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Romine
Racing News
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The Top Fuel Shootout at Sturgis is written in permanent ink on Mike Romine’s calendar. Every year. Because he’s won it so many times. But for August 2001, there will be no Sturgis Drags at the largest motorcycle rally in the world. When the news arrived, Mike Romine got out his calendar to see what else was happening in the drag racing world. He packed his trailer and went racing.
Chasing the AMRA championship when he’s not chasing the IHRA Screamin’ Eagle Nitro Harley championship, Mike Romine headed toward Bunker Hill. “It’s actually probably more like the Sturgis track that any other we race on all year. Except that it’s probably even more narrow.” Like Sturgis, there were plenty of fans to enjoy the Quick 8 Shootout and Pro Fuel bikes at the race. “They were probably four or five people deep all the way from the starting line to the finish line. The bleachers were full. It was a lot like the Sturgis Drags. And, we won, like the Sturgis Shootout, so it was worth the trip.”
Of the four AMRA events that Romine’s entered, he’s won three. Of those four events, he’s raced three different bikes. This time, it was the Dixie Frames-built Chromatic Flame bike that Romine rode. “I chose this one because it’s perfect for me in the eighth-mile and I’m trying to sell it. That gets it out there showing people what it can do. It didn’t break anything. It never even fuzzed a spark plug. It ran flawlessly all weekend. We just clean the clutch out, put new oil in it and it’s ready to go.”
Romine qualified #1 with a 4.59 e.t. at 161 miles per hour. There were nine quick eight bikes. Eight qualified. In round one of competition, Romine’s competition broke in the burnout and never staged. “I ran a 4.61, with a 1.14 sixty-foot time. I believe that’s really all that racetrack will take.” Second round, Romine ran a 4.60, winning by almost half a second. For the final, he clocked another 4.61 for the win. “On that run, the bike ran a little better. It was later in the day and the track had cooled off just a touch. It only ran 155 miles per hour on that run because I was a little too close to the center-line so I chopped the throttle off.”
After the race, Romine freshened the bike and put it in the trailer with the $65,000 price tag on it. “Every run it made was between 4.59 and 4.62. That’s a sweet motorcycle. Now we’ll get everything ready for the IHRA World Nationals at Norwalk in two weeks. After that race, the schedule gets crazy. We have one week off then four straight races.”
Winning at AMRA races, among motorcycles racing is Romine’s racing home. He fills the tank of motivation and the bank account winning there. Then he takes the team to the big show at IHRA events where he’s one of only three teams who’ve qualified at every national. Still, his goal is to win one. Norwalk is his target.
Mike Romine is sponsored by Chromatic, Andrews Products, Saddlemen and Romine Racing.
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