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Romine
Racing News
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(September 7, 2001) Sitting in his trailer, working with a calculator figuring formulas, Romine searched for the winning combination.
Romine signed autographs at IHRA's Meet the Stars following Friday qualifying.
“We put a new transmission in it, the new Lenco, and the gear ratio is what’s getting to u s. It’s a 1.29. The gear ratio in the Bentec we used to use is a 1.38. We’re just having a little bit of trouble getting the clutch to work right with the different gear ratio. We’re trying to keep the same high gear ratio that we’re used to running. The different low gear has our early times screwed up. That time it was a 1.15. Our worst in a year. We’re used to 1.08’s. We just need to figure out what it wants. I wanted to try out this new gear ratio because I think in the long run it will work. That’s why I have my calculator out.”
“We ran 179 mph in the 1/8th mile. It ran 208, which is decent on the top end. We just don’t have really good short times right now. We’re .07 off on the sixty-foot times. That puts us seventh with a 6.64. We ran a 6.66 in the first round. We also put the big chain on the bike, too. That seems to be working well. We had a lot of chain problems the last race. Here, no chain or belt problems so far.”
Mike Romine gave it his best at Epping in qualifying.
Romine admitted that he was so frustrated, he didn’t want to make the drive from Sturgis, Michigan to Epping, New Hampshire. “I told myself we weren’t going to come to this race unless we’d won either Michigan or Norwalk because I needed to win one of those to move up to be in the points chase. We lost first round at both of those races. Pretty much we’ve eliminated ourselves from a chance to win the championship. Doug Vancil left Norwalk and came to our shop for two weeks and talked me into being here. Actually, between Doug, Joe (Dennis Paul, our main sponsor) and Patty, I’m here. There’s a little pressure off since now those two races have passed. Still, winning our first IHRA event is still important. That’s one of the reasons they talked me into coming here. If I were to run by should have’s, what I probably should have done when I got the new transmission is to have kept the same gear ratio to keep the combination together. I think this one will work better, so I made the change now knowing that I would sacrifice some things.”
Mike Romine is sponsored by Chromatic, Andrews Products, Saddlemen and Romine Racing.
Watch IHRA Screamin’ Eagle Nitro Harley on TNN at Saturday’s 2:00 p.m. eastern.
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