Maybe it’s the surrounding petrochemical refineries and sugarcane fields that overactivated the Nitro Harley-Davidson field at the PennGrade1 AMRA American Motorcycle Racing Association’s Cajun Nitro Nationals opener at No Problem Raceway in Belle Rose, Louisiana, on March 21-23. Whatever the cause, the “Torched Head Nationals” sprayed flames, sparks, and aluminum liberally on track and even in the pits! There was indeed a problem and the teams that solved this vexing nitro puzzle came out on top.
Circle M Ranch Top Fuel
Even last season, when multi-time and multi-series Circle M Ranch Top Fuel champ Ryan Peery and his bike didn’t perform up to their expected standards, they did so quietly. The low key, unpainted carbon fiber bodied “Eleanor” and its quiet rider never blew their top in a flashy display, they just quietly went back to their trailer, parts mostly intact, and prepared for the next event.
The Cajun Nitro Nationals looked to be a return to the hallmark consistency that has defined Perry’s career. The Ohio racer qualified number two and played his hand confidently to take the season opening win against DayStar Machine and Cycle Concepts’s Tim Kerrigan in the final. Kerrigan’s razor sharp .012 took the tree against Peery’s still good .036, but Ryan’s 1.11 60 foot made up some serious ground on Kerrigan’s 1.166. Peery’s 6.348 at 216 miles per hour sealed the deal like a fine coat of paint against Kerrigan’s 6.44 at 218 in a very good race.
“We put in a lot of hard work this off-season to be prepared for this year’s opener in Louisiana,” said Peery. “I didn’t run very well last year, chased a lot of gremlins, and wasn’t as consistent as I try to be. After Rockingham last year, Eleanor needed to be gone through completely as something just wasn’t right.
“Unfortunately, we found a damaged crankshaft, but luckily we found it the good way and not the hard way. A new crank and fresh pistons and rods and we were ready for the season opener.
“The track was extremely tight and the air quality was pretty good all weekend, so we expected to see some good numbers. We spun the tire in first round of qualifying, after that we consistently got down the track. We had everything on Eleanor working well and she was reacting great to all the small tweaks we made.
“We made it to the finals against Kerrigan, who was running some good numbers, so we knew we needed to at least be in the .30s and cut a decent light to have a chance and that’s exactly what we did—a great side-by-side finals.
“Thank you to Chris, Frank, Buddy and Mindy and Jr. and Sr. And congrats to Conley Jr. on getting his Pro Fuel license.”
Kerrigan’s TKR crew chief Steve Vickers is a Louisiana native. “I enjoy going to No Problem Raceway,” said Vickers. “That’s home for me.
“When we got there, the air was very good, which caused us to overpower the track during the private test session on Thursday. After removing some fuel pressure and a little clutch, we went out for the Friday test and tune and put down a 6.37, which left us feeling confident about our tune-up.
“Saturday was a game changer. The air quality diminished, then add that to the fact that we had backed off on the clutch, it caused us to drop a hole. We struggled with this on Q1 and Q2. We felt certain that we would get down the track on Q3, as we made some changes, and the nighttime air was getting better. Little did we know, during the burnout for Q3, we shook loose a fuel line fitting, which caused immediate tire smoke at the hit of the throttle.
“After going all three qualifying rounds, not making a full pull, we did not feel very comfortable going into eliminations. Thankfully, the changes we made for Q3 paid off. We had to square off with Jordan Peterson of Stewart Racing. We put together a 6.41, beating his 6.63.”
Second round put Kerrigan and Vickers up against number one qualifier and defending race winner Ricky “Sharkey” House. Sharkey, who wins a lot at No Problem, was displaying appropriate confidence throughout the weekend, including watching Q3 from the stands. “Hope no one outqualifies me!” he said about his 6.34 at 222. They didn’t.
But after a 1.11 60 foot, Sharkey’s bike had slowed to a 6.98 at 151 on an E1 bye. “It went fat and lost a cylinder,” said House.
