On the Run with Chip Ellis rider of the G-Squared Motorsports Buell Pro Stock Motorcycle

National Dragster, Mar 18, 2005 by Ellis, Chip

I wasn't really off this off-season. When we moved from North Carolina to Georgia, finding a house turned out to be a major off-season project. If you've ever bought a house, you know what I am talking about. My wife Kathy and I looked at every house that was for sale in Americus, which seemed like a hundred. After five months of living in our motorhome, we finally found the perfect house. I realized we had been looking too long when my 3-year-old McKenzie told me that all she wanted was a place with windows and doors.

I attended Prank Hawley's NHRA Drag Racing School three times as a student, but this year, in between looking at houses, I went five times as George Bryce's assistant. I gave students a racer's point of view that I hope helped make them better racers. My job included starting the motorcycles for the students, making sure they were lined up straight, and turning on the computer for data acquisition. Watching the students and learning from George was a great experience.

In January, I attended the V-TwLn Expo, an all-motorcycle trade show in Cincinnati, with George Smith of G-Squared/S&S. This was different for me due to the fact that I am kind of new to the V-Twin side of motorcycling. I saw a lot of neat choppers, which gave me new ideas for stuff that we are doing at the shop. It also gave us the opportunity to show the V-Twin community what we do at G-Squared Motorsports. The funniest part of the show was having to room with G-Squared Sales Director Derek Churchwell and seeing some really weird eating habits. This guy wakes up in the morning, does not pass go, does not collect $200, but drinks a soda and eats a Pop-Tart with no crust.

On the fun side of things, I had the opportunity to go to the Dodge Viper drags with George Bryce and be his crew chief, which was a role reversal in some ways. Not only is George a good teacher, but I was impressed with his driving skill. We ran 9.90 at 140 mph in his normally aspirated Viper and reached the finals. Unfortunately, we broke an axle on the starting line, and that ended our day.

In February, I went to the Supercross race in Atlanta and served as a mechanic for David Hill, a professional Supercross racer. These guys have awesome talent. They have to be in the best physical condition to ride these motorcycles the way they do.

In March, I went to South Georgia Motorsports Park in Cecil, where I did a comparison of two cruiser bikes for Motorcyclist Magazine. One was the turbocharged, G -prototype V-Rod, and the other was an 800-pound Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 with nitrous. On the V-Rod, I turned a 10.80 at 125 mph, and the Vulcan turned an 11.40 at 117. This was my first experience testing motorcycles for a major magazine.

While all of this was going on, getting new bikes done for customers was a busy job as well. At G-Squared Motorsports, we built four complete customer bikes this off-season: two AHDRA 124 Challenge bikes, one AHDRA Street Pro, and one NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle. This was challenging due to time limits and the amount of work that had to be done. We delivered all four bikes on schedule to Gainesville for the first AHDRA race. I was excited to be the first person to make a run on the Mohegan Sun S&S-powered Buell Pro Stock Motorcycle, and I recorded a 7.09 at 188 mph on the very first pass, but only to better it on the second with a 7.04.

Looking back, if you add Thanksgiving, Christmas, being a husband, being a dad, and some testing to all of this, you can see that my off-season did not include any time off.

Looking forward to the 2005 season, our S&S-powered Buell is ready for competition. Our team is ready, and I'm ready; this will be the best year of my racing career. I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the races, laughing, and having fun. Good luck to all.