6.34 at 222 mph, the big bike twisting sideways the moment he pulled the chutes and throwing the Finn hard to the asphalt.
“What was the cause of accident? We don’t know,” Samu said after his difficult return to Finland. “Maybe the parachute went under the wheelie bar and when it opened, it pulled the bike sideways, because the bike went sideways soon as I was off the throttle and I felt the parachute pull. But the guys will take the bike all to pieces and maybe they find something else, maybe not.” There was also talk that maybe the new front tire put on that day washed out.
Whatever the cause, the crash was unseen by the Rockingham crowd and even the MotormaniaTV cameras because of Rockingham’s unique downhill shutdown area. Information at the time was scarce.
“I’m getting the bike ready for Q2 when someone said Samu went down at the end of Q1,” remembered Peery. “I didn’t think much of it at the time. I remember thinking that Samu scraped the wall and tore his leathers up earlier in the year, or something like that, and he was back on the bike the next round borrowing someone else’s leathers. He’s tough, he’ll be OK, he’ll be back.
“A little while later I heard the helicopter come in and someone said they were airlifting Samu to the hospital. Not good.”
It was now clear to everyone that Samu was seriously injured, the bike heavily damaged, and his championship run halted.
“Not how I wanted to compete for a championship,” said Peery. “First of all, no one wants to see anyone get injured. Samu’s a great rider—very well respected—and I’m looking forward to competing against him on the track in the near future. Our prayers go out to him and his family during his road of recovery.”
The Rockingham air was thick with tension and only getting thicker as qualifying revealed struggles all around. “We tested Friday to get a baseline, and that produced a run that gave us something to work with,” said Samu’s Stewart Racing teammate, Jordan Peterson. “But Saturday, in the first round of qualifying as I was getting ready to stage the bike, it started blowing back through the nozzle vent. While I was trying to figure out what was going on the Romines (tuners Mike and Jack) walked up and signaled me to shut the bike down as it spit an intake push rod out.
“When we got back to the pit, we learned that a screw that held the throttle blade to the shaft had shaken loose, went into the engine and hung a valve open. Luckily, Chris Stewart had a spare head for this engine and we did a quick swap between rounds.
“Going into second of qualifying, we were not in the show. After Samu going down and a massive oildown, it was getting later in the day (night, really) with cold weather setting in. I was concerned about keeping traction with a 50-degree racetrack.
“Then we were informed there would be no third round of qualifying and this would be our last chance to get in. After walking the track with Jack Romine, he turned to me and said ‘You will be fine.’ That’s all I needed to hear and any concern I had left. We got into the race with a number seven qualifying position, running a 6.54 at 222 mph. At this point, 222 was the fastest I have ever gone.
“After I turned off the track, I noticed the left side of the bike was covered in oil along with my entire leg. We found out the motor pushed out a dowel pin for locating the cam chest and turned out not to be a big deal to fix.”
So only two rounds of qualifying were run, and many bailed on the second one after temps dropped during the lengthy delay to clean up Juha “Sushi” Hintukainen’s (also from Finland) flaming, spectacular oildown. “The track was cold, we weren’t likely to improve, so what’s the use?” said number six qualifier Tracy Kile, one of those—along with North Carolina Hall of Famer Jay “Bulldog” Turner—who backed away from the ready line.
So Kemppainen’s time was good enough to hold up for number two qualifier behind Chris Smith’s 6.22 at 223. Peery—known more for remarkable consistency than blinding performance—sat in fifth with a 6.43 at 227 behind Turner’s third place 6.35/214 and Tim Kerrigan’s fourth 6.40 at 215.
“We finished up Q2 and didn’t improve much,” said Peery. “Jack Romine and I started calculating the points. Samu qualified number two and I was fifth. So much for the plan of qualifying better and just getting to the finals—I would have to win the whole thing now.
“On race day, I woke up to everyone saying ‘No pressure’—sarcastically, with a smile. ‘No pressure.’ My small changes I made in qualifying didn’t do much so I came up with some drastic changes. I grabbed Rex Harris (Jay Turner Racing tuner) for his thoughts on what I was going to do, and made the changes.”
Sushi’s was one of several bikes that were unable to make the call on Sunday, and he was scheduled to race Peery. Ryan’s changes steered him in the right direction and he improved to a 6.37 at 228.
