With backing from Drag Specialties ties, G2 Motorsports has become a contender for the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle title. From left are Crew Chief Ken Johnson, Team owners George Bryce and George Smith, and rider Chip Ellis.
 he National Hot Rod Association’s POWERade drag racing series is one of the most competitive forms of motor racing in the world. Included in a lineup with Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock automobile classes is Pro Stock Motorcycle, where specially built drag race motorcycles produce well over 300 horsepower and cover the quarter-mile track in just under 7 seconds flat at over 190 mph.
Using the performance of the Drag Specialties/G-Squared/S&S Pro Stock bike as an example, here is what rider Chip Ellis experiences on his Sunday morning ride: 0-60 mph = Less than 1 second 0-100 mph = 2 seconds 0-150 mph = 4 Seconds.
This means that Chip will see 155 mph in an eighth of a mile and over 190 mph in a quarter mile. Ellis has run the quickest time in NHRA, turning 6.911 seconds in the quarter at 193.21 mph. Ellis goes this fast on a bike powered by an engine that anyone can buy if they want to compete in the NHRA—a 160 cubic inch S&S Pro Stock engine. Built in Viola, Wisconsin, just like the rest of the S&S powerplants your customers are buying, the engine is exclusively distributed by G-Squared Motorsports.
Building a bike that goes that fast doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, it took a number of years and an unlikely partnership to make it happen. George Bryce of Star Racing had a dream to make NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racing more interesting. He and his wife Jackie invested in the first on-board camera set-up and hired the first female motorcycle drag race rider, Angelle Sampey, to compete on their Suzuki-based team, which lead to three of six championships Bryce won. While they garnered some additional interest, they still didn’t make the impact they wanted for their dream.
Here is where the Pro Stock story gets more interesting. Harley-Davidson® hired the Vance and Hines race team to build and race a V-Rod based NHRA Pro Stock Bike. S&S Cycle, a company with a history rich in performance v-twins on the Bonneville Salt Flats and at the drag strip, took notice of the move and put a plan in motion to create an engine that would be competitive in the NHRA.
George Smith, past President of S&S Cycle and current Chairman of the Board, had an active interest in drag racing. He often went to the track to support S&S customers, so he was the natural go-to guy to manage the S&S Board of Director’s project. Smith met Bryce and saw how he was running his NHRA team--and liked what he saw. A mutual respect developed that led to a partnership for a new race team named after its two leaders George Smith and George Bryce. G-Squared Motorsports was born.
A quarter mile drag race is over in seven seconds, so a good start is obviously critical. Chip Ellis has been great off the line in 2006, which has added to the team's success.
S&S engineers in Viola, Wisconsin, namely Todd Olson, Brian Perkins, Dan Kinsey, Dave Jensen, Mart Fargen and Eric Wangen, along with a host of other S&S personnel, built a 160 cubic inch S&S v-twin engine that met the strict NHRA guidelines. Bryce and Smith worked with veteran motorcycle product designer Sandy Kosman to develop a chassis to their specifications and bodywork that replicated a Buell® XB9R, allowing the G-Squared race team come to life.
Towards the end of the 2004 season, the class that was dominated by Suzuki for more years than anyone cared to remember was about to be rocked at its roots. There was already a viable new competitor in the powerhouse team funded by corporate giant, Harley-Davidson® getting their racing V-Rod program some attention in the series. And now, a small blip on the radar from a grass-roots, minimally funded team put together by Bryce and Smith, based on an engine built by the “little guys”—also known as S&S Cycle--prepared to put some serious flames in the fire. NHRA Pro Stock racing was exciting again, and Bryce, who devoted the last 30 years of his life to making Pro Stock Motorcycle racing more visible, was about to see his dream come true.
S&S Cycle and G-Squared did not keep their developments a secret. S&S’ goal was to help teams get involved in NHRA Pro Stock motorcycle racing, so they immediately put together a program through G2 that allowed anyone to buy an S&S engine or a complete XB9R package to race in the NHRA. As fast as the packages were offered, there were five new teams in the pits. A typical complete package from G-Squared includes a race ready bike, spare engine, clutch, transmission and ignition, as well as a starter and a starter cart. It also includes training on both S&S® VFI fuel injection as well as racetrack set-up. G2 delivers the bike to you at a race track, Ellis will make a pass to assure the bike is capable of running a very low 7-second quarter mile, and the new team will have support from both S&S and G2 at the next 15 races. The cost? Only $169,000--not including a race transporter, tools, support crew and transportation to the races all over the country. It is not a small investment by any means, so for five teams to jump in and go racing was a big deal. An even bigger deal is these teams were almost instantly competitive and the final elimination rounds of NHRA races were seeing S&S powered bikes going all the way to the finals.
After only a year and a half of competition, the G-Squared/S&S team was starting to gel and making a real push on the points championship when the unthinkable occurred. Someone stole the team’s transporter out of a hotel parking lot. Gone was the bike, tools, spare parts; essentially everything they needed to go to a race. The loss could have meant the devastation of the whole project, but the team was fortunate and the transporter and most of the equipment was soon recovered.
