Last years rookie of the year contender Douglas Horne finds himself in unfamiliar territory in the 2010 season

With a DNQ at Gainesville, first round losses at Charlotte, Houston and a second round elimination loss at St. Louis Horne finds himself currently 15th in points and still losing ground.

A pale and complete contrast to the success that he had just one year ago.

So how did this happened?

Well here’s what we do know.

Jr. Pippin and his crew walked away from Team Horne at the end of last season. Leaving Horne without a crew and a engine builder.
The tuning expert they had brought in mid season last year, who helped provide an immediate improvement (according to Horne) also parted ways after Charlotte last year.
Then the Tonglets also parted ways with team Horne after Gainesville this year to concentrate on LE’s 2010 campaign.
There sure seems to have been a lot of exodus at the Horne camp.

As for the present team Horne has enlisted the world class services of  NHRA champion Matt Smith and (MSR) Matt Smith Racing and crew to assist since Gainesville.  MSR has a very good track record in producing winning results.

Our sources though tell us that the Horne camp has been somewhat impatient and less than satisfied with the results. So It looks like it might be time for team Horne to head back to running the less complicated fuel bike as there have been constant on again, off again, rumors that team Horne is quitting PSM and heading back to AHDRA full time.

With Atlanta coming up I guess we can wait and see if there will be some kind of announcement, but last we checked the NRHA PSM entries for Atlanta just before this went to post, it would seem that in deed team Horne has pulled out of Atlanta and may have possibly quit Pro Stock Motorcycle.

We will continue to monitor this situation and keep you informed of any new developments.

Sammy D
MS&S Assoc Editor