Furr Touts
"Less is More" in Texas
Screamin' Eagle Nitro Harleys at the NHRA O'Reilly
Nationals
The Texas Motorplex at Ennis, TX
Veteran Nitro Harley
racer Bill Furr sleeps with a smile on his face on the grounds
of the Texas Motorplex Saturday night. Furr qualified number
three in the quickest NitroHarley field in history, with a
6.55 bump spot. Having run his sixth and seventh career six-forty
passes, Furr won't say he's on his way 'back.' He just smiles,
hiding a little pain in his eyes.
"We've had
a tough year. We introduced the sixty-degree motor a year
ago, then a new clutch. In the meantime, we had to remember
how to race and it hasn't been easy. We've broken a lot of
parts and experienced some tough lessons."
First round at
the Motorplex wasn't impressive. It looked like more of the
same. Furr was on the outside looking in with a nine second
pass. "We broke the belt in the first pass. We just had
too much clutch in it. When it broke the belt, it banged real
hard. But everything looked OK. Then we went out and ran a
6.72 at 203.48. We knew something was wrong. That's when we
noticed that the crankshaft had moved over. Apparently it
had something to do with breaking the screws that hold the
bearings in on the left hand side of the case. By looking
at the oil, we had to change motors for Saturday's early round
until we had a chance to look at the problem."
"John Sparks is working with us this weekend. He and
Rex (Harris) decided Friday night to soften the clutch in
a different manner so we could really get down this racetrack.
So today we went out with a fairly reasonable tune up ran
a 6.45 in the left lane. Then for the last round we thought
we were going to step up but it just repeated exactly what
we did in the right lane. Others stepped up and we stayed
the same, so we landed third."
For eliminations
Sunday, his competition had a 6.52 best. "We have to
run Jack Romine. We think we can step up to a low 6.40. That's
what we'll be trying to do. We feel like we have the clutch
to where we won't have a problem spinning the tire. We'll
put a little more fuel in it in the middle of the track. If
we don't run a mid-40, we don't. All we want to do is go rounds."
Bill Furr's
NitroHarleys are sponsored by Belt Drives Limited, Performance
Machine, Nology, Jostens through Dusty Rhodes, Autolite, Fram,
Valvoline and Orangeburg Cycle Racing.