At the Infineon round in California, Chip Ellis carved his name in the history books when he recorded a 6.911-second quarter mile run during the qualifying rounds. It was only the second ever sub 7-second quarter mile in the NHRA Pro Stock motorcycle class. Chip went on to notch his second overall win of the season at that, besting Antron Brown (staged on right).
The G2 Motorsports team recorded its first victory flying the Drag Specialties colors when Ellis took the win in June at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Midwest Nationals at Madison, Illinois.
Seeing the need for some additional financial help to help round the bend, past S&S Vice-President and Board of Directors member, Ken Smith stepped up and became a private sponsor of the G-Squared/S&S team. Support from Ken Smith was a huge surprise. Unlike his brother George, Ken wasn’t so sure about being involved in drag racing. As he put it, “Going to Bonneville is really a safe bet for the company. We can build a strong engine and that’s the key to the salt. But on a drag bike, chassis design, rider ability and many other variables can affect how our engine appears to the public. In drag racing you win one weekend and can lose the next, Bonneville records can stand for years. But, at the same time, I felt the team was at a critical juncture and decided to support them in the best way that I could.”
Smith’s support, along with the return of their transport clearly outweighed the negatives and the team picked up even more momentum. Throughout the NHRA, everyone was taking note of the little guys who were taking sizeable bites out of the big guy’s performance. 2005 was clearly the turning point for the G-Squared/S&S team.
Based on the success of the G-Squared/S&S Cycle team over the last few years, Drag Specialties stepped in to be a major sponsor in 2006. With the support of Drag Specialties, Ellis has done some remarkable things this season. So much so, that at the time of this writing, just after the race in Brainerd, Minnesota, Ellis was third in the championship points chase, behind only by 45. On top of Ellis’ great position, four additional riders on S&S-powered Buell motorcycles are in the top 10—they are Ryan Schnitz riding for Team Muzzy, Matt Smith on the G-Squared/Torco Racing Fuels team, Tom Bradford and the Hal’s Harley-Davidson team and Matt Guidera on the Rockland Motorsports team. Five of the top 10 places are occupied by riders running on the “little guys” engines—pretty impressive indeed.
The points chase lead prompted S&S Cycle President, Brett Smith to say, “The performance of the S&S-powered Pro Stock motorcycles has surpassed all expectations for us. Five of the top-ten point holders are using S&S power--more than any other engine manufacturer--and they have all clearly dominated as of late. However, Vance & Hines and the Army Team are both forces to be reckoned with and we’ll continue to try and develop more horsepower to help S&S-powered teams continue competing with them.” Smith went on to say, “I cannot thank the S&S-powered teams and G2 enough for trusting us with their performance needs when they had many others to choose from to compete at this level.”
The purpose-built, 160 cubic inch S&S NHRA Pro Stock drag race engine. Photo courtesy of S&S Cycle, Inc.
The Drag Specialties/G-Squared/S&S Pro Stock bike weighs the class minimum 615 pounds with Ellis on board, has a 70-inch wheelbase and is powered by an S&S 160 cubic inch, 60-degree air-cooled, v-twin. The four cam engine features billet crankcases with an integral six-speed transmission housing, billet steel flywheels, billet aluminum rods and heads, billet steel cylinders and two downdraft throttle bodies that are controlled by the same computer and Pro Tune II software that S&S uses to run a fuel-injected street bike. It’s six-speed transmission will use all the gears to get down a quarter mile and redline is right around 9,600 rpm. As previously stated, the chassis is designed by Kosman Racing to G2 specifications and the bike is called a Buell. While not supported by the Buell factory, using that name associates the bike with a street legal machine built post-1998 and makes it eligible for NHRA competition. One of the most overlooked things about the bike is that the engine is an S&S. Often people think the bike is Harley-Davidson® backed and supported by the Buell factory. While frustrating for George Smith, he did point out that each time an S&S powered Buell comes to the line at an NHRA event, the announcers make sure that the thousands of fans know they are seeing a bike that goes incredibly fast because the Buell is powered by an S&S engine.
A familiar site this season has been crew chief Ken Johnson leading his team in a victorious "high Five" after Chip Ellis eliminates another competitor.
George Smith summed up our discussion with him by saying this, “There is some unfinished business in this project. We are really close, and have been really close to winning the championship. When we take the number one plate home, then I can step aside to let the next person from S&S or G-Squared work with the team. Then I can go back to Bonneville and set a new open wheel conventional bike record—maybe build a bike that goes about 275 mph on the salt.” Spoken like a real racer—very much the same as the guys who race in the toughest drag racing class there is—using the “little guys” engine!
Editor’s note: The 2006 NHRA POWERade drag racing series concludes in November at Pomona, California. Follow the action on ESPN2 and online at www.nhra.com.
The G2 Motorsports team (including members of the G2 Motorsports/Torco team on the left) gathers for a victory photo following Chip's win at Madison, Illinois.
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