“Since we had lane choice, we noticed that the left lane had lost a little traction and we chose the right, moving Rickey out of his preferred lane,” said Vickers. “It paid off, as Rickey had issues right off the line and Tim ran his quickest of the day—6.38 at 216 mph.”
It was more than issues right off the line, as House reported a hairy scene. “It spun the tire at about 50 feet,” which explains why his 60 slowed to a 1.18. “I peddled it and got it going, hoping he had trouble and I could catch him. But I got on the wall on the left side. I had lifted my leg to the other side to keep from crashing. Got the ‘chute out and I was able to get off the wall. Some scary sh#t for a minute!”
“That round win matched us against the other ‘TK,’ Tracy Kile, of Bad Apple Racing,” continued Vickers. “We stayed with our tune-up, and ran 6.39 to beat Tracy’s 6.79.
“We had some issues during maintenance for the final. We lost a little oil pressure during the semifinal, so we had to roll in some fresh rod bearings.
“Then during our pit warm-up for the final, we noticed a cracked rear exhaust pipe. Ryan waited for us to do all the added work, then met us at the water box. Tim cut a .012 light, to Ryans .036, but it wasn’t quite enough. Ryan’s 6.38 beat Tim’s 6.44.”
“We always want to win, but this was a good end to a hard-fought weekend,” said Kerrigan. “TKR would like to thank our sponsors, Red Line Racing Oils, Alten Construction, Star Racer Belts, and DayStar Machine & Cycle Concepts.”
Finland’s Samu Kemppainen experienced fireworks of a different kind when sparkplugs TWICE broke free from his Chris Stewart Racing mount and decided to ignite Samu instead of the fuel, burning through his leathers and bruising the big Finn. Undaunted, he qualified third, raced to the semis and put up a strong effort against eventual winner Peery.
“Had a great weekend,” said Samu, who qualified third. “Today started with a Finland vs Finland drop when we faced Juha “Sushi” Hintukainen. We made it to the next round with 6.77, but after the draw we noticed that the front cylinder had a 100% leak.”
A pit trash with Mike and Jack Romine, Jordan Peterson, and more fixed the problem and Samu was back in business in time to oust Local hero Randal “Fast Coon Ass” Andras and set up his semifinal pairing with Peery. “He took 6.53s against our 6.60s!” continued Samu. “All-in-all a great weekend that I’ll remember for a long time, at least for the bruises….”
Andras had advanced out of round 1 by ousting Paul Anderson. His Jay Turner Racing teammate John “JT” Toth advanced into round 2 courtesy of a -.005 Jay “Bulldog” Turner redlight. “The rollout here is very tight,” noted Turner, who qualified fourth with a 6.50 on “Maddy Too” and ran what would have been a winning 6.72 against Toth after lighting the redeye.
Turner was part of a special presentation during opening ceremonies on raceday when Johnny Mancuso presented him with the vintage twin engine fueler that Johnny raced and kept on the wall of his Houston Harley-Davidson dealership.
Despite things being very busy at his AB Steel business, Andras will do his best to race the entire season with JTR teammates Toth and defending champ Turner.
Bad Apple Racing’s Kile reached his semifinal match with Kerrigan by beating Michael Balch 6.61 to 6.81 in E1, and improved with a 6.55 over Toth in 2.
His teammate Jimmy “Mac” McMillan failed to make the E1 call against Peery after his own qualifying nitro fireworks. “A clutch control issue got us and torched both heads, knocking the rear off as well,” said McMillan. “Sidelined for the race, but we’re so happy to be back and with such great people!”
Amen!
Nitro Funnybike
Defending Nitro Funnybike champ Cameron “Flash” Gunter is also a Bad Apple racer who suffered nitro carnage in qualifying, living up to his nickname by torching both heads like McMillan. Gunter was able to make the call for race day but fell to number one qualifier Jordan Peterson.
“This win was all Mike and Jack Romine with Romine Racing, along with Phil and Jen Lower,” said Peterson. “We sure missed having Patti Romine with us at the race.
