Throwdown at T-Town
Tulsa International Raceway
October 1-3, 2021

Redneck Express at Throwdown at T-Town

Report written by Dick Boxell

The Redneck Express team consisting of crew chief Sharon Hand, Steve Legendre, Jim Fox, and Dick Boxell recently attended the Throwdown at T-Town eight-mile event at Tulsa International Raceway.

Rider Chris Hand has been super busy during the past year at his business and redesigning the fuel system on the Redneck Express.

For this event Chris had two complete powerplants ready for action, with Galahad in the bike ready for action when they arrived at the event.

Friday morning we fire the bike to check for operation of the revamped fuel system, and it sounds great. It’s the first time the Redneck Express had been fired since November 2019.

Friday Q1 – Left Lane

We ready the bike and tow up to the staging lanes. Sharon runs the starter while Fox runs the squirter, start the bike, Chris rolls through the water box, Fox Wipes the front tire and Chris does his burnout.

Boxell and Scott from Mitch Browns crew push the bike back with the direction from Fox. Chris lines up, Pre-stages, Sharon turns on the computer, Chris stages, the lights flash and it’s on a run to a 4.073 at 195.03 mph. Not bad for the first time out in over a year!

Friday Q2 – Right Lane

We ready the bike again and tow up to the staging lanes. Sharon runs the starter while Fox runs the squirter, start the bike, Chris rolls through the water box, Fox Wipes the front tire and Chris does his burnout.

Boxell and Nitro Joe from Dave Vantine’s crew push the bike back with the direction from Fox, Chris lines up Pre-stages, Sharon turns on the computer, Chris stages, the lights flash and the chute pops out right after the hit! It runs a 4.24 at 180.26 mph dragging the chute fully open.

The team does some investigating after they bring the bike back, and the sheath mount for the chute opening mechanism is out of the bracket. We add a zip tie to the mount to hold the sheath in place.

Saturday E1 – Right Lane

We are scheduled to run Chris’s good friend and chassis builder Sam Wills first round.

We ready the bike for eliminations and tow up to the staging lanes. Sharon runs the starter while Fox runs the squirter, start the bike, Chris rolls through the water box, Fox Wipes the front tire and Chris does his burnout.

Boxell and Nitro Joe from Dave Vantine’s crew push the bike back with the direction from Fox. Chris lines up Pre-stages, Sharon turns on the computer, Chris stages, the lights flash, the bike gets about 60 ft out and there is a huge cloud of clutch dust and the bike hazes the tire and makes a move. Chris shuts it down and coasts to the turnoff.

All in all a great event with plenty of very interested fans who have most likely not seen Top Fuel bikes run in this format.

Tulsa is a great race track great track crew, interesting the difference in track prep for slicks from what we are used to, great bite.

The team would like to thank Todd Martin for the great facility and Mitch Brown for inviting all of us. Congrats to Mitch and his team on the win.

Special thanks to Wayne and Donna Pingel, and Todd Ulhman.

We would like to recognize and thank our Marketing Partners:
PECO Foods, The first on any menu, Denny Hickman and Family
CP Pistons
Mickey Thompson Tires
Halbrooks Huneycutt Engineering
Web Camshafts
Vanson Leathers
Advanced Sleeve
Rob Bush Motorsports
ARP (Automotive Racing Products)
Boninfante
Rod Rance
Generac
Belt Drives Limited
Performance Machine
Sam Wills (Racing Innovations)
PR Factory Store
Ferrea Valves
Worldwide Bearings
MSD Ignitions
BME Connecting Rods
Hands Performance
Simpson Race Products