1973 Phoenix Arizona Beeline Motorcycle Drag Racing Strip 8-Page Vintage Article

Description

1973 Phoenix Arizona Beeline Motorcycle Drag Racing Strip - 8-Page Vintage Article
Original, Vintage Magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
A Thousand Dollars, No Planning, Careless
Officials, Primitive Safety, No Records, A Fast
Norton, And Two Bottles Of Laughing Gas
Welcome to Phoenix
Beeline Drag strip in Phoenix,
Arizona, hosted the Second Annual
Fuel and Gas Drag Bike Nationals.
This track is sanctioned by the Amer-
ican Hot Rod Association, and the
same organization was responsible
for the two-day event. It started with
the track opening on Friday at 4:00
p.m. for tech inspection, with record
runs and qualifying scheduled to be-
gin at five. It was to be the begin-
ning of this writer’s education in
how NOT to run a major racing
event.
As with most drag races there
were very few (few meaning maybe
100) spectators in attendance on Fri-
day. The track was in terrible shape,
traction-wise, the first day because
it isn’t used more than twice a
month, so just about every racer
around was trying to find the bite.
Not much happened until around
5:30, when a rather strange sound-
ing two-stroke motor lit off at the
starting line, did an incredibly long
burnout, and ripped off a mid-ll-sec-
ond funny car-style run. It was Har-
lon Bice with his snowmobile-pow-
ered Yamaha digger. Roger Davis
also had one, and both bikes were
bizarre, to say the least. The crews
would roll them up to the starting
line, fire them with a rope just like
you’d light off your lawnmower, and
make a one-gear-only pass. The mo-
tors are only 650cc small, but they
pull 150 horsepower out of the crate,
and have a centrifugal funny car-
style slipper clutch which allows the
motor to run high gear only.
The big problem with both of the
bikes is the type of powerplant
they use. According to the other
(N.H.R.A., A.M.D.R.A.) sanctioning
bodies, drag bikes must retain pro-
duction motorcycle engine cases.
Since there aren’t a whole lot of two-
wheeled snowmobiles around, it ap-
pears that these two machines will
only be able to run exhibition races
and A.H.R.A.-sanctioned tracks.
Sometime during the last few
months A.H.R.A. decided to start
a “Funny Bike” class, just like the
one for cars. In order to qualify for
the class, the rules say that the frame
must appear stock, you must have
front and rear lights, front and rear
fenders, stock appearing tank, and
a more-or-less standard seat. There
were a few bikes that showed set up
to run the new class, but because of
its newness only two showed any
class.
Ray Price was one, and talk about
impressive. He had a 107-cubic-inch
fuel-burning (fuel is also legal in the
class) Sportster engine stuffed in a
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