The following are excerpts from a teleconference and select quotes from 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series World Champions Brittany Force (Top Fuel), Robert Hight (Funny Car), Bo Butner (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle).
Q.: Brittany, Sunday was obviously a tremendous day, quite a whirlwind. You go straight into the banquet on Monday evening. Has it all sunk in yet that you’re the Top Fuel world champion?
BRITTANY FORCE: You know, I think it’s finally starting to settle in because I finally slowed down a little bit. I mean, Sunday was just a whirlwind. Locking down that championship was just huge. Then we went on and won the Pomona race, that’s my home track, so it’s a big one for me. It’s the final race of the season. When you stop and think about it, take it all in, I’m so proud of my Monster Energy team, Alan Johnson, Brian Husen. We really pulled it off as a team. I’m so proud of that.
Q.: You mentioned Brian and Alan. With Alan’s success at Pomona, some of the historic moments the team has had there, we’ve talked about your nerves. How much of a calming influence had Alan been that weekend and then the past year, year and a half with you?
BRITTANY FORCE: Yeah, Alan has been great to work with, both Alan and Brian, just all season long. They really worked with me, they’ve really been patient. They’ve really helped me improve as a driver. There’s weekends where I really struggled, got beat on hole shots. The hardest was coming off that out of Vegas with the red light in the final. That was really tough because I felt like I just let everything slip through my fingers. We were right there trying to get as close as we could in points to Torrence before going into Pomona. That was a tough one. But my team, my entire team, they always have my back. For me, when I left Vegas, I had to put that red light behind me. I couldn’t focus on that. I couldn’t carry that into Pomona with where we were sitting, number two in points, if we really wanted to lock down on this thing. Had a handful of conversations with both Alan and Brian. Knew what our approach was, what our plan was to win Pomona. I’m so thankful to have a team like them. They’ve been amazing to work with.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll go to questions for Brittany.
Q.: Going into the race, what went through your mind when you realized that this was in your grasp right now, all you had to do was get through the round and have the championship sewn up?
BRITTANY FORCE: Honestly, going into Pomona Sunday morning, first round was way worse for me than the second round. I don’t know what it was. If I thought any race weekend, for some reason, there’s something about first round that just really gets at you. I was sick to my stomach over first round. I tried to get rid of everything that happened in Vegas. But heading up there, it popped in my head a few times, the thought of a red light. If that were to happen first round, it would just… I wouldn’t have been able to deal with that. It would just be over for my whole team right there in the first round. For me, once we got past that first round, I had a little more confidence, I was ready. I wanted to get back to my car because I knew we’d get past second round. I didn’t know what was going to go on with Torrence. That team has been strong all year long. Honestly I thought it would come down to up meeting in the semifinals. So sitting in my car, Torrence was running right in front of me. While I was sitting in there, I couldn’t focus on what he was doing in his car. Obviously, I mean, I just kind of looked down. I wasn’t really paying attention. I could see the excitement going on. But my focus, I couldn’t bring it to myself that he was out, and if I won this we’d be the champion. That was too much pressure. Yeah, I knew it in the back of my head, it got me hyped, motivated. It got me pumped up a little bit. If that was my focus, I don’t know, it may have changed my driving. So for me it was, Okay, it’s just this round. Let’s get past that round and we’ll go from there. That’s always how I’ve been, one round at a time. If I look at the bigger picture, I’m worried I’ll get too distracted, focusing in the wrong area. That’s how I had to go into the whole thing.
Q.: After winning the championship, you realize that you were winning the round, realized that you won the championship, talked about how big a support your dad was, what were the emotions when you got to give your dad a hug at the top end?
BRITTANY FORCE: Climbing out of my car, I remember driving down to the end of the racetrack, I remember keeping asking myself, ‘Did this really just happen?’ There is no way this just happened. It couldn’t grasp it all. It seemed too much, too big. I started to get emotional thinking about it all. Then Courtney (Force, sister) got out on the top end. She had tears in her eyes. My dad got out, same thing. He hugged me. It was cool to share that moment with them. Both of them had just gotten out of their cars. You could just see they were so excited, so proud. It was so cool that we shared that moment at the end of the racetrack.
