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Performance Times

    Justin Lorraine

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    Story by Matt Polito

    Hector Arana Jr. took his first victory of the season, bringing his Lucas Oil S&S-Powered Buell to a final round win over the Victory Gunner of Matt Smith at the Lucas Oil Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Chicago, IL. The event also saw Chip Ellis continue his qualifying hot...

     Story by Matt Polito

    Hector Arana Jr. earned the top qualifying position as Angelle Sampey went to her first final since 2008 at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, OH.

    By Matt Polito

    Chip Ellis stunned the Pro Stock Motorcycle field at the NHRA Toyota Summernationals at Englishtown, NJ, coming out of nowhere to take the #1 qualifying position on the Pirana-Z S&S® powered Buell®. And while Jerry Savoie took the event win on a Suzuki, Hector Arana Jr. set the track...

    Story by Matt Polito

    Back when Hector Arana won the NHRA event in Dallas en route to his first and only NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Championship in 2009, no one would have guessed that it would take over five years before he won his next national event.

    Story by Matt Polito

    Matt Smith’s third straight win was one of the biggest of his career as it allowed him to cinch his second NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle championship. Smith rode his Viper Motorcycle S&S-powered Buell to the win at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and in doing so locked up...

    story and picture by Matt Polito

    After a two-race shutout, S&S power once again made it to the NHRA winners circle when Matt Smith took the win at the AAA Insurance Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park in St Louis.

    For many, the great migration to the prehistoric lake now know as the Bonneville Salt Flats began a year in advance in preparation for the 10th Anniversary of the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials. For one man in particular, Denis Manning prepared for his BUB 7 Streamliner to run during the week of...

    A Special Sturgis Narrative By Chris Clemens of S&S

    By Matt Polito

    The rare air of Denver bedeviled the Pro Stock Motorcycle competitors at the NHRA Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Raceway with surprise performances and outcomes throughout the event.

    By Matt Polito

    Hector Arana Jr.’s points lead continues to evaporate as Michael Ray scored his second win of the season to move into second place in the NHRA Mello Yellow Pro Stock Motorcycle championship chase at Route 66 Raceway outside of Chicago. 

    Just when it looked like Hector Arana, Jr. was going to dominate the season, two straight first-round losses by him combined with two wins by up-and-coming riders, and the NHRA Mello Yellow Pro Stock Motorcycle championship is instead wide open.

    by Matt Polito

    While Hector Arana Jr.’s undefeated streak was snapped at the NHRA Toyota Summernationals at Englishtown, NJ, S&S-powered Buells continued to dominate the 2013 season.

    Here’s the lowdown on the uber-cool S&S 55th Anniversary show bike built by Francesco Mattioli of Crazyoils, for the S&S display at the 2013 Big Bike Europe show in Essen, Germany.

     
    Pictures and text by Matt Polito

    Hector Arana Jr. kept his win streak alive on his S&S-powered Lucas Oil Buell with a win at the NHRA O’Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas.

    Text and photos by Matt Polito

    Most of the time, the features in the Performance Times Blog concern racing or engine building or something pretty exciting like that. It’s usually something that takes us away from the day-to-day routine. This time, we’re making an exception, because although it has nothing to do with making more...

    Written by: Jeff Bailey - Engineering Manager, S&S Cycle

    The goal was simple, set a Bonneville land speed record over 200 mph. We had two meets to do it at, the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials (Aug. 26-30) and World of Speed (Sept 8-11), giving me eight days of racing to work with. The bike had the...