Denver: G2 Motorsports preview

G2 Plans to Resume Success

The G2 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle team finished June's three-races-in-three-weeks grind with two straight wins, split between drivers Chip Ellis and Matt Smith. The team also qualified well, with Ellis nailing down two number ones and becoming the class's second 6-second driver. Now they speed into July and the high-altitude Denver event, planning for the same level of success they left behind in June.

George Bryce
G2/Star Racing builder/tuner/crew chief

"Something I learned from Team Winston is that when you start winning and you start doing good, you have to work even harder," said George Bryce. "Before that, we'd win a race, work on customer stuff and rest on our laurels, then get our tails beat at the next race. Once we got it all figured out, we won three championships in a row."

Bryce and the crew back at Americus, Georgia, have spent the last three weeks pouring over the team's shiny S&S V-twins. "We had one engine that used more fuel than the rest and was the fastest one, so we tried to emulate the design and see if that would yield us more than one 6-second engine. S&S builds a powerful motor and they're all virtually identical. But when you're working and tweaking on them, they end up like people and they all have different personalities. You have to learn the personalities of each in order to work well with them.

"I'd like to thank the S&S crew of Todd Olson, Brian Perkins, Steve Rominski and Charlie Hadayia, all led by Brett Smith, the president of S&S Cycle. They've changed the face of NHRA POWERade Pro Stock motorcycle drag racing with this engine package that's virtually available to anyone, and which is available exclusively through G2 Motorsports.

"I've been preaching and teaching forever to bust your butt and let the scoreboard do the yacking. It's been said in the magazines and forums that we've had the bikes to beat the last four races. Now I'm not saying that, but I want to keep it that way. My proudest moment was when we qualified 1 and 2 at Chicago in that field of motorcycles where so many can win. And then to see the S&S motors do so well against all the other bikes, especially the V-Rods from The Motor Company and the 1655 Suzukis."

Matt Smith
Torco Race Fuels/Skull Gear Buell

George Bryce now has the staff to "work even harder" on the G2 race team while also servicing customer bikes and motors. But at his own one-man, motorcycle engine-building operation in King, North Carolina, Torco Race Fuels/Skull Gear Buell driver Matt Smith has to keep his customers happy. "Fred Camarena's stuff shipped this morning," Smith reported on the Wednesday before the Denver event. "And I'm putting a 2 valve motor together for Rick Slagle of Action Motorsports in Monticello, Kentucky. He bought my old bike, is going to get his license, and hopes to be out by Memphis.

"I haven't seen the Buell since the last race. They've rewired my bike and got the motors fresh on them. I never ran the Buell in Denver, so it will be interesting. V-twins are supposed to have an advantage in the thin air, so we'll wait and see. I told Chip it was my turn to win this time. To make everybody happy, we'll just keep rotating wins back and forth!"

Chip Ellis
DRAG Specialties/S&S Cycle Buell

When not working on bikes at the G2/Star Racing shop and spending as much time with wife Kathy and daughter McKenzie as he could, DRAG Specialties/S&S Cycle Buell driver Chip Ellis was breaking things these last three weeks. "I blew up my boat motor," Ellis said about his 260 horsepower Mercury outboard. "Blew it up on Lake Blackshear. Ken Johnson had to pull me back with that little fishing boat he calls 'Gator.' Then I put my spare motor on and blew that one too. At least we got all the blowin' up out of the way before we go to Denver!

"We went through all the engines on Matt's bike and my bike, put new tires on 'em, normal routine maintenance. We have some new stuff and we hope it all works. We changed the port work around a little bit. Then we put 'em back on the truck and headed out."

Ellis, who got altitude sickness, qualified second at Bandimere last year and made it to the semis. "We just got beat because the bike slowed down. I think it will take a high 7.40 to get in the field. I think we'll improve on the track record, and that somebody will be in the 7.30s. I think I will be."

-g2/sr