Q.: I remember speaking to your mother approximately three years ago, and her talking about how you didn’t really want to get in and test a Top Fuel dragster, but that’s what your dad wanted you to do. You just didn’t really want to do it. She convinced you to do it, to take the step. According to her, she told you, If you don’t like it, just get out. What did it mean for you to see your mother after you won the championship?
BRITTANY FORCE: You know, she’s just my biggest supporter. She’s had my back through everything. I mean, she watches us every single time I’m on the racetrack. She’s always right there. She always takes our side when it comes to battles between my dad and I, so that’s always very nice. But she’s just the greatest supporter. She watches us do it all. She even got in a Super Comp car and got licensed years ago, because she wanted to feel like she understood where we were coming from. I mean, the fact she went out and got licensed just so she could have deeper conversations with us, really get into what we were talking about, really understand what we go through, it’s pretty incredible. She’s just the most amazing woman. Having her out there, having her there to celebrate was just so great. She’s the best mom out there.
Q.: What does it mean to you to be the first of his daughters to win a championship? All of you have tried. You are the first.
BRITTANY FORCE: It’s pretty big. But for me, people always want to put my sisters and I, compare everything we’ve done. For me, it’s not about trying to do it first or beat them at it. I always have their back. You know, it was huge, a championship. I mean, Ashley has won Indy, Courtney won tons of races. It took me longer to get the ball rolling on things. But to bring home a championship, I never imagined that. It seemed too big an accomplishment to ever do it. Not that my team couldn’t do it, it’s one of those things that is a dream. You never know if you’re going to get there. I watched my dad do it. He’s been such a help through this whole thing. Having my sisters out there, having their support, very lucky, very blessed.
Q.: If I remember properly, you still enjoy seeing young kids in schools because you were going to be a teacher. Is there a class you’re looking forward to going to and seeing those faces?
BRITTANY FORCE: You know, I mean, yeah, I went to school to be a teacher, I mean, years ago. When you’re younger, you change your mind a hundred times what you want to do career-wise. When I finally got to a Top Fuel car, made my first full pass down the racetrack, that’s when I knew what I wanted to do career-wise. I fell in love with the car. I was absolutely hooked. But actually 10 years ago if you said I would have been driving a Top Fuel car, I would have said, There’s no way. I drove Super Comp, I drove A Fuel. For me, I loved A Fuel. I thought that’s where I would stay. Guys going 300 miles per hours, I just thought they were absolutely nuts. I got the bug. I fell in love with it. Obviously when I was younger, I went to school, I wanted to be a teacher. I ended up getting my credential. I love working with kids. One of the cool parts about my job is that we have so many kids that come up to the ropes, ask for autographs, ask for pictures, a bunch of them ask for advice on how to get into drag racing. That’s pretty cool. As much as we can, my sisters and I, my dad as well, we do career days. Anything where I can go back to a school that I used to teach at or a school I was involved with, you know, we have a free day, and we’re not out on the road, I’m always down for that. That’s so much fun.
Q.: Now your name will go in the history books next to Shirley Muldowney, Angelle Sampey, Erica Enders, being the fourth overall female to win an NHRA title professional ranked. When you’re in it looking at rankings history, it’s hard. Has that part of it also kind of given you pause where your name will be right up against all of those others?
BRITTANY FORCE: Again, I don’t think it’s settled in. I feel like I haven’t had a moment to really even go to my phone and look on social media, look at all the photos. I haven’t even watched the show yet. My parents and I are going to sit down and watch the show in the next few nights. I feel like it still hasn’t sunk in. Once I finally do that, relive it all, rewatch it all, I think it will settle in. To take home that title of championship, again, I never thought we’d make it here. It’s so big of an accomplishment. I mean, it’s what every team fights for. But the competition out there is so tough. I mean, it’s like how do you get around those other cars, those other teams. To have my name up there, to share a title like that with my dad, Robert, so many people that I’ve looked up to my entire life, that’s a huge accomplishment, something I’m very proud of. I still can’t believe it all.