“But that group took care of everything on the bike from the off-season work, getting the bike there, and all the in-between round maintenance. I simply hopped on it at the starting line. So they deserve all the credit.
“It was a short field this weekend in Funnybike with some unfortunate luck for the other racers. But we still enjoyed competing with them.”
“We were struggling with some clutch issues and are looking for a much better performance at the next race,” reported Jack Romine.
Universal Fleet and Tire’s “Racin’ Ray” Robinson blew a chunk out of a head in qualifying, then blew the studs off in raceday warm-up.
Carnage!
Hawaya Racing Pro Fuel
The No Problem nitro problems slowed at Hawaya Racing Pro Fuel’s door, as the carbureted class put on a great show.
While staying out of the seat last year due to a medical condition, Bad Apple Racing’s Kile helped tune and guide “Bad Apple Mary” Dangrow to a late season charge that nearly won her the national championship. After a Thursday hiccup, they picked up right where they left off, qualifying number one and taking the win.
“We traveled to No Problem early to do some testing on Thursday at the private track rental and ended up only making one pass off the trailer,” said Dangrow. “In that pass I chattered the tire so badly it hurt my rear cylinder, which needed to be changed. It was a disappointing pass, however I have often wondered what that situation feels like when I see TK, Jimmy, or Cameron experience it. I know now and the headache that comes after.
“Randy and Tracy replaced the cylinder so I could try again on Friday. With a successful pass, we put the bike to bed for Saturday qualifying.
“First round qualifying we ran a very happy 7.26, giving us the number one qualifier spot which held for the weekend. Bad Apple Racing had multiple bikes in all three Nitro Harley classes and one person—Tracy—running around tuning all of them. With me solidly in the field, Tracy asked me if I’d be OK sitting out Q2 to allow him time to deal with the other three bikes and get them qualified as well. We are family and that’s what we do. We came back out in Q3 and ran a solid 7.28.
“With 13 Pro Fuel bikes on a 16 bike ladder, I had a bye run in E1. As the pass progressed (7.65 at 164), I knew I hurt something. We got the bike back to the pit and yep, another piston was hurt. Everyone jumped in and the bike was ready again in no time and we were off to face Rocky Jackson in E2.
“Rocky is always a tough competitor and one of the riders I look up to. I always tell people, ‘Rocky is so good at this he can ride one of these bikes down a dirt road.’ We were able to get past Rocky and move on to E3 against Mike Blair.
“The team gave me a hard time about my light (a .301!) against Blair. I don’t know what I was doing. I have the same stage procedure every time but this time I lit my pre-stage and stage lights and for some reason I looked down at my bike. When I looked back up I saw the green, thought ‘Oh shit’ and hit the throttle.
“Thankfully, TK gave me the bike to recover from that screw-up. I got back to the pits and they asked me if I wanted some coffee with that donut I was eating at the line! We were so happy to be in the final as it was not an easy race weekend by any means.”
The final pitted Mary against number three qualifier Kenneth “Stubby” Hultman. Mary’s light improved to an .088, but Hultman jumped out with an .062. Her 7.40 was more than enough to outrun his 8.04.
“Over the course of the weekend, Randy Jackson—with guidance from TK and some help from Jon Wayne Stephens—and Michael Hopkins replaced three hurt cylinders to get me to the final. Quick turnarounds and late nights got it done.
“Thankfully, blessings were on our side this race, and we were able to start the 2025 season and the 25th Anniversary of Bad Apple Racing off with a win in the Pro Fuel class.
“With a team that races anywhere from four to seven bikes at any given race, with the hands of Tracy in every one of them, we work together to get and keep those bikes on the track. It takes a lot to manage this traveling circus and our whole team works together to make it happen.
