In the beginning of 2015 my goal was to win a national championship and reach a top 5 position in the Dragbike.com BAMF points. Over the winter I built a new bike to race Crazy 8’s , Super Comp , and 5.60. I worked on the bike countless hours and put a ton of pride into it. My dad always told me if you put pride into a race bike it will win a lot of races, boy was he right! I also had ‘ole Faithful’ for ET and Street Fighter. I had never ran a full season in any series but I felt up to the challenge for 2015, and set out to run IDBL, Man Cup and NHDRO.
I want to thank Ray Mancini and Xtreme Motorsports for my head and cam package setup on my engine, as well as Chris Hill for assisting me on the engine assembly and tuning this beast! 226 hp on C12 after a day on the dyno and I was ready to test this monster!
During testing the bike was awesome running 5.46 @ 129 fighting a slight wheelie. We were ready for the first race of 2015!
I started out the season with Steve Earwood’s Big #5K race. I came out swinging and left with a Pro ET win in Street ET, runner-up in 5.60 and a semi finish in 8.88. Not a bad way to start off the season.
Next up was the first IDBL race, I ran my personal best on a street bike 8.30 @ 167 mph! And it turned out to be another great weekend for me taking runner-up in Friday nights Gambler’s race and then with a win in 5.60 against my teammate Ben Knight. The 5.60 final was one of the highlights of the year, Ben had a problem with his bike and we worked late into the night getting it fixed, so for us to be in a final together and him taking a win as well, made it memorable. I was super happy that my 5.60 bike had 2 finals under her belt already.
I won’t go into a lot of detail, but between national events I raced at my local track, Cherokee Raceway, with the cars to keep my skills sharp. I am really thankful that Cherokee lets us race with the cars, I think this has made me the racer I am today! I do well at Cherokee and have landed several wins and runner-ups this season!
Since I was doing so well I figured why not keep racing and I headed to the first NHDRO race of the season. I went some rounds and ended up leaving with a Street ET runner-up to earn a few more points towards the Dragbike.com BAMF!
At the May IDBL race I was looking forward to my favorite 5.60 action! It was another successful weekend with a 5.60 and Street ET Runner-up!!
At this point my buddy Spencer ‘Chewbacca’ Claycomb was trying to convince me into running for the Dragbike.com BAMF since I was doing so well. I said we will see ( I don’t like getting my hopes up and at the time I was focused on winning a championship) I do wanna add a big thank you to Spencer for being an awesome travel mate and helping me the entire season.
NHDRO St. Louis! This was when the work started getting hard for me. My fellow DRR teamate Ben Knight told me he was gonna double enter Street ET that weekend I knew he was running for BAMF, so this is when I had to get in or get out of the way. I am pretty good at double entering, I do it at the local track all the time. For the few that may not know what that is, double entering is when 1 rider races 2 different bikes in the same class. It’s definitely an endurance challenge especially with me in several classes already! I went for it and left on Sunday with a Street ET Gamblers win, Saturday Street ET win, Crazy 8’s win an the very important lean in the Dragbike.com BAMF !
I had a small break for a few weekends and raced at my local track to earn several wins. The best was at I-40 Dragway where I double entered and took the win and runner-up!
It’s the middle of summer guess where the next race is, Memphis. Time to cook! As a team, our leader, Ben Knight had a great idea to leave a cooler in the staging lanes for us because that’s where we are usually. I was happy at the end of Sunday when the race was over so we could get away from the heat, and I took with me a win in Street Fighter, runner up in Crazy 8’s and added 4 more points to my Dragbike.com BAMF lead! I hav to add that Team DRR was in about every final! Go TEAM!
NHDRO Louisville at Ohio Valley Raceway was up next! I was excited about this race , it’s 1/8 mile and I think its tighter and more honest racing. We left the Valley with yet another amazing weekend! Street Fighter and Street ET Sunday win with a semi final finish in Saturday Street ET , and moreBAMF points!
Back to Maryland we go for another IDBL race with my new Vanson Leathers! I have to thank PMR Components, The FBR Shop, and Evil Swingarms for the help! And a special thanks to Matt Silva at Vanson for my awesome suit! I knew this was going to be a hard weekend for me, it was extremely hot and the Bike Fest race is so big it makes for a long weekend. I didn’t walk away with a win that weekend but I had a close race with Robert Parker in the Crazy 8 final and that the kind of stuff that keeps me going. But I did earn more BAMF points!
NHDRO race #4 ended early from bad weather, but no before I took a win in Street and a runner-up.
Next was my worst weekend of 2015 for me. I love going to Rockingham so I was looking forward to the Man Cup race. While I won many round, I couldn’t make it past the semi’s in anything. Not a bad weekend, just not what I was aiming for.
After the Rockingham race I headed back to the local track racing. Send and Stephen Knight were going to Bristol Dragway so I head up there for a weekend of fun with my teammates, and to keep the pressure on Ben who was still right behind me in the BAMF points.
It was a fun weekend, I lucked up and won the bike class on Sunday, but the highlight for me was my great friend Jerry Turner who won King of the Track!
