During the drag racing season at Gateway International Raceway just outside of St. Louis, there are two constants: Bret Kepner’s shorts and Eric Sanzottera’s two-wheeled domination of the Tuesday night Quick Street Bike Series.

For three straight years, Sanzottera has been the two-wheeled titan of GIR’s NHRA Drags Street Legal Style Presented by AAA, winning the class title in each of those seasons and finishing 2009 with 12 wins in 15 finals’ appearances. Anyone expecting Sanzottera to take all the credit for his success will be disappointed, however, as the first person he mentions anytime someone asks him about his abilities on the quarter mile is his brother, Rudy.

During the drag racing season at Gateway International Raceway just outside of St. Louis, there are two constants: Bret Kepner’s shorts and Eric Sanzottera’s two-wheeled domination of the Tuesday night Quick Street Bike Series.

For three straight years, Sanzottera has been the two-wheeled titan of GIR’s NHRA Drags Street Legal Style Presented by AAA, winning the class title in each of those seasons and finishing 2009 with 12 wins in 15 finals’ appearances. Anyone expecting Sanzottera to take all the credit for his success will be disappointed, however, as the first person he mentions anytime someone asks him about his abilities on the quarter mile is his brother, Rudy.

“Rudy is the brains behind everything,” said Sanzottera, a native of O’Fallon, Mo. “Without Rudy, there would be no Eric Sanzottera. Great crew chief, great tuner, great motorcycle shop owner, great brother.”

In fact, it was Rudy opening a motorcycle shop in Chicago that started Sanzottera’s racing career with Eric travelling to the Windy City three times a month to spend time with his brother. A self-described crew chief wannabe, the future motorcycle champ helped out by sweeping floors and waxing the bikes. It was when the duo returned to the St. Louis area and started racing at Gateway that Eric got his first taste of being on the track.

“My dad hated it, let me tell you,” he said. “My dad almost had a heart attack that night. But that’s what I’ve done since. I just had that coordination for riding motorcycles and that’s where it started.”

The family-owned Quicktime Motorsports has made a name for themselves not only as track champions, but as track ambassadors. GIR Drag Strip Manager Rich Schaefer says the brothers provide invaluable assistance to him and his staff on race days and can be counted on to lend a hand when needed.

“They’re here early helping us set up, they stay late until we’re done,” Schaefer said. “They’re kind of our second eyes on the track and they speak to us on behalf of the racers a lot of times and give us their perspective. I let (our crew) worry about the balls and strikes down there on the track and I pay attention to what the guys out there do to be a part of the community here at Gateway.

“I gotta tell you, I can’t think of any family that’s more important to this track than the Sanzotteras as a whole.”

 

For his part, Eric was equally appreciative of the track. “Gateway International Raceway gave me a great place to run every year, every Tuesday.”

While racing at Gateway and representing the facility as a champion is important to him, Sanzottera has goals beyond his local track that include racing on a national level. He has four top-ten points’ finishes in the past four years in the AMA Drag Bike Super Street class, including a fourth-place effort in 2009 with two visits to the finals.

It was at Gateway, though, where he made his bid to compete with the big boys. At the Hardee’s ADRL Gateway Drags II in August of last year, Sanzottera missed the field of 16 for the Pro Mod Bike class by only .03 seconds, qualifying 17^th. Kepner, a member of GIR’s inaugural hall of fame as well as Gateway’s drag strip photographer and an ADRL pit reporter, said the three-time QSBS champ is a lock to be successful in the ADRL, run by fellow St. Charles (Mo.) West High School alum, Kenny Nowling.

“Oh, absolutely,” Kepner said. “Their first attempt was only .03 seconds off of qualifying for the field. As determined and hardcore as those guys are, I mean, look at Rudy Sanzottera…he’s the crew chief, team manager, everything else with that group, and he does not do anything without the possibility of winning. Everything he does, everything he builds is built to win.

“So yeah, they’ll be more than competitive. I’m positive of it.”

“Let me tell you something, ADRL is the absolute best sanction I’ve ever raced in,” Sanzottera said of his two attempts at making the Pro Mod Bike field in 2009, the other being in Norwalk. “We have big plans this year for ADRL. We’re going to be running six races in that series.

 

“The race here in St. Louis was the first time I’ve ridden a wheelie-bar bike. That was a rush! That took some adjusting. I think we ended up qualifying 17th. For my first ADRL race, we were ecstatic. We couldn’t ask for anything better. We’ve got some real big plans for ADRL this year.”

In addition to Gateway and ADRL, the plan for ’10 again includes AMA, only this year, he plans to move up to the more competitive Pro Street class. It’s a tuner’s class, it’s a rider’s class, and it’s a whoever’s-got-the-best-parts class,” he said. “Very, very competitive. Very competitive for just me and Rudy working at the shop, just me and him, no money backing us, just all out of our pocket. We’ve held up against the factory teams pretty well.”

Even with his busy schedule, Sanzottera and Quicktime Motorsports, with sponsorship from Big St. Charles (Mo.) Motorsports, are focused on earning a fourth-consecutive QSBS title. With a newly-built bike and the support of his family, Eric is expecting to once again end the season on top of what he believes will be a very strong field.

“The competition here, they actually kinda stepped up,” he said. “But we’re always a couple steps ahead of everybody. It would be great to see more competition out here, so hopefully we’ll get some more bikes out here.”