Q.: You mentioned social media. Were there any interesting tweets that you got from other drivers in other series or people that you were a little bit surprised? Have you been able to catch up with all of that?
BRITTANY FORCE: No, I really haven’t. I’ve kind of scrolled through Instagram, seen some photos. I haven’t even posted anything myself since Sunday. We literally have not stopped. Monday, let’s see, it was the banquet. Yesterday my team and I drove up to Santa Barbara area to get together with the whole team, Alan Johnson, kind of celebrate everything. I’ll be heading home later today. But, again, we haven’t stopped. I can’t wait to go through it and look at everything, see everything. Finally I want to post some stuff. I’m so excited. So proud of my team. I can’t wait to put that out there.
ROBERT HIGHT
Q.: Has it sunk it yet that you’re the champion again?
ROBERT HIGHT: Yeah, it has. The way it all unfolded, and the way the weekend went, it took a long time for it to settle in. There were so many emotions from just trying to get qualified and then barely squeaking in, having a tough race against Wilkerson first round, then getting my car back on track first round – and then Capps losing. It was too much to process in one day.
Q.: How was it to win one eight years after the first one?
ROBERT HIGHT: I honestly thought the second one would come a lot quicker. But that shows how tough this is, how hard it is to win. I think it also means a lot when you do get another one. It’s pretty special. These are not that easy to come by.
Q.: What is it like to win the championship with the struggles JFR has had the past 2-4 years.
ROBERT HIGHT: That’s probably the most gratifying thing with all the hard work we’ve had, all the sponsorship work and everything else to get back on track. Winning a championship is really about putting the right people together. That’s what John’s been so successful with all these years. There are a lot of talented people in this industry, but you’ve got to put the right ones together who can work together and work with each other. Talent only goes so far. You have to have teamwork, and I think we really shined and proved that this year with all of our cars working together and getting it done. All of our cars ran well, and on the last day of the season we had three cars with a chance to win the championship. That shows that we’re strong. With a lot more hard work and keeping the people we have together, we’re going to be strong for a long time.
Q.: How key was Jimmy Prock in this title run?
ROBERT HIGHT: We wouldn’t be here without Jimmy Prock. It just wouldn’t have happened. He made a lot of changes. The worst season I ever had was last year, only winning one race. I’ve always won multiple races every year of my career. Jimmy Prock is definitely the main ingredient of getting the Funny Cars back on track and in championship form, setting records, the way he races. Jimmy Prock never sits still; he’s always going to keep working to get better and make the car better. With Jimmy, we’re going to be good for a lot of years. But we also have all of our other crew chiefs work well with Jimmy. There are no egos, and they’re all happy to work with Jimmy, happy to have him back. Jimmy is a better crew chief than when I worked him before because of Chris Cunningham. Chris is not a ‘yes man.’ Chris Cunningham makes a lot of these calls, a lot of last-second calls up there that got us into the position we’re in. Pretty cool having him on our team. I’d never worked with him before. He’s been out here 34 years. Chris Cunningham could’ve stayed where he was at and run that car over there. He wanted to go with Jimmy Prock; they’re a team. I like that about him.
Q.: What does it say about your team that you performed so well in the Countdown, under all that pressure?