Now for one of the long rides to IDBL ATCO! if it could happen, it happened this weekend. From oil filter seals blowing to bike issues to breaking breaking parts against the great Richard Gadson, it all happened. All in all, I did well with a runner-up in Crazy 8’s against my teammate Ben Knight! Seems we faced off a lot this year, but Ben knows who has the higher win count now, haha me!
We are on the home stretch now coming into the final NHDRO race of the year. I came into this race with a chance to be #1 or #2 in Street ET points. I also had a chance at a 8.88 and 9.50 championship, so the pressure was on. Championships are huge in the BAMF points and I needed all I could get. My biggest obstacle was going to be my own DRR teammates! I struggled all weekend with my clutch on one of my bikes. I have to thank Walter Sprout for always helping me over the phone all year and especially this race! I had one of the greatest weekends! I won Street ET makeup from race 4, I won Street ET Sunday and Street Fighter , which got me the championship in Street Fighter and I had had #1 and #2 in Street ET points! It was an amazing weekend.
Like any other race season there are always obstacles and challenges along the way. The final IDBL race was moved because of weather storm that won hit the track. And the weekend before that we had my daughter, Harper’s first birthday party which was a very special day. Unfortunately while setting up I tried to Michael Jordan off a table to catch some balloons blowing away and hurt my knee pretty bad. I toughed the day out but the next few days I had trouble walking. I had no idea if i could ride or if i should even go to the finals. I really wanted that 5.60 championship so without even sitting on my bike my family and I drove to Maryland. I tested on Friday and felt okay with the pain and entered the gamblers race. I should mention that weekend was my anniversary to my very beautiful wife Tamara. I have a little streak every year I tend to race on our anniversary and I always win. This weekend was no different as I landed my Hayabusa right in the winner’s circle Friday night!
My main goal this weekend was to win the 5.60 championship. I was behind in points and focused on winning the race while hoping the defending champion Mike Otrwoski would lose early enough. However after second round Mike was announced the champion, so while I knew I couldn’t win the 5.60 championship, I just focused on the next rounds and did my job to win the race! All the way home I couldn’t stop thinking about the points and had a feeling I needed to look into them. And to my calculations, a mistake was made and I was the 5.60 champion! I was ecstatic, that’s what I built that bike to do! It was a great ending for me in IDBL!
Let’s talk about what’s going on in BAMF in this blur of a season! I had stretched my lead to 39 points and closest racer to me was Donnie Huffman with 30. At this point there was no mathematical way that I could be caught in the chase. So we headed to the final Man Cup race to get my Dragbike.com BAMF trophy and my check from the Dragbike.com Sponsors. But you know me, I always want to win so I had my game face on. I had the potential to be a champion in 4 mancup classes! i was way behind in street et and was leading in street fighter and close in 8.88 and 8.90. Saturday I was on a mission in Street ET and I went to win 9 rounds and the race! To take the points lead from 60 points back! Sunday came I was final given my amazing trophy made by Cold Hard Art for being the 2015 BAMF Champion and 3000.00 in cash from the BAMF sponsor of Ralphie Navarro of Platinum General Services, Dan Rudd of MPS Racing, Jason and Chris Miller of IDBL, Brian and Niki Welch of NHDRO, David Poague of Interstate Specialties, Dimey Eddinger of DME Racing, Guy Caputo of Tiger Racing, Dave Conforti of Worldwide Bearings, and Eric Hochstetler of MTC!
We continued to race Sunday but I was exhausted and made some errors to leave me in 2 classes when we hit curfew and the race was stopped. I ended up with a Street ET championship and was top 5 in several other classes.
Then for my final race of the year I went to Steve Earwood’s 5K race at Rockingham. This race was all about a good purse and I had high hopes as I won the first one of the season. I ended up with the 5.60 win and a Pro ET runner-up so I was in the finals of both 5K Pro ET and 5.60 at the Rock in 2015!
2015 was an amazing year for me! 46 total BAMF points, 4 national championships, 23 wins with 11 at national events, 12 runner-ups with 7 at national events, and 14 semi final appearances with 8 at national events! I can’t thank my friends, family, DRR teammates, and mostly my wife enough! I love you all and it was a great season! I’m look forward to the 2016 race season with my girls by my side. I also want to thank the good lord for countless safe trips and safety at all the races and traveling!
I have the greatest sponsors and want to thank each of you for having confidence in me and supporting me in 2015 and recommend them to anyone!
Brock’s Performance, PMR components, Dragbike.com, EVIL swingarms, Ray Mancini of Xtreme Motorsports, Fun for All Motorsports, Chris Hill Performance Cycle, APE, Lee’s Cycle, David Snapp Custom Cycle Corner, Walter Sprout of ECS Performance, Schnitz Racing, Vortex Racing, Worldwide Bearings, Steve Huckelby, The FBR Shop, Vanson Leathers, Dusty Debusk with Shinko Tires, Montgomery Motorsports, Rob Bush Motorsports and Alisyn oils.
Thanks for reading! See you at the track!
– Dustin Lee
