When Scotty Korol revs up his modified Harley V-Rod, going full speed ahead has nothing to do with the distance he covers.

By COLETTE BANCROFT
Published February 6, 2004

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	[Photo courtesy of Scotty Korol]
	From zero to 137.7 mph in 9.645 seconds: that’s Scotty Korol of Kenneth City on his Harley.

 

Last month, Scotty Korol became the fastest man standing still.

Korol bested 22,000 other motorcycle riders in the first Dyno Drags National Competition. His modified Harley-Davidson VRSCA V-Rod hit 137.7 mph to burn up the quarter mile in 9.645 seconds.

But the bike didn't travel a foot. Its rear wheel was bolted down and locked into a dynamometer, a device that measures speed and torque, as Korol powered it through the gears.

Korol has been racing motorcycles since 1995. The Dyno Drag is different, he says. "You don't have any of that wind-in-your-hair feeling.

"But you certainly feel a lot of reciprocal parts traveling around under you at a high rate of speed. And you can smell the tires burning."

Korol was sponsored by his employer, Jim's Harley-Davidson of St. Petersburg, a 26,000-square-foot facility that owner Jamilou Rosenkrans jokingly calls the Taj MaHarley. Besides bikes, the place sells everything from racing leathers to wedding cake toppers with white lace hearts framing miniature Harleys.

Korol, 33, of Kenneth City, is the foreman of the spacious, spic-and-span shop, and he definitely is one of the new generation of Harley riders. Aside from one double-pierced ear, he's as clean-cut and crisp as any businessman.

But he talks about speed and torque more than most business guys do.

Korol won his national title, and a $2,000 prize, on a contraption called the Teresi Dyno Drag. About 15 years ago, chassis dynos were developed. They were an improvement over the older dynamometers because they didn't require pulling the engine from a vehicle.

Korol says, "There are certain dyno programs that let you simulate a quarter-mile course, measure your speed. So someone got the idea: "Let's put two of them side by side.'

"Then they added the Christmas tree," a post with flashing red, yellow and green lights, like those on a racetrack.

The Teresi Dyno Drag travels around the country in its own semitrailer truck to about 45 events each year. "So now you can drag race in a parking lot," Korol says.

"It has brought drag racing to a whole new audience. You don't need to have the zoning, the blocked road, the ambulance."

Jim's Harley-Davidson first featured the Dyno Drag at its October birthday bash in 2001, says Daniel Gemal, the company's e-business manager. "Everyone loved it, so in 2002 we brought it back."

The V-Rod was the new toy on the block at the time, and the company had one in its rental fleet. "So we just changed out the wheels," Gemal says. "It was practically stock. On the Dyno Drag it did very well."

Last year, Dyno Drag racers were competing for a national championship for the first time. Because the competition is affiliated with V-Twin magazine, Korol says, most of the bikes competing were "naturally aspirated American V-twins, which means bikes with no turbochargers, no superchargers."

Korol approached Rosenkrans about modifying a V-Rod for the competition, and she agreed. He made some basic upgrades and did well enough in a qualifying run in October to be invited to the Easy Rider Motorcycle Show in Pomona, Calif., in January as one of eight finalists.

"I knew I had to make other modifications," Korol says. "We were one of the slower bikes.

"We had exactly a month. That may sound like a long time, but when you're having to get parts shipped in and sending things out to be machined, it's not a long time. I would say we worked at a harried pace."

The modifications included bigger pistons, more compression and heads ported for bigger intake valves. The bike has a special cooling system that allows its rider to control engine temperature to within 5 degrees.

Some exterior equipment was stripped off, and lighter wheels replaced the stock ones. The finished bike doesn't look much different from a stock V-Rod, but at 584 pounds with half a tank of gas, it weighs about 50 pounds less and packs 140 horsepower.

By the time Korol and the bike got to Pomona, they were revved. The runoffs by the eight finalists began with weighing in. The Dyno Drag machine uses a mathematical formula to measure the load on its drum based on each bike's weight.

"It counts the drum revolutions and calculates how far you travel," Korol says. "When that Christmas tree lights up, you've hit the quarter mile."

Winning is based on time as well as the rider's quick reaction to the green light. Korol won one race even though the other rider had a faster time because Korol was a few fractions of a second faster off the green.

Dyno Drag racing has a strong correlation to real drag racing, he says. "But there's no wind drag. When you launch, you don't have to worry about doing a wheelie. The idea is to get away from the chance of crashing."

Although the bike can't slide out or fall, the wheels do squirm. And there's always a possibility for "carnage," Korol says.

One finalist blew out the transmission on his bike during a race. "There was just too much power, too much friction. He just sheared the gears right off."

Korol has worked at Jim's Harley-Davidson for 11 years, since graduating from the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute in Orlando. Born in Massachusetts and raised in Connecticut, he stayed in Florida because his wife is a native. "She won't follow me back to the snow."

Korol's employers agreed last week to sponsor him to race a Buell Firebolt this year in Formula USA races that actually cover ground.

He'll also be getting ready to qualify for the next Dyno Drag contest. There's a $10,000 total purse for the eight finalists.

"That's an excellent purse for anything that's a sub-NASCAR event. When people hear about it, there are going to be some faster bikes in there."

That means more modifications. "We'll need another 20, 30 horsepower. Last year I was limited by the time frame. There were some ideas I had to leave on the shelf." But he'll definitely stay with the V-Rod.

Though Dyno Drag racing lacks that wind-in-your-hair thrill and the element of chance, Korol says, it's fun "in a different way."

He cracks a grin. "It helps that I won."