Event No. 3 / Summit Racing Southern Nationals / May, 12 - 15  / Atlanta, Georgia

The name of the game in NHRA POWERade drag racing is Horsepower, and the more you have, the better the chance of winning on Sunday. So consider the irony of the MB Precision Machining Pro Stock Motorcycle team. An independent and self funded team that builds their own engines.

After a 2004 season that team owner Mike Berry would just as soon forget, 2005 is showing promise from a new in house engine program. The only problem is that after spending a full year struggling with a good bike that needed a little more power, the MB Precision Machining team is now fighting with just how to use all of the horsepower they suddenly have available.

"We just put the motor together before we left for Atlanta, and it looked really good on the dyno" said Mike Berry. "I knew coming into the race that if we could tune it right, we would be running as good as we ever have."

Berry started Friday qualifying in Atlanta with a good 7.269 second, 184.47 MPH run, landing in the No. 10 spot in the sixteen bike field. A second run Friday produced a slower 7.318 / 182.38 run, letting the team slip to 15th in qualifying.

"We are finding ourselves in the odd position of trying to figure out how to put the power to the track and not spin the tire. I think we have a handle on the early part of the run, but the bike is spinning the tire in 3rd and 4th gear. It's hard to ride when the thing wants to spin like it is ."

In Saturday's opening qualifying session, the MB Precision Machining Suzuki picked up the pace a bit, running a 7.254 / 181.01, improving to the No. 13th position, then a final run of 7.292 / 184.70 Saturday afternoon that left the team somewhat satisfied, but still searching for some answers.

"The track was hot and we again had a hard time trying to keep the tire from spinning down track. We have run so long with less horsepower that it will take us some time to figure out how to tune it properly."

Sunday morning, round one of Pro Stock Motorcycle eliminations paired Berry with No. 4 qualifier Chris Rivas on his Mohegan Sun Racing Buell, powered by a V-twin engine from G Squared.

The race was over early as Berry took a shot at the tree and came up short, leaving .004 seconds too early, turning on the red light foul start.

"Racing any of the V-twins is pretty tough, so I needed to try and gamble a little by going for the light. At this race only two Suzuki's were in the top half of the field, the rest were V-twin bikes. As a group, the Suzuki's are at a disadvantage right now so we need to get to work and get some of this horsepower to stick to the track, then maybe we can make up some ground on them."