Robert “Ziggy” Stewart was another no-show, and his opponent Peterson advanced with a 6.52 at 232. “First round on Sunday,” said Peterson. “We were paired with Ziggy Stewart, who I had never matched up against, so I was excited to race him. Unfortunately, right before first round he informed me his engine was hurt and we would be on a single. We made a clean run without any damage and it was regular maintenance between rounds.”
Like Schwartz and Sushi, number four qualifier Kerriagn was also unable to make the call for E1 on his Stephen Vickers built-and-tuned mount. “After taking a few months off, we were excited to head to Rockingham,” said Vickers. “We tested on Thursday, and we were still dropping a cylinder early in the run. Ryan Peery asked if he could look at the data with me. He made some suggestions, and we improved. After that, we moved more in the same direction and ran a 6.46. We felt like we had overcome our season-long issue.
“Friday, we wanted to test the back-up bike, as we had just removed the MSD ignition, and replaced it with a MaxxECU. The first pass had an early bobble in the fuel delivery, which caused a slight stumble, and Tim was drifting to the center, and had to lift. This resulted in a 6.68—not bad considering. The data indicated that it wanted more fuel. I added a little fuel early, and we ran 6.51.
“Saturday brought qualifying, and we were back on the big bike. First round, we dropped a cylinder again. After studying the data, we decided to change the clutch cannon. Second round got a little late, and quite cool. We were able to run a 6.40 at 215, which we felt comfortable with.
“During our routine maintenance, we noticed that we had an issue at the end of that run. After taking the rear head off, we discovered that we had broken off the exhaust valve head. Being that cylinder heads are not currently available, we did not have a replacement, so our weekend ended there.
“We were able to figure out our dropped cylinder issue and feel excited about the MaxxECU. We are getting the back-up bike ready for IHRA at GALOT, so we can get some more information with the Maxx. Back at the shop, we are working on the cylinder head supply issue, so stay tuned.” Obviously a lot going on at Vicker’s DayStar Machine & Cycle Concepts.
Elsewhere in E1, number one qualifier Smith posted a stunning 6.18 at 233 against Jason Pridemore, who went down fighting with a 6.48.
Number six qualifier Kile had to face his own Bad Apple racing teammate—Cameron “Flash” Gunter. Defending Nitro Funnybike champion Gunter was making his Top Fuel debut and qualified well in 11th. Kile advanced 6.44 to 6.83. “Cameron did well, I was happy with him getting down the track,” said Kile. “Sucked having to run him first round.”
Other E1 winners were Turner, Billy “Jack” Jackson, Jim Doyle on Dan Grindle’s supercharged bike, and Rickey “Sharkey” House—who defeated Byron number one qualifier Paul Anderson. “A bit of a disappointing finish to the season,” said Anderson. “Had hope for a strong showing, yet made some mental errors that surely dropped me down in the standings. I did however run my personal best time, putting me in the 220 club. Hell, up until last year, I never dreamed I’d be running in Top Fuel, especially alongside the likes of Ryan, Samu, Jordan, Tracy—I could name all of them. They are the best of the best, what an honor! Now I won’t be happy till I make the 230 club!” More to look forward to out of the Road Rage team.
Peery responded to Smith’s 6.18 challenge by casting consistency aside to oust Billy Jack in round two with his own .18. “E1 was OK—.30 something at 228mph—but still no 60 foot,” said Ryan. “Made one more drastic change with fuel at the hit and some weight and finally found it: 6.1830 at 233.40 mph with a 1.10 60 foot and 4.04 eighth—new MPH, and eighth and quarter ET records if I could back any of them up.
“From there on I was just in the zone. Small tuning changes and hammer on the tree and I could get this done.”
After looking like the solid favorite for the race win, Smith was done in E2 after his bike drifted to the centerline and he had to let out, losing to House. Kile and Peterson also advanced out of the round. “We set eighth mile ET at 4.062 and quarter at 6.183,” said Chris. “We had incredible an weekend and the JTR team had me on a rocket. Unfortunately, I let the bike get in front of me in the second round and out of the groove. Lucky to be surrounded by so many incredible people in this sport. We now have the tea records in Top Fuel and Funnybike.”
“Second round, Mike Romine said it’s time to start turning it up,” said Peterson. “After doing a gear change and putting some more power in the engine we went up against Jim Doyle. We got the win, running again a personal best of 6.34 at 232 mph.”
