The Year Of The Burnout

Article By: Ronster Ron Brefka Photos By Angie Lockerman & Mark Garcia he High Voltage Vintage & Chopper Motorcycle Show is always a good time with great bikes, great music, and t good vibes. This year’s 5th Annual

High Voltage was no exception.

There were

Burnout Pits and

Motorcycle Drag

Races to ramp up the fun even more. Going ‘urban industrial’ this year, High

Voltage was held on Saturday,

Sept. 12th, at the shop of 7MetalWest

Custom Fenders and VMetals

Custom Metal

Fab in a Metro-

Milwaukee industrial park.

There was plenty of room for parking, people, music, burnouts, and bikes. It’s a ride-in show, and all the bikes rolling in provided a backdrop rumble, which blended with the music as High Voltage 2020 got underway. Brian Smith opened with live outlaw country music before Ace jammed his rad DJ playlist to the crowd who was havin’ a great time checkin’ out the excellent show bikes. As usual, the show bikes were great this year, and dozens of High Voltage Award Pennants were given out to the best bikes among the over 100. The bikes ranged from vintage factory racers to rad garage-built choppers. One great chopper was ridden in by Ken Carvajal, who built his outstanding ’62 Panhead Chopper in his garage. One sweet example of a race bike was an XR750 Harley factory racer brought by Jack Kainz. The High Voltage Bestof-Show Trophy

was presented to “Part-timer” Steve Glennon and his clean ‘NoName’ Panhead Chopper. Steve came all the way from Colorado and said he loves Milwaukee; he enjoyed the beer and said he will definitely be back next year. Right on, Steve!

Best Chopper Award went to a 1970’s survivor Milwaukee longchop. Owned by Brian Chemery. The Shovelhead chop with its long girder front end was a cool old classic chopper to behold.

Best Vintage Award went to Mike Lange and his 1946 WR Factory Racer. Mike’s vintage racer was decked out in blue and white with plenty of chrome, including the old springer front end. Mike also earned a ‘Best Burnout’ award for easily smoking the tire on the old racer.

Smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em 2020 was the Year-of-theBurnout at High Voltage, with Nick from Motofied winning a ‘Best Burnout’ award for smokin’ up the place right to the treetops. Another winner was Brad Haugland for all the ‘burn circles’ he laid down at the show. The ‘Best-of-the-Best’ Burnout award went to Mike Stanfill, who burned his tire right down to the ground while the crowd cheered wildly. Good Times Mike!

High Voltage Drag Races

The party continued Tuesday with the High Voltage / MKE Street Drags at the historic Milwaukee Mile Speedway. The Milwaukee Mile is the oldest continuously operated track in the world, and the High Voltage motorcycle and chopper drag races on the straightaway featured nearly 150 race bikes in four different classes. The bike classes included: Chopper & Vintage (just like the High Voltage Show), Cruiser, Sportbike, Electric, and even a limited Super Moto class. To indicate class, each race bike had a large color-coded High Voltage Show sticker on the headlight. It was pretty cool to see each and every race bike representing High Voltage. raced, and I have to say that flying down the track with the throttle wide-open really gets your adrenaline buzzing. My Shovelhead racer was running great after Rob Schopf, a Milwaukee area performance

engine builder, made some simple pre-race adjustments. I was actually winning for a bit until I was eliminated with two losses to Jonah Holter and Chris Trapp – the same two racers that I drew for the art on the High Voltage Drag Races poster! Crazy how that worked out. But it was all for a good cause: raising awareness and donations for cancer research.

The High Voltage Show recently presented a check for over $7000 to the WeCareFund for cancer research at the Medical College of WI. All that High Voltage fun while supporting a good cause – it’s pretty cool!

I must extend my gratitude to all those that make the High Voltage Show happen. It takes a considerable team of true friends, volunteers, track officials, sponsors, and spectators to get it all done. Thank you all for supporting High Voltage and cancer research!

Upcoming High Voltage Events:

The ShovelHead ReUnion will be presented by the High Voltage Motorcycle Show on June 26th, 2021, in Milwaukee, in partnership with the Harley Davidson Museum.

The High Voltage Half-Mile flat track races will be on June 6th, 2021, in Elkhorn, WI, at the Rustic Road Rally to benefit the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

For details on the on the High Voltage happenings visit www. HighVoltage414.com