Eliminations for the Auto Club Finals at Pomona, Calif., were only half over Sunday afternoon when Jerry Savoie became only the fourth Pro Stock Motorcycle champion in 13 years not to be associated with the Vance & Hines organization.

And the Suzuki-racing alligator farmer from Cut Off, La., gave thanks to God and wife Vonnie, crew chief Tim Kulungian, and his mechanics Jeremy Deroche and Steve Zellman. And figuring into his jumble of thoughts after clinching his first title in the second round at Auto Club Raceway were his primary rivals, Andrew Hines and Eddie Krawiec, three time class champion Angelle Sampey – and two other NHRA multi-time champions, Funny Car’s John Force and Pro Stock’s Erica Enders.

And Blue . . .Blue Savoie, his father. Jerry “Blue” Savoie wasn’t around to see it Sunday, wasn’t there at the Fairplex to see dominators Hines and Krawiec drop out in the round while he beat Angie Smith and Steve Johnson. Blue Savoie would have loved waking upon the warm, cloudless day in Southern California, knowing his son started race day with an 11-point lead over Hines and a three-point lead over Krawiec, then seeing his son triumph by holding his own in the round. No, Blue Savoie passed away a cancer victim years ago, but he still contributed in a major way to this championship.

After the championship hoopla, complete with oversized $75,000 check, Jerry Savoie recalled the best racing advice his father gave him: “Bring home the money.”

He said his dad “would get on me. Because back then you didn’t have any traffic on Highway 90. I’d have my buddies knocking on the window at one o’clock in the morning: ‘Hey man. Got a guy who wants to run you.’ . . . ‘How much money?’ . . . ‘100 bucks’ . . . ‘All right. I’ll put my clothes on’ . . . I’m 14 years old. I’d go out there on Highway 90. I come back my daddy’d be waiting for me at two o’clock in the morning: ‘What’d you do?’ I said, ‘We went to race this guy.’ He said, ‘Did you win?’  . . . ‘Yes sir’, he said, ‘That’s all that matters.’ ”

So when the new champion got off his White Alligator Racing-branded bike at the top end in his victory over Johnson – and his season-long victory over everyone – and his brother came over and hugged him, he thought back to Blue.

“I hugged everybody, and everybody hugged me. And then my brother came over and we both started crying,” Savoie said.

“My dad was a big time drag racing fan. He liked John Force. I don’t know if I like John Force anymore,” Savoie said. “I was on the stage with him in Vegas, and I said, ‘Hey Mr. John, I’m proud to be up here with you’. He said, ‘Who are you?’ So John Force, I’m the Pro Stock Motorcycle World Champion, that’s who I am.”

Humble and soft-spoken, Savoie never at any point along his NHRA journey thought he would be champion. He just thought he would consider himself successful if he won a single race trophy. He came out the Racers For Christ chapel service Sunday morning and after listening to a message about encouragement, said to Enders, “Tell me how to win.” She simply replied, “You already know how.”

He proved her right and maybe finally proved it to himself.

His son Gerald III asked the new champion how he felt with his new title. And Savoie said, “I really don’t know. I’m so humbled to be out here and just to be able, at my age, to go down the track.”

He said, “I just wanted to come out and win one race. And to make this all possible, it wasn’t even a dream. I mean it wasn’t something I thought that I could even reach. But when you team up with a great guy like Tim Kulungian, and Jeremy Deroche and Steve Zellman, these guys have your back and Tim is a guru, you know. He’s the key to the whole package. I just try to do my best. I can’t thank him enough.

“You know, it’s kind of like raising alligators. I mean, people around the world know me and they want my skins over other people’s. And I don’t think I’m better than the rest. Same thing with racing. I feel like in my mind and my heart that other people can do this just as good, until you watch them come out and not succeed. So, you know, I’m just an old country boy. At my age for this to be successful, and I almost didn’t believe that. If you surround yourself with good people, good things happen,” Savoie said. “It’s been a good ride from the very beginning. I had a good crew chief from the beginning. Things didn’t work out. He taught me a lot. I still use some of the things he taught me each and every race. So, Mark Peiser is a hell of a man and I love him. You know, just Tim came along and I kind of clicked a little better with Tim. You put all your trust in the Lord and good things will happen. And I believe that. I mean, who would have thought this year? I mean the Harleys never went out like that. This was a first. So maybe He was looking down and said, ‘You know what? You’re a good man. I’m going to give you what you need’. All the credit goes to Him.”

He said when Sampey “outran Andrew, Andrew hadn’t really hit a home run all weekend. So, that wasn’t real surprising to me. But when Matt put it on Eddie, that was … I was sitting there looking at the screen going, ‘Come on Matt, come on Matt, come on Matt’. And he turned around and beat Eddie, that was pretty stout,” Savoie said.

“I didn’t even realize I won. Angelle was the one that started jumping all over me. I picked her up about four feet off the ground and I actually kissed her on the lips. And she went and told my wife, she said, ‘I just want to let you know it was on TV. He kissed me on the lips’. And my wife told her, ‘Don’t worry. I’m going to kiss you, too’. So, you know, we all family,” he said. “Everybody out here, the fans, we’re one big family.

And years ago, my boy, we was running Juniors. You know, we left the first track we ever went to in the state capital, me and my wife said, ‘Do you notice how different the people are here versus the people in the neighborhood?’ I said, ‘Yeah, this is one big family.’ So, you know, when you’re surrounded by love and confidence, it’s a pretty amazing thing.

He called Sampey, who halted his roll in the semifinals and was runner-up to Matt Smith in the final round, “my homegirl. It’s all good. You know, I want to thank Matt Smith for taking out Eddie, and I want to thank Angelle for taking out Andrew. That was pretty awesome.”

Blue would have thought so, too.