Peterson improved to a 6.30 against Kile’s improving-but-losing .36 in the semis. “Mike decided it liked what we fed it (in E2) so we would give it more of the same. The semifinals I was paired with this Bad Apple fella named Tracy Kile. Him and I had a great race. It was my best ET and MPH, running a 6.30 at 233.40.”
“.30 to .36, can’t complain too bad,” said recent IHRA winner Kile. “If I could’ve gotten two more qualifying passes, things could’ve gone better. There were definitely eight bikes out there could put on a good show.”
Peery slowed to a still-winning 6.25 against House in the semis, just missing backing up both ET records by “like .008,” according to Ryan.
That set up a winner-take-all final that could go either way. Peterson couldn’t win the championship, but the race win would secure the title for his hospitalized teammate. With the win, Peery would overtake Samu in points.
And Peery wasn’t going to be denied, nailing an .035 on Peterson’s .092. Peery won with a 6.26 at 231 while Peterson slowed to a 7.26/139.
“Ryan had been on fire all day,” said Jordan. “He had lane choice going into the finals. I missed the tree, giving him starting line advantage. With Ryan pulling away about the 4 second mark, my bike dropped a hole and Ryan was gone. And that, as they say was that.”
“I’ve always said, consistency wins races!” said Peery. “Consistently fast will for sure win races and we got it done. Samu messaged me back during eliminations. He wished me luck going into the finals and then congratulated me on winning afterwards. That’s saying a lot about the guy. Really wish him well on recovery and look forward to seeing him back.
“Thank you to RP Motorsports, Buddy and Mindy with P&C Johnson Trucking, Midwest Construction, Chris and Frank Smith, the Nitro Hobo Brett Yarborough, Jay, Rex, and Dorothy with Jay Turner Racing, Jack Romine, my wife Miranda and kids Eli and Owen.”
“First off, I would like to wish the very best to Samu,” added Peterson. “He has been an absolute blast to team up with this season. He is one hell of a rider, very knowledgeable, and always willing to help. Rockingham went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows for him and he was always in great spirits.
“Also, to Mika (Sjöstedt) for all his help this season. Among all the other work he did, he took care of all our clutches through the whole season and we never had a single clutch plate problem all season long.
“Jeff Killingsworth was also a big part of our success this year. He did a lot of traveling to make every event and helped anyway he could. Talk about a glutton for punishment.
“At Rockingham they were able to bring some extra help all the way from Finland, and Mikko-Ville Kalevi dove right in to help me out all weekend. He was amazingly helpful and if something needed attention he took care of it.
“It was a weekend of personal bests for me, and I cannot thank Chris Stewart of Stewart Racing for the opportunity to race with his team this year. We ran pretty damn well and had some fun while we did it.
“To the Romine family, thank you…. They continue to give tireless effort to keep us successful. They work hard and we have a great time racing with them, and you never have to worry about the bike when they prepare it. If you need parts or looking to get into nitro racing, I cannot recommend them enough. Anything from Romine racing is the absolute best.
“Last but certainly not least, Casey Jo sacrificed a lot of her own racing this year to come help us out. She does a whole lot of behind the scenes help for myself and the team that most people don’t get to see.”
Other Top Fuel entrants included Peery’s teammate Buddy Johnson, Michael Balch on Red Rhea’s bike, and Derrick Nelson. “Would have been nice to have Jimmy’s (McMillan) bike together,” Kile said about his Bad Apple teammate.
Jason Leeper made licensing passes on the former Mike Henry bike, purchased at Byron by Mike “Big Train” Terry for the Universal Fleet and Tire team. The Pro Fuel veteran took to the much bigger bike right away. “Love it!” said Leeper. “Can’t wait to get back on the track for some more seat time.”
Looking to get back from “sheet time” is Kemppainen. “I’m back home from hospital,” said Samu. “Everything is okay. All my wounds have now had some kind of surgery, or they’re done pretty much. So in a week, they take my stitches away from those skin transplants and from my legs, and then I just need time. Six weeks, they take some of those steel pins and wires out of my left hand.
“So all in all, everything’s good, and I’m happy to be home. I want to thank everybody who reached out and has been supporting me and my family and everybody there. I appreciate it a lot
“Special thanks for Frank Velasco, who was with me on end of track, and Frank also was in ambulance at the end of the track all the way to the helicopter. He helped me. He knew what to do. He showed these ambulance crew how to cut these leathers without making more damage. So he’s a special guy.
