The AMA/AHDRA All-American motorcycle drag racing series crowned its third year of champions in the Bill and Crissy Rowe era, despite battling some serious weather set-backs. 

The season started with a Gainesville opener that was shortened by shutdown weepers on a beautiful sunny day. A rare Rockingham rain cancellation initiated the first-ever AHDRA/AMRA combined McClure Nationals. And finally, a Florida State of Emergency brought on by Hurricane Nicole canceled the Gainesville Finals. Sometimes, that’s the luck.

But champions persevere, and AHDRA recognizes their best, seventh in a series. Sadly, I could not find a photo in my files of George Futch:

George Futch made his retirement return complete, scoring the Zipper’s Performance Pro Modified championship. “This was my second year after 14 years retired,” said Futch.

Futch races a ‘98 Buell—a 70 inch D&G chassis with a 116 cubic inch, Steve Alsteadt XL 4 cam motor with 17:1 compression. “Billie Joe Bowman built, owned, and raced the motorcycle more than a decade ago,” said Futch.

“I’ve been riding and racing mini bikes, motorcycles, go carts, and ATVs since 4 years old. Rode and raced all brands of motorcycles, but I bought this bike after not riding even a moped for 13 years. I then jump on this motorcycle and it took me half a year of racing this monster before I got rid of the jitters. Holy bat-shit, this thing is a torque monster with well north of 200 horsepower.

“Its best so far is 8.90 at 147 mph, but the motor is currently disassembled and being checked out and refreshed by Andy Simon and Chad Hart. I expect to run an 8.50 right off the trailer in ‘23.

“I couldn’t have won this championship without everybody’s help and my pit crew, my son.”

“The Modified class is an ideal fit for our company’s disciplines of designing and grinding Red Shift Racing Camshafts, Cylinder Heads and other related performance parts,” said Dan Fitzmaurice of Zipper’s Performance.

“Racing was the sole reason why Zipper’s Performance was started over four decades ago. Competitive drag racing is at the heart of our company and will likely remain so for many years to come.”

Support those that support the sport—race with Zipper’s!

story by Tim Hailey