ROBERT HIGHT: We all knew what we had to do all year long. We had performance hit and miss, we weren’t racing well, we weren’t consistent. In June, Jimmy Prock said, ‘When we go out west for the Western Swing, we better have our act together. If not, it’s going to be a long rest of the year.’ We did that. I don’t think anybody can argue that since the beginning of July, we’ve had the best car hands down. These guys just kept their focus, kept their heads down, worked hard. They’ve won championships. They won a championship with me in ’09, they won again with John in ’13, so this team knows how to win. When I really noticed it the most was this weekend at Pomona. We were not qualified, had all these problems, there was zero negativity. Everyone kept their head down and worked hard. Nobody got down, there were no emotions. But you could just tell everybody believed in each other, believed in Jimmy Prock and Chris to get this thing right. They believed in each other to make the car perfect, they believed in me to get it down there, and I believed in all of them. That’s when you could really see when you test a team like this, that’s how they performed. They performed flawlessly. This team is going to be around a long time. It doesn’t get any better than this. What they proved to me this weekend is how bad they wanted this.
Q.: As president of JFR what is that feeling of pride and accomplishment like?
ROBERT HIGHT: It’s huge because I get to deal with a lot of our sponsors on Monday morning. All year long, you’re telling them, ‘Hey, we’re getting closer, it’s coming.’ Then there are days where two or three weeks go by and you struggle, but you still believe in all the people, all the teams. You keep telling the sponsors the same thing. And it did turn. We made the right call, and now you walk into an event as champions, you’ve got a little different walk about you and you’ve got some confidence. And they believe in you. Getting Chevrolet a championship after 10 years was huge. They’re very happy. We’ve got a lot more confidence as a team and I think that will help us with sponsorship in the future.
Q.: How cool was it for Auto Club’s Tom McKernan to win the Don Prudhomme Award at the NHRA Awards Ceremony?
ROBERT HIGHT: It’s well-deserved. In fact, I think maybe there out to be a Tom McKernan Award. The guy loves cars, he loves racing. He sees a need for it, as far as marketing. There’s not a guy who does more for racing communities. He spends a lot of his own personal time and money to help others. He got his own suite at Pomona – that shows you how much he loves NHRA drag racing. It’s a well-deserved honor, and I think there should be a Tom McKernan Award.
Q.: You’ve known Brittany long time. What it is like to see win her a championship?
ROBERT HIGHT: Amazing, shocking actually. When she needed to step her game up, she did. No matter how good your car is, if you don’t perform as a driver, you can’t win. When the chips were on the table, she stepped and did what she had to do. This is only going to make her better. She knows now she can win races, she knows now she can win a championship. She’s only going to grow and get better as a driver. It was pretty special because I’ve been watching her since she raced Super Comp. It’s pretty special, and nobody loves her team more than she does.
BO BUTNER
BO BUTNER: It was a long season, and it was a very tough season. We were all bunched together all year long, but I’ll say this about the KB Racing team: they gave me the best. I probably didn’t drive the best on Sunday in Pomona, but when it’s your day, it’s your day. I had the same stuff as Greg (Anderson) and Jason (Line), same car, same motors, same tuners, so to me this isn’t a surprise. It was just about who went the furthest out of us three.
BO BUTNER: The semifinals in Pomona, that was the way it should have been. Me and Greg racing each other. You have to put your destiny in your own hands, and I didn’t want to watch somebody else have to win for me. I had some butterflies going into that round, but we made a good run against Greg. Then you have to get your game face back on for the final. I screwed that up in every way possible, and I don’t know what happened to Tanner’s car, but he’s tough. He’s going to be a champion one day. But this year, it’s outs. This year it belongs to KB Racing, and I’m very proud of that.
BO BUTNER: Greg [Anderson] was one of the first ones to meet me down there at the top end. He is the most competitive guy, and he’s like a big brother to me. He actually told me, you deserve it this year. That’s big coming from Greg. He’s an animal, and he is so tough to beat. I wish people could see this team from the inside. It’s a different group of people than you could ever imagine. They took me in like family, and I would do anything for Ken Black and those guys. Me, Jason, and Greg, we’re like three brothers. Jason and I are the ones that pick on each other. He won’t root for you, but he’s happy when you win. Greg is exactly the same way. Everyone at KB Racing has been awesome, and so have the guys at Summit Racing. What a great year, and what a great team.
