Texas Scooter Times

With the crowd enjoying the view from the bleachers shaded by the giant trees at Little River Dragway, Top Alcohol Harley was called to the line.
�First Round started off with Houston’s John "The Jet" Peek running out of his Full Throttle Custom Cycles in Houston ripping off low e.t. of the Top Alcohol Eleminations, a 5.21 at 128 mph on an earned by run. Next out was the Current AMRA Pro Gas National Champion Norman "Shorty" Reed aboard his Paul Greenwood owned Dragon’s Breath Racing Team entry. Slated to run Nacogdoches’ Mike Dolese out of Hollywood’s Motorcycle Emporium on their 140" Twin Cam B motored Truett Framed dragster, Shorty instead got to make a 5.69 - 119mph competition bye run when Hollywood and Bryan couldn’t put the bike out to make the call.
�Then it was 20 year racing veteran Jeff Brown who after racing just about everything with 2 wheels has settled down into a V-Rod Destroyer and every lady at the track’s favorite Carrie "Amazon" Tate sponsored by Engineered Performance Tooling and Landers Harley Davidson riding her Big Jim Chassis’ 120" Evo dragster. The lady left on Brown and never looked back advancing to the semi’s with a 6.19 at 108 agains Brown’s 6.70 at 105.
�Team FKAWI’s Bonneville Land Speed Record Holder, Billy Shoemaker riding the team’s V-Rod Destroyer next came up against the Orange Crush Sportster of Placios Paul. Crewed by Bob Sellers, the V-Rod took the closest race of the round with a 6.53 @110 to Paul’s losing 6.64 @107.
�In the Semi Finals - the Kerry Tate, J.R. Sullivan & Earl Free crewed Carrie Tate lined up agains one of the winningest Top Alcohol Harley Dragster riders in the Country, John Peek. With his National Crew Chief of the Year awarded wife Sandy "calling the tune", the pair’s "piece" sounded GOOD in the water. With Tate leaving .088 & Peek at .106 they looked even until half track when Peek’s bike went sour. "The Amazon" would be in the Finals.
�The other Semi that ALSO had the crowd on their feet was Billy Shoemaker taking on the 46 year old ex-bullrider, ex-tuff man fighter, Shorty Reed with Mel Moors, Dragon & Johnny twistin’ the wrenches. Reed "made a statement" when he left on Shoemaker, .019 to .028 and took the win light with a 5.84 @ 116 to Billy’s respectable 6.23 @ 112.
�So the Top Alcohol Finals couldn’t have been better if there were t.v. cameras around. Carrie Tate unknown to most of the crowd was suffering from a leg injury caused when she had to do a little "ground kickin’" the day before during qualifying to keep he bike up on a wild pass. And it seemed as the Sunday Eleminations went on it was hurting her more each pass and COULD be a factor in the Finals� Reed was also obviously a little "winded" towards the end of the day as he was riding and dealing with the team’s Top Fuel bike during eleminations too.
�However when lined up for the Finals, from up in the tower, the look of determination and the air of confidence that Reed carried without even trying against the Arkansas team’s almost worried demeanor in their first Texas Style Party Drags Final Round couldn’t be ignored. Carrie hit a GOOD .106 light but Shorty was out of the gate and ridin’ that bull with an even better .023. Both went down even until Reed’s big 139" motor pulled away at about 400’ and legged it out from then on - 5.71 @ 119 to a 6.25 @ 108 Finish�..