IHRA: Family business on weekdays, Harleys on weekends

That Tii Tharpe is involved in racing should come as no surprise. He grew up in the family business, Special Vehicle Company, or SPEVCO, a North Carolina builder of specialty vehicles for emergency response situations and for marketing and exhibitions.

But that Tii (pronounced TIE) ended up on two wheels might be a bit less expected. Much of his early competition was on four wheels, like the INEX Legends race he won at Charlotte Motor Speedway at age 15 on the same weekend the track hosted the Winston Million.

But not only has he transitioned to motorcycles, he's picked the baddest ones on the planet: IHRA Nitro Harley-Davidsons, weighing in at 1,000 pounds with rider, capable of speeds in excess of 220 mph, covering a quarter-mile in just over six seconds.

Sound scary? Only when you fall off, Tharpe says, as he did at Memphis at the IHRA World Finals while going 217mph. Seven days later he got back on the bike at Rockingham, and qualified fourth.

"It was working on my nerves, but [fellow competitor] Jay Turner and some other friends and my wife and family were there, so it worked out," he said.

He began riding motorcycles at age five, then raced three- and four-wheelers before moving to oval track cars. During college, car racing was taking too much time, so he began making weekly trips to the local drag strip on motorcycles just to stay active in racing. The bikes kept getting bigger and faster, and before long, Tharpe was on a Nitro Harley. He's presently fifth in IHRA points.

His day job is working as the COO and general manager at SPEVCO, where one day they might be building food trucks – not the little trucks that sell tacos on the corner, but 53-foot trailers for Wendy's or Burger King – or disaster relief trucks for customers like AT&T, where the SPEVCO products are dispatched to natural disasters to help restore near-immediate communications.

"It's never boring here," Tharpe says.

It's also never boring at the track, as the IHRA Drag Racing Series heads to the President's Cup Nationals at Maryland International Raceway June 17-18.

"We'll be there," Tharpe says.