BO BUTNER: Jason’s son, Jack Line, is an amazing kid. He’s 11 years old, but he’s way ahead of his time. He’s been helping us on the car a lot this year, as often as we can get him, and we went to the final every race he attended but one. Jason kept texting me all weekend that Jack was going to go work for him, and I told him that I was going to ruin him – after I was done, he wouldn’t be able to afford Jack anymore. His value sure went up over the course of this season, and he’s a great kid. I hope I get him back with us next year, because he is a hard worker, and this matters a lot to him. If you could see his emotions after every round on Sunday. When we beat Greg in the semifinals, Jack came up to meet me at the finish line and said, ‘This is so exciting, but it’s so scary.’ The boy loves racing. He’ll be in the seat someday.
BO BUTNER: I’m a Sportsman racer and always will be. I’m still a Stocker racer, I run Super Stock and Comp. I had the whole world of Sportsman and bracket racers behind me for this deal, and I feel like that brought new life to Pro Stock this year. I think this could make a big impact, that you’ll see more fans following Pro Stock because a Sportsman racer could come in here and win this deal. I felt like I had the whole nation behind me, and I want to thank each and every one of those guys and girls. It was a great year, and having so much support from the Sportsman racers was something I felt all year long.
BO BUTNER: Larry Morgan texted me on Sunday morning and said, ‘You need to do this. Pro Stock needs you to win.’ That was pretty amazing coming from Larry. Billy Glidden, Bob Glidden, they were all texting me. That meant a lot to me; those are the guys I grew up watching or couldn’t wait to run up there and watch them make a hit. To have the support from the old-school guys is huge. But we’ve got a great team, and Greg and Jason deserved to win just as much as I did. We’re happy it landed in our shoes, but either way, it was going to be a win for us.
BO BUTNER: When I finally won the national event in Houston, I got out of the car and was like, ‘give me that! Give me that trophy! It had been right there dangling for so long, and you think to yourself – it’s just four rounds on Sunday. When you race Stock, you have to go seven rounds in three days. But for some reason we just couldn’t get it done. But that day in Houston, we did, and then we just kept clicking them off. We won the main season by quite a few points, and we had to give them up going into the Countdown, but I thought we could do this from day one. It worked our way.
BO BUTNER: This hasn’t even really set in yet. This is the biggest honor, and to see the return of the fans and the Sportsman guys has been great. This is amazing. Dan Fletcher was screaming for me, and that guy is the man. It’s awesome, and I feel very fortunate and blessed.
EDDIE KRAWIEC
Q.: Eddie, I think you talked a little bit about it Saturday night, that each championship is a little different, different meanings, different reasons why they’re special. What does this fourth championship mean to you?
EDDIE KRAWIEC: Well, the first thing is, it was great to only have to do it in qualifying because for me, that was a lot better than the past years where there were so many different scenarios of what could happen. I would take having to qualify any day to secure it. But this championship, one of the most unique things about it, and yes I’ve talked about it, was the fact that I think our team was a little more united, had a greater effort to get there. What I mean by that is, we switched motorcycles after the third race of the year, going into the fourth race of the year. We made the big change. We basically introduced a whole new motorcycle, being the Harley-Davidson Street Rod. During the release of that, we also figured because we were debuting a new body, it would be smart of us to debut with a new chassis. We put a whole new chassis together. We figured this was going to be the newest, state-of-the-art Pro Stock Motorcycle, and I believe it was. The big struggle was, the chassis didn’t quite work out the way we wanted it to. We struggled as a team. Through the middle part of the season I would say we struggled obviously to win the championship. But the great thing about the way that the Countdown is, you kind of can afford to let’s just say have a slow part of the year or a less successful time in the middle part of the year and still have that opportunity to race for a championship. We knew all that going into the beginning of the year. That is why we chose to do what we did. It really made us dig deep and look at areas of our motorcycle when we were struggling with the chassis setup, made us dig deep and look for areas of the motorcycle that we usually wouldn’t look at because we’ve had good success. Then when we actually switched back because our chassis that we were using didn’t work, we switched back to our old chassis with the new Street Rod bodywork on it. It really showed us how to refine what we had and made us just that much better. Andrew (Hines) kind of took over tuning roles, Matt (Hines) took over the chassis role, I was a floater guy in between, working on motorcycles to get stuff done. Man, it just made us so much better. I really do believe that’s going to only make us better down the road and continue to grow.
