NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

When Marc Ingwersen and his Buckeye Harley-Davidson Buell crew – Jon Miller and Miller’s son, Parker – pulled into U.S. 131 Motorsports Park for the Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals, the trio had no idea that a few days later they’d be celebrating the greatest day of Ingwersen’s near-10-year career in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

Ingwersen, a 56-year-old multi-Harley-Davidson dealership owner out of Findlay, Ohio, had entered 80 events since he first threw a leg over a Pro Stock Motorcycle back in 2017 for a lone event, and was about to experience a magical Sunday that would carry him to his first national event final and within a whisper of a coveted NHRA 75th Anniversary Wally.

Ingwersen was an executive vice president for a big auto supplier with 27 facilities worldwide and $800 million in sales, then he bought his first Harley dealership in 2006, which has now grown to 10 stores. Unlike many of his top-running peers like Gaige Herrera and Richard Gadson, Ingwersen had no previous racing experience before Miller, the mechanic at his first dealership, talked him into jumping into the deep end in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

“We do everything in-house,” he explained. “Jon has been in the drag racing world for over 40 years. He was in AHDRA and won a bunch of championships as a crew chief with other rides, but he finally asked me, ‘Why don't you try it? Why pay for all these other guys to do this?’ I'm always like speed, so I just tried it one time and got hooked. “

They didn’t win a round in any of their first five seasons but began to hit their stride in 2022 when they won nine rounds in 14 races and reached a trio of semifinals. They finished eighth in points that year and seventh in 2023 but, like everyone else in the class, struggled against Herrera and Matt Smith, and they won just eight rounds total in 2024 and ’25.

So when they pulled into the gates in Martin, Mich., without a single win light to their credit in seven 2026 races and stepped into the heart of the Countdown to the Championship war, they didn’t expect much more than another uphill battle, and those expectations dipped even lower after the first two qualifying runs.

“We started out having some motor problems, and on Friday night, the guys actually had to pull the motor,” he said. “We had some other heads that we brought and pulled the heads off and put our older heads on, and then we had to retune everything, so we slowly were creeping up on it on Saturday, and then thought we had a good tune in it for eliminations, and really just had some things a little backwards, so round one was actually not good at all, but we got lucky.”

Paired against two-time world champ Herrera, he caught a big break when Herrera’s mount faltered and slowed to a 7.15 against Ingwersen’s otherwise-beatable 6.99. It was just the second time Ingwersen has beaten Herrera, and the first since Herrera’s rookie campaign in 2022.

That win was one of those “out of the frying pan and into the fire” situations as his round-two date was Herrera’s teammate, reigning world champ Gadson, who fouled on a track where many of the riders struggled with a new Christmas Tree/timing system setup. The Millers found the tune-up, and Ingwersen zoomed to a sporty 6.81, and with the twin Matt Smith Racing bikes of Matt and Angie also being upset, everything was coming up roses.

Between Ingwersen and the winner’s circle were Ron Procopio Jr., a new rider in the class subbing for Jianna Evaristo, two-time winner Ray Oehler, and four-time winner John Hall. Tough competitors for sure, but not the usual Murderers Row of the Vance & Hines and MSR powerhouses.

Oehler was up first and his bike faltered, too, but Ingwersen would have been tough to beat with a .105 light and a 6.79, just a few ticks off his 6.77 career best. With the win, Ingwersen became just the 74th rider to make a final in the class.

“Once we got past the semifinals after beating Ryan, I told the guys, ‘Whatever happens, I'm looking at this as a win.’ “ said Ingwersen, who then prepped to race MSR rider Hall.

Hall, who beat Procopio in the other semifinal, owned a 7-4 career record against Ingwersen, and it quickly went to 8-4 as Ingwersen left too soon and fouled away a 6.86 against Hall’s 6.80.

“We got aggressive on the launch, and when they change the clutch around, it changes my reaction, too,” he explained. “We spun in first gear, and then when I finally shifted, it bogged in second, so that combination is what screwed us up. we would have had a low-.80 or a high-.70 run again.”

Despite falling short in his first final, Ingwersen is optimistic about his future in the class

“You never go into this thinking it's going to take this long, but we didn't go full time till really 2022,” he said. “That was our first full season because I couldn't really do a full season.

"I don't like to fail at anything I do in life, right? So my motivation is to just be the best that I can be, and my crew chief and our tuner, we're all the same that way, so that's really the motivation is to keep pushing ahead. But it is tough to go against multi-bike teams who always have an advantage because it takes us twice as long or three times as long to gather the data that we need, whereas those guys can do it in one run.

“The biggest problem we have is we just don't have enough data or the funds to do the R&D because we do everything in-house and we're constantly chasing parts. We can't get parts; there's a lot of struggle with that kind of stuff. These big teams buy up what 10, 20, 30 at a time, where we're lucky to get one or two of those items.

“I'm a decent rider. You can always improve here and there, but I feel like I'm a decent rider, but when I’m up against somebody like Gaige or Matt, I know I have to cut a good light to even have a shot. One thing a lot of people don’t see is that we typically have one of the best 60-foots out of the V-Twins because my guys do a good job with the clutch and the tune, and I ram as hard as I can ram, so I think that combination gets us up there.

“We're working on the horsepower side. If we get a couple of things, we'll be closer. I feel like we’re maybe 10-15 hp behind the big teams, but if we get things right, we can be a top-five bike. I don't know that we can be a one or two or three, but we should be able to get to a top-five bike, and we got some good things in the works that look promising. But you know how that is --it looks promising, but on the track it doesn't always show that.”

Ten to 15 hp doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re talking about a 400 hp engine, five or 10 is a pretty big chunk of that.

“The other thing is that I'm not a skinny guy. I'm not 130 pounds like some of these guys or ladies, and that's a big advantage. Twenty pounds is probably five-hundredths

“We definitely plan to be back in the finals at some point, but the way that day went, we got lucky with the top four basically somehow being pushed to the side or having problems. I know we got a lot of work to do, so it's not like I'm going to expect to be in the finals the next time around. Obviously, we all want that, but you’ve got to be realistic.

“We're hoping we get our new combination closer, hopefully, by St. Louis or by Texas, and hopefully that brings something some more power and some more speed. It’s just some things Jon's been working on that we believe is gonna really bring some extra power. You know, it's not going to get us the 10-15, but it could maybe get us close to 7,8, or 9, horsepower. We'll see.

“I’m so lucky with my guys; my hat’s off to them. They did a very, very good job last weekend, and all the time and effort they put in is is very much appreciated. I’ve got to give a shout out to all my stores and my staff for everything they do. If I didn't have good people, I wouldn't be able to be out here racing because it takes a lot of time away from work, and to J& A Services, Foggit, and Banshee Graphics, who all help us out.”