VOL. 53 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 20, 2016 P89
How 57-year-old alligator farmer and
part-time NHRA drag racer Jerry Savoie
beat the factory teams at their own game
Gator
Country
Gator
Country
N
obody ever told Jerry
Savoie that at 51, an
age when most rac-
ers are well past their prime or
retired, he couldn't become a
competitive rider in the NHRA
Pro Stock Motorcycle class.
And nobody ever told Savoie
that he couldn't build a priva-
teer team that could not only
compete head-to-head with the
mighty factory-backed Vance &
Hines Harley-Davidson squad,
but also beat them at their own
game. As stubborn as Savoie
can be, he probably wouldn't
have listened even if he'd been
told all of those things and that
attitude has served him well
since the Louisiana-based al-
ligator farmer is now the 2016
NHRA Mello Yello Pro Stock
Motorcycle Champion.
Savoie's story is a good one
and it begins in the rural town
of Cut Off, Louisiana, about
an hour's drive south of New
Orleans. An avid motorcycle
racer as a teenager, Savoie
quit racing in order to build a
business and raise a family.
He didn't throw his leg over a
motorcycle for the better part
of three-decades but always
felt that he had the ability to
compete at a high level. In
2010, with his alligator farm
now a multi-million-dollar enter-
prise that supplies prized skins
to top-level shoe, handbag
and watchstrap designers like
Gucci and Prada, Savoie em-
barked on an unlikely journey.
"I went to George Bryce's
drag racing school to see if I
could ride a pro stock motor-
By Kevin McKenna
Photography by Matt Polito
