I'm NOT a Drag Racer

But I know a pretty cool one!

Once upon a time, I worked for a guy who's business was run on the force of his own personality, Russ Collins.  You may have heard of RC Engineering?  It's where Terry Vance and Byron Hines (Vance & Hines Racing) got their start.

When I worked there, I was just starting to get into the speed world and the new engine builder was an englishman named Nigel Patrick (Patrick Racing) who sorted me out porting cylinder heads, a smart guy just coming into his own rite and would win the pro-stock national championship the next year.

But Russ was this bearded, cigar smoking gravelly-voiced character who was always larger than life.

Here's the bike that tried to kill him...

The engine section was in his office as a coffee table.  I'm told that when the beast was running, it was so smooth you could put a glass of water on it and not spill any.  Something or other about how the power pulses/harmonics cancelled out, I believe it.  I think they named it something weird and hyped that the media liked, but we called it the "Achison, Topeka & Santa Fe" bike.  He rode/raced the performance parts he designed.
Today, Russ matches fuel injectors for race teams of all flavors whether 2 or 4 wheeled and was very fuel savvy then and I can imagine even more now.

The performance parts / accessories business is difficult in the best of times and in 1979, the stress lines were etched into his face daily.  He came back into the shop one day after being to a depressing motorcycle show where the prognosticators were predicting more gloom and I could see the joy come back when he saw another generation, or at least one person - me, had the soul of a motorcycle.  One of those rare and special moments that turn the throttle that motivates each of us.

My tastes have always been in the turns but whether you go fast straight or in the turns, may you too, find those moments that turn your throttle.