NHRA PRO STOCK SERIES
DRAG RACING
BY KEVIN MCKENNA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GARY NASTASE
D
uring the week, Jerry
Savoie spends his time
hatching, raising, and skin-
ning as many as 100,000 reptiles
a year on his Alligator Farm in
Louisiana. On weekends, he en-
gages in a hobby that's equally as
thrilling when he races his 197-
mph Suzuki in the NHRA Mello
Yello Drag Racing Series. After
four years, Savoie finally earned
his first victory when he rode
past Screamin' Eagle Harley-Da-
vidson's Andrew Hines in the final
round at Gateway Motorsports
Park just outside St. Louis
"Man this feels pretty good,"
Savoie said. "We're worked aw-
fully hard for this. To be honest,
I thought I'd win one of these be-
fore now. I didn't think it was go-
ing to be easy. I just didn't think it
was going to take this long. The
last four times I've been in the final
I got so mellow and I'm so happy
just to be there that it really didn't
matter. Before this final I said, 'I'm
not getting soft today. It's on.' We
had a good bike all weekend. We
struggled last weekend in Dallas,
but this is another week and it's
all good. "
Savoie has had one of the best
bikes in the class for most of the
summer and he's come close to
a win on a couple of occasions.
He reached the final rounds in
Sonoma and Indianapolis but
came up short against three-time
world champion Eddie Krawiec
each time. Once he arrived in St.
Louis, Savoie quickly established
himself as one of the favorites
with a strong qualifying effort and
rode that momentum all the way
ROUND 3/SEPTEMBER 28, 2014
GATEWAY MOTORSPORTS PARK/ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
P100
Alligator farmer Jerry Savoie claims first NHRA title
GATOR COUNTRY
