Drag Illustrated Issue 150, November 2019 | Page 41

Special Section
I’m telling you what, when we get
to the racetrack, the kid hits another
level. We left home for Darlington
at like noon on Thursday, and again,
it’s 18-19 hours to the track, and he
wasn’t feeling great. He slept a lot
of the trip. We pull up the gates at
4:30 a.m., he’s sleeping and he
wakes up around 7:30 or 8. He looks
at me and he gets these huge eyes
and he goes, “Are we at the
racetrack?” I go, “Look out the
window.” He looks out the window
and he just starts screaming and
yelling. He just lights up.
Almost every lap he rides up to the
lanes with me. Now he’s trying to
grab the throttle and warm the thing
up in the trailer and he’s not even 3
and a half years old. He just has an
absolute blast here. I think it’s going
to bring us super-close together. I’m
excited to get Beau in the mix here
shortly once he’s old enough.
Klemme Performance Motorcycle.
We pull our motors out, take them
down to him, he freshens them and
they’re absolutely perfect every
time. This all starts with him. and Schnitz Electronics also help us
out. I’m also always appreciative of
our class sponsor, Drag 965, and the
PDRA for giving us a place to race at
the highest level.
My dad and my brother [Brad] run
Grothus Drag Bikes. They built the
chassis and all the billet components,
the front end, the front wheel, the
rear wheel. The chassis has to be
perfect, especially if we’re not going
to test. Why do you make that haul?
My mom [Judy] prepares everything
to come here and support us, help
me with my son here and my wife
[Madeline] taking care of business
at home with my younger son, Beau.
It just takes a team effort to be able
to roll this thing out in Q1 and have
the confidence to say, “All right,
we’re going to have 2-3 shots at this
against the best Pro Nitrous bikes in
the entire world.”
We also have a few sponsors and
people who help us out. Ryan Young
at Indocil lays down some incredible
paint on our bikes. Trick Tools, Bruce
VanSant out of Pella, Iowa. Century
Industries is who machines a lot of
our parts. Dan Wagner helps us out
a lot. He’s always helping the entire
class. Jean Gosselin of Gosselin
Motorsports, Robinson Industries
I’m not going to lie to you, I have a
feeling I’m probably the most
competitive person here in Pro Nitrous
Motorcycle. I played college baseball.
When I’m not racing motorcycles, I’m
golfing all the time. I’m crazy, crazy
competitive and that’s why we go
2,000 miles roundtrip. I love winning
and absolutely hate losing. I just love
strapping up against the best people
in the world. I told my dad we could
stay local and race ET stuff, race a few
pro bikes and we’ll just dominate
them, but I want to strap up against
the best people in the world. That’s
why we come here 2,000 miles
roundtrip.
Racing as a family is obviously a big
deal for you. Your son, Graham,
seems to just love this stuff.
What do you see on the horizon for
this class?
The big thing right now for Pro
Nitrous Motorcycles, kind of the hot-
button subject, is fuel injection. The
world champion last year, Ronnie
Smith, has fuel injection. We
runnered-up, and we have
carburetors and the Schnitz
Firestorm box. The year before, the
champ was Travis Davis. Chris
[Garner-Jones] and Travis are going
to duke it out [this year]. They both
have carburetors. Paul Gast, who
just set the national record – against
me, by the way, in Darlington – he
has carburetors.
We have a lot of data and time
invested with the carburetors, but
it sure seems fuel injection is the
way of the future. Look at Pro
Nitrous cars. And all the Pro Stock
bikes are going to fuel injection. So
it’s obviously the future, it’s just
tough to swallow and say, “Hey, do
I go one or two steps backwards to
go two or three steps forward?”
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