Drag Illustrated Issue 141, February 2019 | Page 37

Special Section “I THINK MY LAST RACE WAS ADRL DRAGSTOCK AT ROCKINGHAM IN 2009,” ALLEN REMEMBERS. “I HAD TO NEARLY TAP OUT EVERY RESOURCE I HAD JUST TO GET THE RIG HOME AND GET EVERYONE BACK TO FLORIDA. even though Brunson won, I told him ‘I’m just happy to be here, re- gardless of winning or losing.’” Allen’s mood was already bright before he pre-staged his bright green bike for the final round. A brief fan encounter helped him remember that racing is about more than just lighting up the scoreboard. “We were in the staging lanes waiting for the other classes to come up for the finals and a couple spectators, a father and his young son, came over and wanted to take a picture by the bike,” Allen re- members. “His dad had him ask permission and I had him come over and we took pictures. The green spiked hair and all the flashy stuff on the bike with the crazy clowns – it’s moments like that when you realize you’re not just out there playing around having fun. All of a sudden you’ve got people who want autographs and want to take pictures with you. It was a pretty cool moment.” Things seemed to be on the up- and-up yet again when Allen moved on to Virginia Motorsports Park for the World Finals. A 4.01-second test pass on Thursday night had Allen and his team believing an elusive 3-second performance was on the horizon in competition. A sneaky, longstanding fuel system issue had other ideas, though. “We went into Friday and right off the bat burnt a piston,” Allen says. “Next pass, burnt a piston and pushed out a head gasket. Saturday, it was bad. I ended up pushing out a head gasket, burning #3 and 4, breaking the crank and trashing a set of cases. It was utter destruc- tion. Then Tyler (Crossnoe) came down to the top end with my lithium batteries hanging off two wires like fish hanging off a line. They fell off around half-track. in the “DTM compound” with the retirement of Burke Forster. “Dan had asked me about coming to race with them a couple years ago when Terry Schweigert talked about retiring,” Allen says. “So at Virginia I asked Dan if he would put someone else on that bike if Burke did retire. He said, ‘yeah, but the only person I’d ask is you.’ Tuesday after the race I called up Dan and we worked up the details. Then it was just a matter of waiting to see which way the class would go for 2019 to see if we’d put a nitrous or turbo setup in my chassis.” “We worked on the bike all night. I trashed two motors that weekend. We were going to try to put to- gether another motor with the parts we had left, but it was too late by the time we figured out what was wrong with the fuel system. I had to pull out of eliminations, even though I wanted to race.” Allen delivered his Walt Timblin-built chassis to Wagner after the Man Cup World Finals in November. After PDRA announced at the Perfor- mance Racing Industry (PRI) Show that Pro Extreme Motorcycle would become Pro Nitrous Motorcycle for 2019, Wagner went to work final- izing the nitrous setup in Allen’s bike, which will now run electronic fuel injection using the MaxxECU. Allen’s destructive close to an oth- erwise career-best season left him looking for other options going into the 2019 season. He went to Wagner, who was going to have an opening As a longtime nitrous drag bike rider, Allen was understandably happy with the move to a nitrous- only class for 2019. The new six- race schedule, which sees the bike class sit out the season opener at GALOT Motorsports Park in Benson, North Carolina, and the Summer Nationals at Dragway 42 in West Salem, Ohio, also suits Allen just fine. He insists, however, that none of the potential class changes on the table would’ve shaken his desire to follow the 2019 PDRA Tour. “No matter how it shook out – nitrous only, a combined class or even two separate classes or eight races, six races or four or whatever – I would have remained racing with the PDRA as I do consider it the premier place to race for a Pro Mod motorcycle,” Allen says. “Plus, it’s ‘family’ and ‘home’ really for me anyway. No matter how things worked out, I was racing PDRA in 2019 as long as there was a bike class.” Along with the addition of crew member Steve Bowen, Allen is excited about the new season and all of the changes that come with it. “It’ll be fun running with Dan and setting up the DTM compound where the motorcycles are pitted,” Allen says. “I’m really looking forward to running with Dan and Kathie (Mcgregor) and seeing where we end up at the end of the season.” PDRA660.com 37