Tombo Racing

Tombo Racing makes it to finals again!

admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:07:53 +0000

Once again Tombo Racing’s Tim Howard made his way to the finals of the Midwest Streetbike races at Thunder Valley Raceway Park in Noble, OK on July 24. For the race Tim Howard qualified in the #2 spot with a new mile per hour record of 175.67 mph with an ET of 8.22. Conditions at the track were typical July weather, hot and humid but Mike and the staff at Thunder Valley Raceway did a superb job of preparing the track for racing.

Tim worked his way to the finals by running solid 8.30′s at over 170 mph on every pass. In the finals he faced the #1 qualifying Kawasaki ZX-10 of Raymond “Tonto” Johnson. Even though Tim had a quicker reaction time, Tonto was able to run him down with a 8.14 et compared to Tim’s 8.30. “Tim was a bit aggressive with the clutch and wheelied three times during the run” said Tommy Bolton. “Tonto brought his A game and nobody saw it coming, not even me. He earned the win fair and square. Congratulations to Tonto for an excellent run.”

“Coming in second makes for late nights at the race shop once again” said Bolton. “You can never sit still in this sport. You have to keep on striving for the top if you want to win. There is always someone waiting to take your spot if you relax. That is why I love drag racing!”

Tombo Racing sponsored bikes earn top spots on podium at Midwest Streetbikes

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:49:06 +0000

Tim Howard on his Tombo Racing sponsored and tuned Hayabusa set a new class record at Thunder Valley Raceway

Some of Oklahoma’s fastest street bikes converged on Thunder Valley Raceway June 19 for the Midwest Streetbike races. Riders included Tonto, Slow Ninja, and Alex Hughes from Texas riding Chris Hucklebee’s turbo Hayabusa were eager to test their bikes against the fastest in the region.
Once again Tombo Racing sponsored bikes took the top two spots on the podium. After installing a new Tombo Racing motor in his Hayabusa, Tim Howard earned low ET and top speed at the race, setting a new record for the class of 8.36 seconds at 173 mph. This new motor utilizes the Tombo Racing wet nitrous system to improve reliability and horsepower. In just the second outing of the year on the new motor, Howard has visited the podium at each race.
In the finals Howard faced Folsum’s Tombo Racing sponsored ‘Busa. Folsum got the holeshot and never relinquished the lead in this close race, despite Howard running a lower ET and a higher top speed.

Kenwon Folsum's Tombo Racing sponsored Hayabusa won first place at the Midwest Street races

Tombo Racing sponsored Folsum and Howard take top two spots on podium

Sponsors:
AJAX Kawasaki sponsoring Midwest Streetbike class
Performance Cycles
CP Pistons
Knockout Performance
Tombo Racing
Brock’s Performance
Trac Dynamics

