Tuesday Conversation: Rickey Gadson
March 28, 2006
By Gregg Lowley
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Rickey Gadson began his career on the streets—literally—but after two decades of dedicating himself to the sport he loves, Gadson will go down in history as the first factory drag racer … ever. Aboard Kawasaki’s new monstrous ZX-14, the eight-time AMA/Prostar National Champion has already started racking up victories this year on the quarter-mile, and when he’s not riding around at 178 miles per hour, Gadson has both a retail motorcycle shop—Rickey Gadson’s Sportbike Zone—and the Rickey Gadson’s Sportbike Drag Racing School to keep him busy.

Rickey Gadson is gunning for his ninth AMA/Prostar National Championship. Photo courtesy of the NHRA

RRX: Ok, so what kind of speeds are involved with drag racing?
Rickey Gadson:Well, the fastest bike in the world just went 248 mph at the last race—that’s Larry “Spiderman” McBride. On our pro street bikes, we’ll reach 200 mph in 7.2 or 7.3 seconds. Our street bikes, like the new [Kawasaki] ZX-14 race bike we have—we just set the highest mile-per-hour at the last event; [we went] 178 mph on the ZX-14 with nitrous on it. We get 300 horsepower.

What has the experience been like riding for Team Green?
I’ve been with them since 1998, and it’s like home to me. They gave me my first opportunity—I was the first factory-sponsored professional motorcycle drag racer. They gave me my first opportunity, and they helped market me to where I am now, as far as my name in the industry.

Like any motorsport, I’m sure there are risks involved, but given the speed you go, is drag racing as dangerous as it seems or are accidents pretty rare?
They’re very rare. But with any high-speed sport, something where you reach 200 mph…. You know, we are thefastest sport in motorsports; [we reach] 200 miles-per-hour in seven seconds—six seconds. Drag racing is just the fastest form of motorsports there is. Because we reach those speeds in such a short amount of time, of course if something happens you have to be able to react in milliseconds as opposed to seconds. But we do it under a controlled atmosphere: There’s an ambulance at the beginning of the track and an ambulance at the end of the track; there are only two people racing each other at a time and those two people are highly trained professionals. So it’s not like you’re going to have a guy in the other lane who’s been drinking and decides to run over into your lane, or you stop and he decides to keep going. So it’s rare. Although it happens, it’s rare. You see way more road bike crashes and dirt bike crashes—five times more—than in drag racing.

A look at the 2006 Kawasaki ZX-14. Laurel Allen photo

One of the major issues in road racing that has been getting a lot of attention lately is track safety and improvements in that area. Is there the same concern about drag tracks?
No. Drag racing, we race the premier tracks. In the ‘90s, we raced shit holes. But AMA/Prostar has definitely—as a matter of fact, they stopped racing at my home track because the track wouldn’t put up concrete barriers. The cars don’t have a problem with the other barriers, the steel barriers. So we stopped going there. For two or three years we didn’t go to Atco Raceway, and this year we’re going back to Atco because they put up the concrete walls.

What kind of stopping distance do they give you at these tracks?
We have 1,320 feet to accelerate through the quarter-mile, and then about a mile to stop. It’s only a quarter of a mile that we race. The shortest track has a little over a half-mile to stop.

How do the drag bikes you race differ from standard stock bikes?
The drag bikes are longer and lower. The mirrors are removed, the gearing’s changed. But as far as appearance, it looks exactly [the same]. That’s why the manufacturers are getting involved with this sport, because the classes we race in are spec classes. The bikes have to look identical [to stock], you can’t altar the body. If you’re a brand-loyal person, if you’re in the grandstands, you can identify what I’m riding. So the guys up there are talking about, “That’s my bike right there. I’ve got that same bike in my garage!” When you’re doing NHRA, nothing looks like anything you’ve got in your garage.

Rickey, here in a 2002 Kawasaki ad, hopes to play a role in the development of the next generation of drag racing bikes.

So the season is already under way this year. How’s it going?
Yeah, the season’s under way. We debuted the ZX-14 at the last race and we set the record at 178 miles per hour. We won the race. The first time out with a brand-new-model bike, we won.

You’ve won eight AMA/Prostar National Championships. What’s in the future for you, besides number nine? Are you looking to break any more speed records?
You know what? Right now I do want to go over 200. But my biggest thing right now, which is bigger than racing, is to work with the OEMs to kind of develop these new bikes, to help develop new bikes for the future. I’m doing a lot of that for Kawasaki now—helping them test and develop the bikes that they’re coming out with. I’m really into that kind of stuff. I’m into relaying to the public my findings. I like testing for magazines. I want to bridge the gap between what the urban rider feels the manufacturers care [about]. The riders buy their bikes, but the manufacturers don’t care about what the riders wants. Being inside Kawasaki, I’ve seen that Kawasaki really does care about what their riders want, whether it’s the urban market or not. They want to bridge the gap between the urban market. I want to be there to do that.

I know a lot of people drag race on the streets, which is obviously frowned upon. Are there programs in place to get riders off the streets and onto the tracks?
Absolutely. I started on the streets; I made my name on the streets. So, yeah, there are programs. That’s one of the reasons I have my drag racing school. The other thing is that Prostar has instituted a program called “Streetbike Chaos” that’s held at practically all national events. On Saturday night after the races are over, they allow people to come there and kind of race each other, you know, grudge race each other. Instead of going out on the streets to do it, they give you a place to do it.