“Same with Greg Baugh, who was there from the first start all the way until the ‘copter left. So Greg and Julia and AMRA—amazing.
“Well, I’m ashamed that race ended like that because it was going good. Bike was getting quicker and quicker every run. We cut it down to 6.20s but it’s racing, and I know accidents happen, and now it was my turn, so it won’t stop me. I will be back stronger. I have now some steel in my arm. I’m even stronger than what I was, so no worries.
“But all in all, I was lucky. Bike is fixable. Not too bad damage. I want to thank everybody. Romine Racing, Peterson Racing, Casey, Jordan, Phil and Jenny. My sponsors SPTR, and Chris Stewart Racing, of course, for giving me a bike and support, and then my super crew guys, Jeff and Mike,
“Like always, maybe I forgot somebody. I’m still a little messed up. It was long day yesterday, 13 hours, lot of different surgeries and stitches and clean up all the wounds and X rays and CT scans. But most important, I’m home on my own couch and doggies by side of me. Now I can rest a week.
“Then I go back to hospital. They take stitches away, see that everything is healing well, and then another five weeks to wait until I get these steel pins away, and then I can start to do workout and some physiotherapy to make my arms move like they used to. So maybe even better, who knows.
“Thank you for the summer, and ‘Hi’ to everybody, and see you next year.”
Fellow Finns Elmeri (rider) and Jaska (builder/tuner) Salakari made several exhibition/test passes on their unique 4V OHC supercharged FuelTech Harsh V-Twin.
Armon Furr Nitro Funnybike
As a class, Armon Furr Nitro Funnybike had a difficult act to follow. But spanning both classes was Jordan Peterson and his Phil Lower-owned bike tuned by Mike Romine. Peterson came to The Rock with the Funnybike points lead and smoothly sealed the deal. Peterson qualified number one with a 6.76 at 182, then ran 6.75 at 199 on his round one bye.
Number two qualifier Jim Doyle had no trouble with the local bike of Kevin Cambell. A sharp match-up was between Universal Fleet and Tire’s Racin’ Ray Robinson and the turbo alcohol bike of Keith (rider) and Pete (builder/tuner) Browne. Browne took a slight .087 to .098 advantage at the line. The two very different combinations raced side-by-side until Robinson’s bike again brightly torched a head at half-track or so.
Browne’s bike faltered in the semi while Peterson sailed to a 6.71 at 199, and former champ Doyle slowed to a 7.21 at 168 on his bye run. Doyle’s performance indicated a problem, and that indeed kept him from competing in the final, where Peterson ran out a 6.68 at 199.
“At Rockingham, Phil Lower’s Funnybike really started to perform up to the standards that we expected from it all season long,” said Peterson. “Although it will never be quick enough for the Romine team, it was a weekend of constant improvement. Each round the bike improved on the ET side. Mike, Jack, and Patty—along with Phil and Jennie—deserve all the credit for the success this bike had all through the year.
“Not one time was this bike beaten across the finishline this entire season, whether it was testing, qualifying, or during eliminations. I quite honestly did nothing with this bike besides ride it. Everyone I mentioned worked their tails off getting this bike turned around to preform every round all season long.
“My personal best on Phil’s bike up until this weekend was a 6.83. At The Rock, we qualified number one with a 6.76 at 199 mph. With the odd number of bikes we ended up with the bye run first round where we ran a 6.75 at 199 mph lowering our best ET again.
“Going into second round we were paired with the turbocharged masterpiece of Pete and Keith Browne. They had troubles shortly after the launch and we ran a 6.71 at 199 mph to move us into the finals against Jim Doyle.
“Jim was having problems with his bike getting it ready for the finals. Unfortunately, he was unable to get it sorted out because after firing up for the finals, I was signaled that he was broke. On that pass it was our low ET of the season with a 6.68 at 199 mph and put the end to our undefeated season.
“Thanks to Romine Racing for never giving up on this bike all season. Just hopping on a bike and knowing it is safe is amazing peace of mind, and not something I would be willing to do with just anyone. Phil and Jennie made this year so much fun, just simply great people to be involved with and I was extremely lucky to get to ride this bike and cannot thank them enough. We are the 2025 AMRA Funnybike champions!”
Defending class champ Cameron “Flash” Gunter of Bad Apple Racing still had a wounded mount from the Bowling Green race and made the move to Top Fuel.
