Vulcan Bike Week goes off with a fizzle, tempers flare

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I went to Vulcan Bike week in the hopes it would be a savior to our sport. I wanted to see if the offering of a purse that had never been seen before in motorcycle drag racing was the Holy Grail in terms of motivating riders from across the country to travel in the hopes of winning some of it.

Back in January when the notice for the race first  posted to the internet the members of talk forums already started calling a card a card. I took the opportunity to call up Johnny Gibson Jr. and Johnny Gibson Sr. to get the story from the horse’s mouth. Johnny Jr. told me the money was already in place for the race if it was to happen that very day, he also told me they had the three motorcycles they were to give away; a brand new Hayabusa, a ZX-14 and a Harley Davidson. At the time the backing for the prize money was to come mainly from the City of Birmingham, O’Reilly Auto Parts as well as a few local sponsors.

The sentiment I heard over and over again when this race was discussed was, “If it is to good to be true it probably isn’t.”

After interviewing the Gibson’s on the phone multiple times usually to clarify what had been discussed on the forums, it was apparent the Gibson’s had no experience in running a potentially large drag race event. Knowing this, the Gibsons set up a vendors tent at the AMA Dragbike race in Valdosta, GA, Atlanta, GA and came to watch the last AMA event at Montgomery, AL.  While there they advertised their event as well as collect information as to how the staging lanes were handled, the pairing was done, how the bikes were tech inspected, the registration trailer, etc.

In the time from when the race was first announced to the time it was to be held there were multiple rule changes,two venue changes  for the race and purse changes to accomdate payouts to four places. Each time the Gibson’s had to post explanations to the racers who were following the event in the forums to ease the mounting skepticism.

On Tuesday June 29th, 3 days before the race, I once again spoke with Gibson Jr. and asked if they had everything in place. He told me he had hired Dee Vance of Busabikes.com a few weeks ago to run the race and that Dee had put on these races before.

Thursday night July 1st I was to meet with Vance at the track to discuss his plans for the race. Once I arrived at the track I called Vance whom had a lot going on at the moment and would not be able to make it that night to meet, although; he would be at the track on Friday for the test and tune session and we could talk then.

Friday morning at the gate Brian Ross of Beaver Creek Customs pulled up. He was out of Kentucky and came to Vulcan Bike week as a vendor to install lights on motorcycles. He told me the main event had gone bust as the city shut it down at the Birmingham Racecourse (Dog Track) parking lot where a majority of the event was to be held. A few minutes later Ken Cobb, a photographer out of Atlanta pulled up with his vendor rig and told me the same thing. Apparently the shut down had something to do with the permits not being in order.

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