Friday from the 2017 NHRA Northwest Nationals – Top Fuel Harley

Ever since we got our first taste of NHRA racing in Bristol earlier this Summer, we’ve been itchin’ to document another day at the tracks.  The countdown was on for the Northwestern Nationals and now that we’ve finally made it to race weekend, we’re fuckin’ pumped!

It’s been awesome to hang with Harley racer Michael Beland and company in prepping for tonight’s drag.  We can’t imagine how Michael feels leading up to a race, we get antsy enough just watching and taking pictures.

After what seemed like an eternity, we finally got to roll the Hogs Top Fuel Harley bike out for a qualifying run.  How this works in the NHRA world of motorcycles is that each team gets three runs.  Keep your best time of the three, and then the top 8 move on to a tournament style round on Sunday.

The first time Hogs & Heifers Saloon sponsored Michael Beland and company, they qualified 5th out of 16 bikes at Thunder Valley in Bristol.  That’s fuckin’ impressive.  This gave everyone high hopes leading in to the Northwest Nationals.  Let’s fuckin’ do it!

I followed the team all the way to the starting line.  That shit was intense.  That shit was loud.  That shit was hot!  Did I mention the temperature at track level was 131 degrees?  That’s fuckin’ hot people.  Dense clouds of exhaust and tire burnout polluted the air, for once Washington didn’t smell like pot…  And boom, we’re racing!!

Well… I would like to say we flew down the track over 200 miles an hour and posted a time good enough to qualify for Sunday, but that’s not what happened.  Fuck this round.  That’s why the drag racing gods give us a few rounds to fine tune some shit.  Word from the pit says we needed a heavier clutch.  Two more qualifying runs from Saturday coming up!