Hawaya Racing Pro Fuel
The Hawaya Racing Pro Fuel class didn’t have the crash-and-overtake drama of the Top Fuel points chase, but instead featured good, old fashioned, tight competition.
“Bad Apple Mary” Dangrow was the runaway Pro Fuel points leader this year, but the Rockingham win was very much in play.
“Rockingham Dragway is probably my favorite place to race,” said Mary. “It’s an iconic track, along with the fact that I made my first pass on a Pro Fuel bike at that track and won my first event ever there at the AMRA finals in 2022, then won there at the finals in 2024.
“Coming into this race I had a bit more pressure on me than any other year. Pretty sure we had the championship tied up, we were wanting to add an undefeated season to the 25th anniversary year for Bad Apple Racing.
“Then at the riders meeting, Loren Potter showed the trophy he made for the person who won the bounty that was placed on me three races ago and I HAD to have that trophy.
“With fresh pistons and cooler weather in Rockingham, we wanted to make a couple tests hits on Friday to see where we stood. Second pass out I ran a 7.29, which we were happy with. Looking at my data from the Maxx, everything looked OK except on the leak down at the end of the night. The front cylinder had air passing through.
“Not exactly sure of the cause since all other indicators were good, we decided to go into Q1 as we were and see what times we could get. Q1 performance was off, so Tracy (Kile) made the call to change the front piston, which proved to be the call of the race. When they removed the cylinder and piston, it showed that the rod had cracked over halfway through its thickness. One more pass would have been catastrophic for our weekend.”
As it was, the qualifying order took a tumble that reflected the tightening competitiveness of the class. Hot Rod Carlisle rode Harriet Ann and Michael Blair’s bike to the number one spot with a 7.27 at 171 mph. Sam White finally found the lost performance in his original “Terminator” bike and was second with a 7.342 at 178, followed by Mary at 7.345/174.
“This was the first event since Rockingham final in 2024 that we did not hold the number qualifier. Was I disappointed? Of course, but I was also so happy and proud of Hot Rod and his team for the work they had done this year to get quicker. They were creeping closer to me since National Trails and their hard work is paying off. Pro Fuel as a class is a very competitive group and next year is going to prove to be a year with some tight fields.
“Saturday night was a late night for our team. With my numbers not where we wanted them, Tracy made the call to put a new top end on the bike for eliminations. We were determined to win this race and I REALLY wanted that bounty trophy.
“We went out on Sunday E1 and ran a 7.23, winning that round and taking away that first round anxiety that many feel.” That was against Jay Beasley. Carlisle ran 7.31 to beat Hayley Caulk, while White slowed to an 8.38 to beat Kyle Rogers.
The best race of the round was Belle Rose runner-up Ken “Stubby” Hultman’s win over Jim “Bad Influence” Martin, who took the tree .171 to .180. But Stubby steamed to the win with a 7.63 at 177 to Martin’s 7.65 at 156.
Potter, John Jenkins, and Curt Sexton also advanced.
“In E2 we decided to make a few changes to see what kind of numbers we could run,” continued Mary. “That pass was probably the smoothest and slowest feeling of the weekend and I was standing at the end having a talk with myself and head hung. I look up and here comes Jon Wayne (Stephens, Bad Apple crewman) hooping and waving his arms. He almost dropped the scooter jumping off to hug me, yelling ‘A 7.17! You just went a 7.17!’ I started jumping up and down. One of our goals this weekend was to get into the teens and that pass got us there.“
White’s drop in performance proved fatal for the “Terminator,” and Sam no-showed against Stubby. Hot Rod had the bye while Sexton and Jenkins both ran 7.50, with Curt’s .090 advantage at the tree making the difference.
“After hitting 7.17, which is my personal best, Tracy and I had a decision to make. Since we already had the championship, are we going to go for the Pro Fuel record OR go for the win. It wasn’t a long discussion before we both said THE WIN. We can work toward the quarter mile record next year.”
Mary ran a 7.22 in the semis to beat a slowing Hultman, while Sexton frustratingly redlit (-.004) away a 7.36 against Carlisle’s vulnerable 7.57.
The final was all Bad Ass Mary, as she put up an .091 to Hot Rod’s .284, followed by her 7.27 to his 7.48. A great, great weekend of Nitro Harley racing with an undefeated season for Mary.
