NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Now that Mike Salinas has his first Top Fuel victory who will be NHRA’s next first-time pro winner? Some worthy candidates include nitro rookies Jordan Vandergriff and Austin Prock, or perhaps Scott Palmer, Jonnie Lindberg, Fernando Cuadra, or even Ryan Oehler? Cory Reed seems to think he has a great chance to hoist his first Wally and if he’s not the one to do it, he’d be perfectly fine it it's his Reed Motorsports teammate, Joey Gladstone. Following their performance in Charlotte, where both riders are solidly in the low 6.8s, that dream now seems much closer to becoming reality.

So, what’s been the catalyst for the team’s recent spike in performance? That depends on who you ask.

“It’s not one thing really; it’s a combination of us fixing a lot of small issues,” said Reed.

“Don’t let him fool you,” interrupted engine-builder and tuner Larry Morgan, a man never afraid to offer an unsolicited opinion. “We finally got smart enough to take some clutch out of it and look what happened. We've just been stupid."

“Well, that’s part of it, too,” said Reed. “Joey’s dad, Skip, is really good with the clutch and he’s made a big difference for us. Honestly, we’ve got plenty of power so we've been capable of these numbers for a while, we just haven’t shown it. The biggest thing we did was test earlier this week at Virginia Motorsports Park. We had the track on Monday and Tuesday and made a lot of runs and we learned a lot. Both of us ran 6.80s. It also helps that we’re racing there next month so we now have a lot of data for that race. We sort of killed two birds with one stone.”

Reed also noted that the addition of Gladstone, who replaced three-time world champion Angelle Sampey late last season, was almost a necessity since their goal was to make both of their EBR-bodied bikes as close to one another as possible. Reed and Gladstone are approximately the same size, and at least 30 or more pounds heavier than the diminutive Sampey.

“We struggled for the last couple of years because our bikes were so much different,” Reed said. “We’d try one thing on my bike, and it wouldn’t work on Angelle’s and vice-versa. We just couldn’t seem to find any consistency. Now, we’ve been able to work on both of these bikes to find a balance and that has made a big difference. We’re both quicker because of it.”

On the subject of weight, Reed says he wasn’t the least bit offended by the recent NHRA technical revision that added 15-pounds to all of the V-twin combinations. Reed believes it was a necessary step to maintain parity.

“First off, the Suzuki people needed something because they were clearly behind, so I’m cool with that,” he said. “For our team, the bigger thing is that Joey and I don’t have to be as careful as far as diet goes. I mean neither one of us is overweight but it’s something we had to watch constantly. It got to be stressful at times. Personally, I don’t think it’s good for the class when you have to be 140-pounds or less in order to be competitive. I’m all for opening it up to allow a bigger rider to be competitive. The extra 15-pounds wasn’t really that big a deal as far as performance goes.”

The last first-time winner in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class was Jerry Savoie at the 2014 St. Louis race. That was 70 races ago for the Pro Stock Motorcycle class.

“I’d say its about time for someone else to get in there and get a win,” said Reed. “It might as well be one of us.”