Mid 80s bike week.
I was running at the North Myrtle Beach drag strip,1/8 mile.
Third round for my class. Modified Street. I was odd man. I pull up to the staging area look over what do I see?
Yep a fire breaking dragon. I wait for them to fire him off and i pull up and do my burnout.
Had my best run of the day. 103 to his 160 something. Got to talk to him for a couple minutes before his wife come got him. Her tow vehicle was a trail 70.
Made the final in my class .
Pulling in the staging area the official come out and stopped me. Disqualified!!!
Got ratted out for drinking a beer.
I know it was the guy that I was going to run against. I would have smoked his @$$
But that’s all right I can tell everybody that I raced a legend.
And I won the door prize at bar that night. A pair of chaps. Large. My little scrawny butt could about wrapped them around me twice. I traded them for a beer.
Motorcycle drag racers are a breed of their own. Son and I did a little at the Bowman track about 20 years ago. The Launch on that sticky starting line got me, the big end never worried me.
On the Harley thing, I had a Mechanic Named Donald McWhorter that got away from Jap bikes and started Monkeying with Harley’s. The Rice rocket crowd soon learned to respect a “slow” Harley. Turbo’d and Nitrous … His biggest issue was frame stress and cracks.
I got a baby XR100 that I ride around with my knees in my chest. I’ve toyed with another street bike, but the other drivers just scare the heck out of me no a days.