Tombo Racing dominates PMRA Pro Open Class in first half of 2010

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:45:44 +0000

Nickleberry qualified #1 both days and won 1st place both days

After a developmental season in 2009 that saw Tommy Bolton perform a major redesign of the chassis and engine on Glen Nickleberry’s funnybike, 2010 has started with a bang for the nationally famous pair. After a runner-up finish at the first PMRA race of the season, followed by a win in Tulsa, the Penn Jewelers sponsored team was ready for the back to back races at Thunder Valley Raceway on June 26-27.
“After many sleepless nights at our race shop fine tuning the new Tombo Racing turbo draw through nitrous system, we were feeling excited for this weekend” says Tommy Bolton. “With all the developmental challenges of 2009, we considered going back to our 2008 setup, which was consistently posting times in the 6.6 second range. However, we were running three stages of nitrous to reach those times and after extensive development of our new system, we are just now reaching those same times using only one stage of nitrous. We are excited about the potential of this new bike and it is much more reliable than our old bike.”
The last weekend in June at Thunder Valley Raceway turned into one of the hottest of the year so far, limiting top speeds and ET’s for everyone. With track temperatures approaching 140 degrees, finding traction was a major challenge of the funny bike competitors. “With such hot track conditions, the challenge wasn’t having enough motor to win, the challenge was getting the bike to hook up with the blistering track” explains Bolton. “I had to detune the bike to get it just to go down the track without wheelspin. The track was so hot that I was happy just to get 60 foot times in the 1.20 second range.” Despite the intense heat, Bolton’s experience at tuning for less than ideal track conditions allowed Nickleberry to earn the top qualifying spot for the weekend.
Once the racing started, the Penn Jewelers sponsored bike consistently turned ET’s in the 7.1 second range. “With the detuning of the motor to get the bike hooked up, it just acted like a bracket bike” says Bolton. “Glen was able to make consistent passes in the 7.1 second range through each round.”
As night approached for the finals, the track temperatures dropped to a more bearable 124 degrees. Nickleberry was up against the well prepared Kawasaki of Champ Wagner. “I didn’t retune the bike for the lower temps” says Bolton. “I just let the track come to us. I knew with better track conditions the bike would hook up even better. “ The finals proved Bolton right. Nickleberry ran the fastest ET of the weekend at 7.09 at 194 mph and won a close race with Wagner. “It felt good to be back on the top step of the podium” says Nickleberry. “2009 was a challenging year for us.”
Day 2
Sunday was a makeup day from a previously postponed race, so once again the Tombo Racing team was faced with qualifying in the intense heat. Like the previous day, Nickleberry earned the top qualifying spot. “I knew the track was going to be hot again. We ran so good Saturday and I just left everything the same” said Bolton. Once again Nickleberry ended up in the finals, this time against Rod Mansaw’s Pro Mod Suzuki. It was an easy win for Nickleberry, since Mansaw’s Suzuki broke during the semifinals and was unable to start against Nickleberry’s Kawasaki. “All we had to do was coast down the track for the win” said Bolton. “We prefer to race for the win, but we will take a “W” any way we can get them.”
Two days of tough competition, two #1 qualifying spots and two wins – the Tombo Racing team is back in 2010 with a vengeance!

Nickleberry's Tombo Racing funnybike won first place at both weekend races

2010 SPONSORS
FAMILY AFFAIR RESTAURANT
PENN JEWELERS
AJAX KAWASAKI
CP PISTONS
ROBISON TRANSMISSIONS
RPM COMPUTERS
CKS
Special thanks to Robert Vega with Turbo Parts and Technology for building us great turbochargers. Glad to have Robert back on board the Tombo Racing Team. Robert built the turbos for Nickleberry’s bike when it first reached the 6.60 range.

Tombo Racing back on Top!

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:13:11 +0000

Saturday night, June 5 saw Tombo Racing at Tulsa Raceway Park for motorcycle drag racing. Glen Nickleberry won first place in Funnybikes, while Tim Howard won first place on Real Street. Way to go Tombo Racing!

Tombo Racing Outlaw Bike

admin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:23:35 +0000

Tommy Bolton is at it again, this time producing a bike that not only looks good, but that rips up the racetrack in a cloud of smoking rubber. Tombo Racing’s new Outlaw bike is designed to run in the Pro Street class. This pavement wrinkling rocketship started life as a Suzuki GS1150 engine. Tommy bored it to 1600 cc, reworked the heads, cams, valves and case, installed a Tombo Racing draw through turbocharger and a dual stage Tombo Racing wet nitrous system. It has an air shifter, steering stabilizer, a super low seat high and racing slicks. The frame was built for Tommy by Joe’s Chassis in Florida and the exhaust was custom built in the Tombo Racing shop. The stunning paint job was provided by 2Brothers Motorcycle Painting.

Although this new bike has yet to run on the track, Tommy is expecting times in the high sixes and low seven second range at speeds approaching 200 mph in the quarter mile, once the bike is dialed in. While many drag racing bikes are cobbled together with the primary goal of speed, Tommy not only makes his bikes go fast, but he also brings attention to detail to make them look as good as they go.

