Steve Huff’s good friend Bryan Goffe recalls his late colleagues’ impact on Nitro Harley racing –
Top Fuel. Pro Fuel. Nitro Bike. Call them whatever you want. Motorcycles that can stand on their own (same size as a car) rear tire, gulp nitromethane, lean on wheelie bars and answer with parachutes – requiring those brave enough to wear a ballistic vest are mechanical beasts.
I knew that my friend Steve Huff drag raced a couple different classes of these motorcycles – at the extreme end of the spectrum. But since he had moved on from that lane of racing many years ago and the bikes were long gone before we started promoting other adventures, it never really came up much, other than that he had broken some records:
All Harley Drag Association
2001 AHDRA P/D 1/4mile 180.28mph
2001 AHDRA P/D 1/8mile 154.32mph
Canadian Motorcycle Drag Racing Association
2002 CMDRS T/F 1/4mile 202.84mph
I also knew that another friend Dana Meeks who Garage Asylum used to help with promotion when his team was actively racing his Top Fuel Harley until engine failure in Las Vegas and other financial realities put the bike in a museum; also knew Steve.
Chalk it up to how guys talk (or don’t) but until Steve was near the end of his life and we focused on his time racing these bikes – I learned that while he was at the dragstrip in Woodburn Oregon to race his custom street bike “The Wet One” he saw a, “Wow what is that!” race bike and ended up buying one; racing into the next few wild years. After a season of rebuilding it with the help of Russ Tom and those behind the scenes at Downtown Harley Steve moved up and bought a bike from Jim McClure (a rare occurrence) and with Jim as a mentor raced – funded by a rollercoaster of sponsorships from Future Brands (Jim Beam and Pucker), Znetix and a Playboy deal that “came and went” overnight. Following Jim’s death in 2004, disintegrating sponsorships and diminishing changes to the world of AHDRA – Steve, “Kinda gave up.”
After Steve died May 21, 2025 Dana shared that, “Steve Huff was his first exposure to Top Fuel Harley’s at Pacific Raceways (Seattle International Raceway). Wow what is that!” came up again.
After that day of AHDRA races, one thing lead to another and Dana became involved with AHDRA writing for their magazine and ended up acquiring a new bike built by Don Johnson “DJ” and learned to race it on the East Coast earning the AHDRA 2008 Pro Rookie of the Year before bringing it home to the Northwest.
The Meeks team fueled by the newer reoccurring Western Canadian Top Fuel Nitro Bike Race Series at Mission Raceway Park in Vancouver went back into the shop rebuilding the engine, changing the forks and other improvements to bring the beast back to the track.
Fast forward as I reflect on how our paths intertwined again and in some of Steve’s last words, “…I no longer need a pit floor. Hopefully you can use it.”
The old RaceDeck floor will live to race again.
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