“I want to thank Randy and Brenda Jackson for crewing on my bike, managing my stuff, and keeping the entire team fed. Jon Wayne Stephens for picking me up at the end of the track and being Tracy’s right hand man. Jimmy and Stacey McMillan, Michael Hopkins, Jake Anderson, Jason Shurtz, and Daryl Campbell, who all help hold this circus together. Julie Ledford for jumping in with both feet to help in any way that she could at her very first race, and to Tracy for his work, constant tutoring, love and support in everything we do. Most of all to God for blessing me beyond what I deserve and without him none of this would be possible.
“I’d like to thank my sponsors Fairview Tavern, Capone Landscaping, Vanson Leathers, Hawaya Racing Products and Victory Fuel for their support and commitment to the 2025 season.
“I’d also like to remind everyone that MotorMania will be webcasting every AMRA race throughout the season. We have received good feedback from people all over the world about their coverage and look forward to seeing more of their work in the future.
“And I’d like to congratulate Brian Conley Jr., Loren Potter, and Darren Brinkman for getting their pilot’s license and joining a growing Pro Fuel Class. It’s great to see a class with the growth Pro Fuel is experiencing!”
And Hultman is part of that growth, with his good-looking bike and presentation backed up by his runner-up performance.
“The No Problem Raceway staff was most excellent, extremely accommodating and very professionally operated,” said Stubby. “Combined with AMRA staff, safety and smooth transition was priority.
“We had mechanical trouble en route, which made for an extra-long day getting to the track. Testing went well and went into qualifying doing as expected in Q1.
“Between rounds, leak down test revealed a bad cylinder. Replacing caused us to miss Q2. We ran a so-so Q3 but discovered the second cylinder now bad. We then decided to replace both cylinders to be sure we’d be ready for eliminations.
“Not getting to bed till 2:00 am, coupled with the extra-long day driving, I woke fairly tired. In the semifinals I knew I needed to beat Jim Martin (the number two qualifier) at the light since we shared equal ETs. Pressure Cooker was on high. The race came down to my better reaction time (.098 to .144) which I was able to pull off.
“Going into the finals, I was again up against Mary. She beat me in Rockingham last race of 2024. I knew she was going to be yet again another challenge as she has been running hot all weekend.
“Sometimes racing results from trials and errors. We threw everything we had into the bike and hoped for the best. I have to say, I can’t think of a better person to lose to. Mary is top-notch. My crew was outstanding as always. I couldn’t have made it this far without them. They deserve the credit; they worked their hearts out.”
Two-time defending champion Sam White and his White Lightning Racing team had mixed results. New teammate Darren Brinkman rode his way to his license and into the field aboard White’s championship “Terminator 2” bike, while White struggled on “T1” and was broke on raceday. Brinkman lost to John Jenkins in E1.
Universal Fleet and Tire’s Jason Leeper qualified fifth, advanced past no-showing White, and fell to Blair in E2.
Shutdown Area
Gasoline class winners were Billy Doherty in Pro Outlaw, Dwayne “Smokey” Gee in Zipper’s Performance Pro Bagger, Nick Boey in Thundermax Street Bagger, Kim Deshields in Zipper’s Performance Modified and Super Gas 9.90,, Jason Crisp in Axtell Cylinders Hot Street, Chris Martin in Top Eliminator 9.30, John Shotts in BK Electric Super Pro 10.30, Jim Clarke in Pro Eliminator 10.90, Bryce Creek in Thundermax Street Eliminator 11.50, and Michael Ogden in Baker Drivetrain Eliminator Dial-in.
The Nitro Harley competitors look forward to seeing the Harley-Davidson drag racing family, riders and fans next on May 17-18 at National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio.
The Nitro Harley racers thank Bad Apple Racing, Chris Stewart Racing, DayStar Machine and Cycle Concepts, Jay Turner Racing, White Lightning Racing, P and C Johnson Trucking, RP Motorsports, Universal Fleet and Tire, Hawaya Racing, and Johnny Mancuso’s Circle M Ranch.
This story was originally published on March 28, 2025. 
The post Peery, Peterson and Dangrow Find Nitro Harley Solutions at No Problem first appeared on Drag Illustrated.