Watch for this new Tombo Racing creating to be competing at tracks around the country this summer. And if you would like your own Tombo Racing Outlaw bike, or you just want your street bike to look good AND go fast, contact Tombo Racing. We can your bike into one of the fastest bike on the streets!

Tommy Bolton in the Dragbike USA August 1989

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:54:38 +0000

Tommy Bolton has a long history of drag racing across the USA. In the summer of 1989 he traveled to Spokane, WA for the Dragbike USA Northwest Cyclebration. Tommy made the finals and had the top time in qualifying, but a bit too much nitrous at the end relegated him to second place for the day. Below is the article in Dragbike USA about this event.

Below is the text from the article…
In the competition… Top Fuel Eliminator action boiled down to the semi-finals, with national champ, Mike Malone, new star, Tommy Bolton (lone Los Angelino taking on the Phoenix clan), Ed Bogedain on the new Kawa-turbo and Sam Terranova on the Kawa Phoenix entry (three turbos vs nitro; three Kawasakis and a Suzuki). In the semi, Bolton soloed on the Mr. Speed Suzuki as the Bogedain Kawasaki stalled at the line with Bolton hitting a casual 8.25 at 174.71 mph. In the other semi, Mike Malone mustered a 7.74 at 178.92 to top Terranova’s off pace 11.45 at 70 mph.
In the final, supercharged nitro Kawasaki faced turbocharged nitrous Suzuki, as the Accutronix/MC Engineering/Copper Gaskets
entry bet their fortunes on Malone, with Tommy Bolton carrying the flags of Mr Speed and Lord DC Imports into the final. ON the go, a great even start had the fans on their feet and then nearly off them again as Bolton’s turbo fish-tailed wildly at the top end of the track and crossed the centerline of the track and edged toward Malone. The usually excellent handling Suzi had behaved well until the finale — with 180 MPH passes the usual — but according to Bolton, “I just grabbed for too much nitrous and she got away for a second. And that was it!” Wisely, Bolton had pulled the plug on the pass to keep from endangering Malone, who was given the win with Bolton’s lane violation. Malone had clocked a 7.56 at 166.66 in winning and Bolton, of course, received no time because he went through the traps in Malone’s lane just behind him. Whatta wild finish!!

Little Nick

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:45:21 +0000

Little Glen Nickleberry is part of the Tombo Racing crew, working on his dad Glen’s six second rocketship. Of course Tommy couldn’t have little Nick running around on just a plain old mini-bike. So he built this custom drag-mini so little Nick could fit right in with his dad’s ultra-quick Kawasaki. Naturally, Tommy stepped on the engine just a bit so little Nick could outrun any of his friends on a mini-bike!

Rock’s ZX-14

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:34:13 +0000

Tommy built this stretched Kawasaki ZX-14 for his friend and customer “Rock”. It features RC Components wheels, Brock Davidson exhaust, a Trac Dynamics extened swingarm big wheel kit, a custom tail section, and motor work by Tommy Bolton. This bike goes as fast as it looks.

Rest in peace Rock, who passed away while riding this bike on Labor Day in 2007.

Derrick’s ‘Busa

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:28:51 +0000

Derrick Frazier, Tommy’s assistant and a bike builder in his own right, worked with Tommy to build this beautiful pearl white Hayabusa. Derrick worked with Tommy to disassemble this bike to the bare frame and rebuild it from the ground up with an RC big wheel kit, custom painted frame to match the beautiful pearl white paint of the bike, and a custom chrome swingarm made by All Things Chrome. It has a Brock Davidson Alien Head Pipe with a custom engine map built in house by Tim Howard, who is an engine mapping specialist.

Suzi Uzi’s Scooter

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:20:23 +0000

From 600 horsepower pavement-wrinkling drag bikes to 20 horsepower scooters, Tommy Bolton can work his “Tombo Touch” magic on anything with two wheels. Here he built a custom scooter for the famous roller derby star “Suzi Uzi”. This little scooter is perfect for Suzi to jet around town preparing for roller derby bouts.