Parity in Pro Stock Bikes
Can Inline and V-Twin Engines Co-Exist in NHRA Competition?
By Robert Bravender
Photos by Roger Richards and Brian Wood

Thanks to a record-breaking effort last season, defending NHRA Pro Stock Bike champion and current points leader Andrew Hines and teammate GT Tonglet have finally - and firmly - put Harley-Davidson on the PSB map. Not without some controversy, however. Despite the fact that 2004 was the first time in NHRA history that a Harley-powered Pro Stock bike ever won an event, let alone led in points, the outcry from the Suzuki camp wasn’t long in coming.  

"Our class is definitely not a level playing field right now," said Suzuki racer Antron Brown, who is currently third in points behind Hines and Tonglet. "You're always going to have this problem because you're racing two totally different animals. All we want is to have the same tools and the same ability to go just as fast as (the Harleys) if we work hard. We're not getting the chance to win that $1000 for number one qualifier, and we have no chance of getting any money out of the POWERade Full Throttle Award; they've won all that all year long."

Does this complaint have merit? Ever since NHRA formally instituted Pro Stock Bike in 1990, Suzuki's inline 4-cylinder has ruled the roost. Harley-derived V- Twin bikes struggled without much technical or financial support. Then Harley-Davidson itself stepped up to the plate, putting their considerable resources behind Andrew Hines' Vance & Hines team. Their first break occurred last year when Hines ran a remarkable 7.016 in near sea level conditions at Englishtown. NHRA promptly slapped 40 pounds on all v-twin-powered bikes, taking them from 575 to 615-pounds.

“We’ve been struggling with this deal for a whole year," said Hines. "We’re still not back on top of it, (though) we’re getting a lot closer now. The main reason is our 60-foot times. We built two brand-new chassis, and they’re awesome. You can predict what they’re going to do on almost every pass. (But) if NHRA gives us something else, then who knows what can happen?”

With high-revving motorcross-based motors going head-to-head with classic American iron, creating parity will be tricky. The v-twin sports 160 cubic inches compared to Suzuki's 92. As a latecomer to the game, the 60-degree v-twin was allowed fuel injection, pushrods and two valves per cylinder, while the Suzukis had carburetion. After last year's breakout performance, v-twins must now weigh 615 pounds, as noted, while the Suzukis recently lost 10 pounds, going down to 590.

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"(That) 10 pound deal was a joke," said Brown. "Last year the Harleys were truly 580, 590 pounds - not 575, so they only got an honest 30 pounds put on them last year. They slowed up, but they were still qualifying number one through the year. They only had a .02-second advantage on the Suzukis then, and now they're going faster than they did last year. This year at Sonoma we were 1100 feet above sea level, and Andrew, 30 pounds heavier than last year, went 6.96. That tells you how much their development is going to keep on jumping because their stuff is so new. Our stuff's been developed for over 20 years."

Brown further pointed out the NHRA is the only sanctioning body that allows v-twin competitors to run 160 cubic inches in Pro Stock. "In AHDRA they run 145 cubic inches on carburetors. To have class parity, the Suzukis either need to have more cubic inches (up to 101) with fuel injection or, in my personal opinion, the v-twins need to go with less cubic inches and carburetors."

Complicating this scenario is the fact there are actually two different v-twins being raced, the V-Rod built by Screamin' Eagle, Harley-Davidson's performance division, and the Hot Rod V-Twin by S&S Cycle, Inc. (Viola, OH), the world's largest aftermarket manufacturer of v-twin engines. Most commonly seen on choppers, S&S's Pro Stock version is distributed exclusively by G Squared Motorsports (Americus, GA), co-owned by George Bryce, who also happens to co-own Star Racing, which builds Suzuki Pro Stock motors.

Confused? Then let George himself straighten it out: "I raced the Suzuki inline-4 for years and I still have connections with a lot of those teams," Bryce explained. "I guess you could say I'm an on-the-fence guy. George Smith, one of the owners of S&S Cycle, Inc., is my partner in Star Racing and G2 Motorsports. In other words, if you wanted to go race an NHRA Pro Stock v-twin, you'd have to buy a package from Harley-Davidson/Vance & Hines or us - and they're not selling theirs to anyone else. We've got five or six programs running right now, with several new ones coming in the future."

It should be noted that Vance & Hines is also a major supplier of Suzuki Pro Stock motors. However, due to an exclusive arrangement with Harley-Davidson, only their Screamin' Eagle-sponsored team gets to use Harley bodies while G Squared (G2) has resorted to using Buell bodies, a road-racer style motorcycle that Harley-Davidson sells through their dealers.

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"The Vance & Hines teams have been working on their deal for four or five years and it's finally starting to bear fruit," said Bryce. “But they're also having a lot of reliability issues. Andrew Hines was quoted at Memphis that he broke three engines in qualifying. All of us can see him changing motors all weekend; it looked like they were changing engines every couple of runs on each bike, and that would be a lot of engines.