Q.: But how big of a leap of faith is that to bring out a new chassis, then be able to cut the cord on it, if you will, and go back to a different style? That’s got to be pretty nerve-wracking for you guys.
EDDIE KRAWIEC: Absolutely. I mean, to be quite honest, we thought it was going to be easy. We’re going to build this new bike, we’re going to go race it, we’re going to have great success. Well, it proved us wrong. It humbles you is probably the best way to say it. Don’t get me wrong, we had a great year. We had good success with that motorcycle. We just didn’t have the success that we wanted. It won a race. It actually won Denver, which is one of the hardest races to go and compete at. But it also takes a different level running up there. You have to have a different understanding of how to tune the motorcycle and a way different approach. But I think the greatest thing about it is, it made us a little more humble here because we realized we don’t know everything. There’s no such time that you should ever think you know it all. We have great resources and a lot of good people behind us and in our shop that work here. It showed all of us that we made a mistake. The chassis was not correct. We had to go back and correct those changes. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t have the right amount of time to do it, so we reverted back to our old bike. But something that I do want to mention that I think is worth mentioning, although we were running our old bikes, we were working on developing another chassis. We went through, got that chassis finished, we tested right after Las Vegas this year, the bike ran well. We figured, well, it was a great opportunity to run it in Pomona. The way that we ran it in Pomona, we actually brought aboard a third rider, Chip Ellis. It was kind of perfect timing. Unfortunately Chip was racing for Junior Pippin who just passed away. We wanted to bring Chip aboard for two reasons, one to gain some data and information, and the other to do a little bit of a tribute to the Junior Pippin Racing, because his program had to stop and get put on the side while they tended to Junior’s health conditions. Really we wanted to try to end the year and put a smile on his face. We went to Pomona and qualified all three motorcycles 1-2-3, something that’s never happened. To have a Harley in all three top positions meant a lot to us. Chip was right there. It proves that our new rendition of chassis, which we’ll probably phase into for next year, is going to work. So we were excited about that. Really it was one of the top in 60 foots and incrementals going down the track. We’re excited, what we have is already proven, so we’re going to continue to work on it over the winter.
Q.: Eddie, speak about the fact that you have two first-timers this year who are sharing the podium with you. Do you take a look at what everyone else is doing? Do you even have the time to do that?
EDDIE KRAWIEC: I mean, for us, yeah, it’s good to know your surroundings, it’s good to know what’s going on. To be quite honest, we try to stay focused with everything in our trailer. It’s the best way to say it. If we start looking on the outside, then you get distracted. You kind of got to keep your head down and keep moving forward. I would say as a whole, in the Pro Stock Motorcycle category, when you look at it, there’s some great racing happening. There’s a bunch of good individuals. There were some new people in the Countdown, Joey Gladstone, Andy Smith, others. For me, the championship side of it for this year, something that I didn’t mention, it’s very gratifying because the competition being very close. We won, yes, eight races and had really good results all season long, but when you look at the level of competition and how we’re going against it, I feel for the Countdown. I’ve had my handful of lucky rounds, rounds that I flat out should never have won. Either they were given to me by a red light, somebody else made a mistake. Man, things just rolled my way. It’s awesome and it makes me smile, but more important with the level of competition, 15 years ago in the category where there was what I’d like to say is pure dominance, where you’d have two or three bikes that were light-years ahead, a tenth of a second ahead of everybody. Now when you’re qualifying hundredths or even thousandths apart from each other, when you look at the top four or five usually at every race, we’re all within a hundredth. That makes for great racing on Sunday.