“There was a very special moment for me when I came off the track after that final round,” continued Mary. “Out of my peripheral, as I rolled to the turn-off, I saw Ryan (Peery) and some guys standing still and watching in my direction. Along with Ryan it was Buddy (Johnson), Chris (Smith), Frank (Smith), and Brian (Conley Jr.).
“I rolled around the corner and Ryan started walking toward me, he motioned a thumbs up or thumbs down. I did a thumbs up and they all started whooping and hollering and came over to give me hugs and congratulations. Ryan had just clinched the Top Fuel championship and won the $10K, yet they were down there waiting to celebrate with me on my win. It can be a quiet place at the end of that track while you wait for your team to come, but that moment was far from quiet and will always be one of my favorite memories in drag racing.
“Winning this race and getting this championship means more to me than I can put into words. As many know, I had battled cancer for a couple years and everything that comes with that fight. During that time, I was delayed in being able to ride and wasn’t certain if I would even be able to ride again. Through the support and encouragement from Tracy and other friends and family, we made it back to the track. Currently I am two and three quarters years in remission, and the journey it took to get from there to here makes this season and this championship that much more special.
“It was a tough year with losing Casper (dog) and having a few small health issues to ride through, but with the support of the entire Bad Apple Racing team and family, we did it as a group. None of this could have happened without all of us.
“I want to thank—first and foremost—Tracy Kile. His work and dedication to me, our little family, and the sport of drag racing is above and beyond. He does what he needs to do for everyone on our entire team and has dedicated his life to furthering the sport that we all love.
“Next, I want to thank Randy and Brenda Jackson. Those two not only crew for my bike, but make sure everyone on our team is fed. They customized a trailer to fit everything needed for the Bad Apple Chuck Wagon. I also want to thank Jon Wayne for being there this season as Tracy’s right-hand man. If there was something major going on this season with any of the bikes, Jon Wayne had his hands in it right next to Tracy.
“There are so many Bad Apples to mention: Cameron Gunter, Daryl “Supe” Campbell, Scott “Bro” Peek, Jimmy and Stacey McMillan, Jake Anderson, Micheal “Toad” Hopkins, Smokin’ Dean Comunal, Tom and Jackie O’Brien, Jim Garrahan, Jason Shurtz, Ken and Robin Schaffroth, and Franky and Olivia Schaffroth. Also, a special thank you to Danny Voak who came all the way from New York to surprise us at this event.
“Most of all I want to thank God for all these people, the blessings that came to us this season, and the gifts he has placed within all of us to follow our path—none of this would be possible without him.
“What an extraordinary weekend and what an extraordinary year for me, the entire Bad Apple Nation, our sponsors Fairview Tavern, Vanson Leathers, Victory Fuel, Capone Landscape, Trick Works LLC, and Hawaya Racing Products. Happy 25th Anniversary Bad Apple Nation!”
“Another great weekend, with Mary winning the championship,” chimed in Kile. “Weather conditions and track was—if anything—over-prepped for the power of the Pro Fuel bikes. For the first time ever I was looking for the WORST spot to line the bike up and get some wheel speed. The track’s tugging on the motor so hard it’s hurting pistons, and you got to be throwing pistons in. It rattled the tire a few times and she rode right through. She’s done a great job.
“Our ultimate goal this weekend was to win the race. We could have probably got it to go quicker and just take a chance on something happening and losing a round, but I didn’t want to step on my dick. Getting in the teens for the first time, that was a huge accomplishment for us. We’ll go after Kirby’s record (7.128) next year.” The team was able to set the eighth mile record with a 4.468.
“Was nice getting Frank (Schaffroth) down the track and licensed. We had a lot of trouble with the bike when we first got there, but he went out and did a really good job.”
Shutdown Area
Gas classes will get thorough coverage in another article.
The Nitro Harley competitors look forward to seeing our Harley-Davidson drag racing family at the AMRA banquet on November 15th at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Nashville Airport in Nashville, Tennessee. Tickets are available at https://amralive.com/2025-
The Nitro Harley racers thank Bad Apple Racing, Chris Stewart Racing, DayStar Machine and Cycle Concepts, White Lightning Racing, P and C Johnson Trucking, RP Motorsports, Hawaya Racing, Road Rage Motorcycles, Universal Fleet and Tire, and Johnny Mancuso’s Circle M Ranch.
This report was prepared by Tim Hailey. Enjoy everything there is to read, see and watch about motorcycle drag racing and more at https://www.eatmyink.com ;
This story was originally published on November 7, 2025. 
