Terry Vance on 14 Championships, Vance & Hines, and Why Indian

Fourteen national drag racing championships. Twenty-seven NHRA national event wins. A 101-21 record in Pro Stock Motorcycle eliminations that still stands among the best in the sport. Terry Vance’s résumé is long, but the story behind it starts with a paper route and a mini-bike.

Terry recently joined Throttle & Iron for a live conversation about how it all came together, from growing up at Lions Drag Strip to founding Vance & Hines with Byron Hines and building a racing program that has spanned decades. The full stream is embedded below.

What the conversation covers

• Lions Drag Strip, where Terry learned to ride and met Byron Hines, and the partnership that began in 1972, the same year Lions ran its final race
• A mini-bike frame bought with paper route money, and the lawn edger engine his father made fit
• Founding Vance & Hines in 1979, and the 1982 exhaust that grew the company from a handful of people to hundreds
• Twenty years with Harley-Davidson and ten NHRA championships, six with Andrew Hines and four with Eddie Krawiec
• The move to Indian Motorcycle: the multi-year deal, the Wrecking Crew name, and the Vance & Hines-modified Challenger, with Troy Herfoss, Hayden Gillim and Rocco Landers racing in King of the Baggers
• Three straight NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle titles with Suzuki, Gaige Herrera and Richard Gadson
• Byron’s sons, Andrew and Matt, who now build and tune the bikes carrying the Vance & Hines name
• The question that came up in Mike Kennedy’s earlier visit to the show: do you need to be a motorcyclist to run a motorcycle company?

Terry has also been inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, the NHRA Top 50, and the Sturgis Hall of Fame. Thanks to Throttle & Iron for having him on. Watch the full conversation above.

Sources: Throttle & Iron: Terry Vance, Vance & Hines, 14 Championships, and Why Indian