Q.: What was the one moment this year when you thought, This is the luckiest I have ever been?
EDDIE KRAWIEC: I’m going to tell you that. The exact moment that that was, it was actually Las Vegas when Angelle Sampey went red to me. I had a broke motorcycle in the other lane pretty much. Popped the clutch, left the starting line, and my tire rattled. It hurt the transmission. It wouldn’t shift gears. My win light was on. That round there was the round LE (Tonglet) went out right in front of me. LE won, I’m sorry. By that happening, it gave me the opportunity to at least maintain my points. I went up there, raced Scotty Pollacheck. I watched LE go out in front of me. I was like, Wow. Good thing I got by this round because that just saved me 20 points. So no matter what happens from this point forward, I’m going to Pomona with 110 points lead, with possibly only 120 available in eliminations, not counting the 16 or so qualifying points. I figured we could at least battle it back and forth, I would only have to go one or two rounds in Pomona to solidify the championship. I liked my odds with having to go at least one round. I was able to capitalize on that after he went out, go on and win the race, which pretty much locked it up. I went to Pomona knowing that our championship was pretty much locked up in that final round when I turned the corner and saw the win light from beating Hector Jr. in Las Vegas. I knew it, all I have to do is qualify. Not that I’m counting points as I’m going down the track. All I have to do is qualify and this is awesome. That would be my luckiest race I’ll tell you all year long.
Q. Right now you’re third on the all-time Pro Stock Motorcycle win list. Behind your teammate Andrew and Dave Schultz. You’re one of only a few drivers to win four championships, joining names like Don Prudhomme and Gary Scelzi, Greg Anderson and Lee Shepherd. Where do you think that puts you within history or are you still kind of amazed to hear your name up against some of those other drivers?
EDDIE KRAWIEC: To be totally honest about that, you’re talking to a guy that when I came aboard to the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team back in 2007, I had a goal. My goal was to win one Wally. Really my inspiration for Pro Stock Motorcycles started in 2005 when I met Dave Schultz in Englishtown. Sorry, 1995, I should say. At the Summer Nationals. I delivered a package to him. I came to his trailer, dropped off a package, because I used to work at the racetrack there at Raceway Park. When I wasn’t racing or when I wasn’t there hanging around, I would help out at the Summernationals. I helped guys delivering packages because I knew who a lot of the drivers were. I brought a package to Dave, spoke with him for a little while. Became a huge fan of Pro Stock Motorcycle. Actually after that weekend I went out and bought a street bike and turned it into a race bike. That’s when I started my racing career on motorcycles. But Dave went on, won that race. When Dave passed away, I actually became a family friend of Dave’s wife Meredith and his son at the time. When Dave passed away, I got a box delivered to Englishtown, didn’t know what it was. I opened it up. It was Dave’s 1995 Summernationals win Wally. His wife sent that because she knew it meant something. I always had it on my desk. It always sat in my room, on my desk, it was a reminder. I eventually phased into trying to run Pro Stock Motorcycle on my own. I did it with Dave’s son Brian until he unfortunately lost his life in a traffic accident. That kind of put a hold on the whole thing. But it gave me more drive to go out there and succeed. I wanted to do it not just for myself, but Dave, his son Brian. I had this Wally. I just wanted to have one of my own. When I came aboard the Harley-Davidson team, I did great the first year. Went out the second year, started running really well. Never won a Wally, but won a championship. It kind of blew my mind because here I am standing here with a championship trophy, but no Wally yet. I really just wanted a Wally. Now coming back at the end of it, to say you have 43 fighting to be one of top finishers ever with Wallys in Pro Stock Motorcycle, four championships later, 43 race wins, it just blows my mind. To be on a list of individuals like you said just a few minutes ago, it’s very humbling. Honestly, I never have forgotten my past and I’ve haven’t forgotten where I come from. I think that is the most, let’s say, important thing to making your past part of your future. If you’re so focused on what’s going on, you’ll never remember all those wins and how you got there.