"The S&S program is a little bit newer," Bryce said. “It’s less developed at this point, but I think that it has the capability of really being powerful in the near future, as long as we continue to develop it. The S&S-powered Buells that we sell at G2 are not slaughtering any Suzukis yet, (but) we're very competitive. Ryan Schnitz, Chip Ellis, and Matt Guidera have won a lot of rounds, and Tom Bradford is running well with an S&S G2-powered Buell. Chris Revis is running one of our packages, too, so that whole deal is growing. But at the end of the day we've got to have really fast Suzukis and really fast v-twins in order to be fair."

In that respect, the stats show that Harley-Davidsons have hardly run roughshod over the competition this season. Of the 11 events thus far, Suzukis have won four times in all-Suzuki finals, while Harley-Davidsons have won four times with only two all-Harley finals; an S&S-powered Buell has been in the winner’s circle three times. Among the five events at which a Harley has been represented in the final round, Ryan Schnitz's Buell dominated at Columbus. Suzukis ruled the first two races, locking up the finals at Gainesville (Steve Johnson over Craig Treble) and Houston (Karen Stoffer over Kurt Matte). After GT Tonglet won at Atlanta (over Chris Rivas on a Buell), the Harley-Davidsons did not return to the winners circle until six races later, when Andrew Hines beat Stoffer at Sonoma.

"My stand is that we're looking at performance, not race results," counters Brown. "Race results (include) human error and racing ability. A Suzuki has qualified number one twice this year, and only one Suzuki has qualified in the top five in the last eight races. All your veterans, guys like Geno Scali, Steve Johnson, Shawn Gann, Mike Berry - these guys have been out here for years develop their stuff, getting it right, and they can't even qualify in the top ten. Some of them aren't even in the top ten for points. The Suzukis that are at the top of the field are just doing a good job of racing."

"There is parity out there now," insists Hines. "I just ran a 7.13 and there was a Suzuki in front of me that ran a 7.12. I don’t see that there’s any reason for those guys to complain. I’m just out here doing my deal. I’m going to focus on my program. If those guys want to squawk, let ‘em have it. This is NHRA drag racing. It’s a toss-up right now who could win this race. You never know.”

As G Squared's George Bryce observed, "You've got two big names, us and Vance & Hines, making for real serious development teams that are outrunning most of the Suzukis at this point, and that's a worry. They want to race what they have and be competitive. Harley-Davidson and Vance & Hines are willing to spend the money and time to go faster. G-Squared and S&S are (also) willing to spend the money, and that leaves the Suzuki teams not quite as well supported. By no means is Suzuki as involved to the level of Harley and S&S. They're interested in road racing and motorcross; not as much as drag racing."

"(V-Twins) have the capability of making as much horsepower per cubic inch as a Pro Stock car," said Brown. "It's just like cutting a 'V' off of a Pro Stock car motor. That's about 2.7 horsepower per cubic inch times 160 cubic inches, so they have the potential of making over 430 horsepower. You know they're making at least 2.2, and that's 350 horsepower. We're running our Suzuki at about 315 horsepower, and we're tapped out at around 3.47 horsepower per cubic inch. The Pro Stock version of the V-Twin that Harley-Davidson has out right now doesn't have one stock Harley part; it was spec-built from the ground up out of billet, using Pro Stock car valves and springs. My cases are stock."

In Bryce's view, the only real development going on as far as the Suzuki racers are concerned is within Don Schumaker's Army team, consisting of Antron Brown and Angelle Sampey. "Schumaker's really committed to making that work," Bryce said. "(His) team has two really fast Suzukis, neither affiliated with Vance & Hines or Star Racing in any way, (making them) the fastest independent teams running right now. The other fast Suzukis are run by Karen Stoffer, Geno Scali and Craig Treble, (whose) engines are supplied by Vance & Hines." Between the Suzuki and Harley race efforts, "That's a really tall order for those guys to pull off correctly."

If Bryce has one complaint about the Harley package, it's that it's too exclusive. "We are bound by NHRA rules that say we have to sell our package to other people," he said, "so we have to sell production items, (while Vance & Hines) could have heavily protected and messaged technology that nobody else can ever see. And Harley-Davidson gets mad at a Harley dealership if they try to participate with us. But S&S is the largest aftermarket supplier of Harley-Davidson high performance parts in the world. They sell so much stuff that Harley-Davidson apparently had to invent Screamin' Eagle just to try and take some business away from S&S."

In the long run, Bryce feels such controversy will help the Pro Stock Bike class, and has absolute faith that the class will get sorted out. "I'm a big picture guy," he said, "and I want everybody to make out so the class can grow. My partner George Smith and I would like to see eight V-Twins and eight Suzukis on Sunday so we could have brand wars, maybe even a little WWE-style controversy so that the fan base will continue to grow. Our class has become more and more popular because of the brand diversity that wasn't there before."

"I think it's great for the class," agrees Brown, "but we need to have different parity. (NHRA) is reviewing everything for next year's rules. They've been asking every race team questions as to what they think would be a probable fix. Hopefully at the U.S. Nationals we can get some stuff tied up and have more parity for next year."

“I can’t put words in NHRA’s mouth," said Andrew Hines, "but I’d really hate to see them (slow the Harleys down). The class is really good right now. If anything, they should make both bikes faster."   

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