NHRA’s top professional motorcycle racers deliver impressive action and performances during US Nationals…..
In addition to Scotty Pollacheck’s monumental and first ever Pro Stock Motorcycle victory on Sunday afternoon (See Mopar National News) — the 2020 Denso Spark Plug US Nationals also included additional major title wins.
Within the M/T Tires and Wheels Top Fuel Harley class — Louisiana’s Randal Andras had an undefeated weekend — winning his 3rd and 4th NHRA titles of the season!
Andras recorded his quickest and fastest run of the event in the final round for the US Nationals to topple Jay Turner by a 6.199 secs 224.47 to 6.399 216.76 mph count.
Andras had qualified #3 (6.388 secs) for the 8-bike field and had defeated Rickey House and Tii Tharpe in earlier competition.
The Sunday afternoon US Nationals event victory for Andras was preceded by another win — coming the previous day. Randal had prevailed in a weather deferred rescheduled final round for the NHRA Lucas Oil Summernationals held earlier this summer – also at Lucas Oil Raceway. He beat Jay Turner in that conclusion — winning with a 6.388 secs 195.00 to 6.921 secs 210.05 mph margin.
The US Nationals race was paced by Chris Smith who qualified low at 6.295 secs — however it was veteran Bob Malloy who stole the performance show in the class. Malloy, arguably the most serious innovator within the class — rocketed to an astounding 6.096 secs while winning round one. That ET was the quickest in NHRA history and also an official new ET record. Malloy however did lose out in the next round to Jay Turner when the bike severely smoked it’s tire right off the starting line.
Saturday’s event schedule at Indianapolis also included the annual running of the lucrative Mickey Thompson Pro Bike Battle.
It was Matt Smith who earned his second career victory in that feature — winning immediately on his DENSO EBR when opponent Scotty Pollacheck went red. Smith suffered problems on the bike, slowing to a 7.244 at 175.75, but the victory was already in hand.
Prior to the final Smith had outlasted the seven other top rated riders within the special all-star race — including Angelle Sampey and Jerry Savoie to reach the final round.
“This race is a big deal for us and it means a lot,” Smith said. “I’m not sure exactly what went wrong, but somehow we got the win. For all the people that help me, thank you. And thank you to Mickey Thompson for putting this on for us in the class. We appreciate it a lot.”
Posted with files by Bruce Biegler & NHRA Communications.
All photos by Dave DeAngelis