MENTAL RACING : Top fuel Harleys racing in the dirt

About ten years ago, a bunch of Canadian hillclimbers got bored waiting for their turn at the incline and started to drag race each other on the flat spot in the foreground of the hill. Most of them were running high-powered jap bikes stripped down for hillclimbing (extended swingarms, small fuel tanks, solo seats, dirtbike frontends, etc.)

It turned out to be a whole lot of fun! Pretty soon, the hillclimbs were taking a backseat to the drags (go figure) and the competition was heating up. One of the fastest hillclimb/dragbikes was a big-inch Harley fielded by Marve Brimacombe of "Marve's Speed Shop". It was kicking serious butt at the impromptu dirt drags and everyone wondered what Marve was doing to make this big North American rig so darned fast against the import iron.

It kept everyone else on their toes...fer sure! Pretty soon, a set of timing lights and a tree appeared at the drags, and everyone forgot all about hillclimbing. They settled on a distance of one 16th of a mile (330 feet) for the strip...and the races were ON!!

Right after that, Marve decided to buy a Top Fuel asphalt drag Harley, stick a custom-made paddle tire on it and rock everyone's world good and proper. He introduced Nitromethane to a whole lot of people who had never seen it up close before. THAT got EVERYONE'S attention....

And the dirt drags have never been quite the same since.(Actually...it took about seven years of trial and error to make it all come together. We broke, we blew up SPECTACULARLY, and won as many races as we lost).

Popular opinion stated that a Big jap bike running nitrous...with some sort of rear suspension...was the way to go. It would win every time. Top Fuel Harleys with NO rear suspesion couldn't make it on the dirt. But Marve wouldn't let up. No matter what. It's just not in his nature.
When he first started running Nitro at the dirt drags, Marve labeled the bike "Experimental". After the first few wild sideways runs, somebody taped over the "Experi" part of the name...and it became "Mental Racing". It still carries that very descriptive, and totally accurate, name today.

About three years ago he signed up Jimmy Girdlestone to ride the Nitro-powered beast. Marve had gone through about nine riders in seven years and most of them had not lasted one full season. Several had quit after a few runs and a couple of them had sworn off motorcycles completely, after the experience. Apparently a wild sideways run down a dirt dragstrip atop a big Harley powered by liquid explosives was
enough to inspire some hard-bitten drag race riders to take up a new religion. Or knitting. Or something...

Jimmy Girdlestone, however, was made of sterner stuff. His dad had worked at Marve's shop as a mechanic and Jim used to hang around and watch all of the cool bikes roll out of that place as a kid. Then, he'd go home and practice his motocross skills in local races,riding a Jap two stroke.

He got good at it. VERY good at it. He broke some bones, and broke a whole lot of records. Pretty soon, he started to think real hard about Marve's big Nitro dirt dragster. Nobody could ride the wild thing and win. Most guys could not ride the monster to the end of the strip without filling their shorts and leaving in total shame. It was just too damned intimidating. Especially when it got totally sideways at full speed. Scary stuff...indeed.

But it had unlimited potential. Especially with a truly great rider onboard. One that wouldn't freak out and back off when things got totally haywire at mid-track. Jim figured he was just the guy who could tame this monster and make it work the way it was meant to. And he knew, in his very bones, that he could set some brand new records in the dirt dragster world with this thing. He could DO IT! It was all right there for
the taking....

He just needed to convince Marve to let him give it a try. Well...he talked Marve into giving him a shot at the Big Gun, and...after a few races....he had a real feel for the dirt monster.

And Marve knew he had the rider that he'd been looking for all these years. No question at all...THIS guy could do the job! BOY...could he do it! The timing was perfect. Marve had...after seven years of trying...gathered the very best crew together to make this thing work.

Greg "Sharkey" Grozelle is a top motorcycle mechanic and is the main wrench on the team. He also runs the all-important starter cart when firing up the big Nitro Bike. "Dangerous" Dave Currie is the strong silent type who makes sure that everything runs smoothly in the pits and who drives the towbike that pulls Jimmy and the racebike back home after a run. Jack "Powerlift" Peebles changes the oil, makes sure
the racebike is fueled and takes care of any heavy lifting and security issues that may come up. The photography team...GW MacNutt, Chris Supina, Rod Hicks...is there to record everything that happens. In intense detail...so we can analyse everything afterwards. So we can really SEE how the bike is working.

Everthing was there. All the parts All we needed was a good (GREAT) riderto make it all come together...

That's when JIMMY showed up and said "I can DO this"After a few races we all looked at each other and said..."No shit, this guy can DO this!!"

The rest is dragracing HISTORY.

(note here: A really FAST Jap bike can manage low fives or high to mid fours on a 330 foot dirt dragstrip. Our (Mental Racing) Nitro-Powered Harley regularly cuts times in the very low fours, and there are now five other Nitro-Powered Harleys competing against us. All are in the mid-to low four second range.)

On June 8th 2003...we were the very FIRST dirt dragbike anywhere to record an elapsed time BELOW four seconds for the 330 foot dirt drags. We did a 3.95 second run at Angel Acres!!

We backed it up a week later at Lake Cowichan with a 3.96 second pass!!NO ONE has EVER gone this fast on a dirt dragstrip before!! ANYWHERE!! We were up against a Suzuki Hayabusa, a Honda Blackbird and several other Harleys running all sorts of wild combinations.

But NOBODY else was playing with NITRO. Until last year.

NOW...there are FOUR Nitro powered Harleys on the dirt-drag circuit. Plus one HUGE-ENGINED Harley (with a two-stage nitrous system) that has been giving our team serious grief...even though they haven't yet switched to Top Fuel. The crowds are going
WILD...every time we run!

THAT'S when Marve's Mental Racing Team broke the four-second barrier!! They left everyone else in the DUST!!

Nobody...ANYWHERE ELSE had EVER done this!! And now...things are going to get REALLY interesting at the Dirt Drags.