Jerry Savoie said when he began his NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racing career almost a dozen years ago at age 52 that he “just wanted to win one race.” 

It has turned into a series championship and 14 victories, with his triumph Sunday at Bristol, Tenn., at the Thunder Valley Nationals. 

It was an emotional accomplishment for Savoie, for a number of reasons. 

If nothing else, it capped a steaming hot day in which he faced a tricky track and a buzz-saw of competitors. First, he faced four-time champion Eddie Krawiec. Next in his way was gritty Joey Gladstone, who already has proven he is willing to drag his battered body out of a hospital bed to get back on a bike that put him in there to begin with. 

As if they weren’t enough to keep him off-guard, Angie Smith – who set and lowered the best elapsed time of the meet in her first two Sunday appearances – was his semifinal opponent. And if he were to win, he would have to beat a resolute Angelle Sampey, the top qualifier and the three-time champ from his part of the Louisiana bayou. 

(“They’re fast, Eddie and Angelle,” he said. “She's so tiny the bike doesn't even know she's on it. So, she's got a slight advantage. But they're bad-ass. They've always treated us good, and we respect them. Here we are. I'm just glad it's not the Harley and Suzuki days. I'm glad it’s the Suzuki against the Buells and V-Twins.”) 

In between facing Smith and Sampey, Savoie blew up his motor, which led to a frenzied 32-minute engine swap before the final. And before he rolled to the starting line, he already felt in debt to Sampey for her patience and the race officials who agreed to swap the final-round order with the Pro Stock class to give him more time to get in place. 

“Today in third round, we broke an engine, so we made a swap and went back to a two valve, which worked out. No tune-up, really. It's like the first hit on it. So it was all good,” he said. 

Winning under such circumstances would be emotionally draining at any event. But the fact this was Fathers Day added a dimension of sentiment to it. And when he took advantage of Sampey’s red-light disqualification and won with a 6.929-second elapsed time on the Bristol Dragway quarter-mile at 194.30 mph, Savoie paid tribute to his late father, whose nickname was “Blue.” 

Through tears, Savoie held his trophy and said, “His blood runs through my veins. He gave me my need for speed. Blue, I love you.” 

Later, he said, “The most important thing as far as this day . . . my dad passed away years ago. He's a big drag-racing fan. I don't know why, but he loves John Force. I never figured that one out, but my uncles are all gone now. But all of them had that need for speed. I'm just so thankful that on this weekend, on this day, that I could dedicate this trophy to him.” 

Almost everyone else in the class had acquired some data from the Pro Stock Motorcycle’s first-ever visit to Bristol Dragway last fall during the Countdown. But Savoie wasn’t there in October. He was back home in Cut Off, La., contending with the area’s third hurricane in a year or so and all the damage it left in its wake at his home and large-scale alligator farm. And he had missed the previous race with a broken toe. So he was just a little bit behind the curve.

And the 63-year-old said his preferences are changing: “I'm having fun. I'm in that age now. I don't like traveling. I like being home. I got a dear wife at home [Vonnie]. I love her very much, and I just don't like being away from home. So if you ever see me not out here anymore, it's not because I don't love racing, not because I don't love the people, because I want to be home. I got cattle. I got alligators coming out my wazoo.” 

Besides, he said Pro Stock Motorcycle is “a tough class. People think it's easy, but, man, trust me.” 

So he couldn’t hold back at the top end, as this complex bundle of emotions came spilling out. 

“I said I wouldn't cry, now I got down there, and man, I'd be damned if I didn't cry,” Savoie said. “You get to be my age and you can run with these youngsters – you got to keep it together.” 

Overall, though, he said, “To be running out here with all these youngster and all these pretty girls, God has blessed me.” 

God also has blessed Jerry Savoie with crew chief Tim Kulungian and . . . um . . . Goober, Lily, and a pair of pink socks dotted with alligators. 

“Goober is the name of the engine, and he's named after my son when he was a young boy. Goober and Lily are the two names we won the championship with and we ran really good in 2016 and 2019. Tim’s got so much information on this engine.  He just put everything in and put a tune-up on it,” Savoie said. “We missed the 60-foot, but if we didn't have this shake, I think we could have ran with the four-valve this weekend. I'll be surprised in Norwalk if we're not running a two-valve. I mean, the weight limit’s ridiculous. You weigh 590 compared to 630. So we possibly could go back to the two-valve. We can run with it. 

“I think right now you have a thing between the Monster head and the Vance & Hines head. I don't think we touched the surface yet, but we're really trying to get a handle on it, and we run against them. Tim is very professional. He does a lot of work at home to try to make our program better,” he said. 

As for the socks, Savoie was happy to roll up his pantleg and show them off before the race and afterward. 

“When we did the driver intro, they said, ‘What you're going to say? What are you going to tell Eddie?’ I said, ‘I'm only going to say a very few words, but you see that?’” Savoie said, pointing to his novelty socks. “That’s alligators, and what do alligators do? They eat things. So that's my lucky socks.” 

Savoie ate up the round-wins Sunday, and he, like Top Fuel racer Mike Salinas, has fallen in love with Bristol Dragway.

“When I came here, I said, ‘It's a beautiful place. I’d love to win one here.’ Some kind of magic about it. It's just a beautiful place,” he said. “The sound, the echo coming off the hills. Whoever planned this out really thought well. You did a great job.” 

Maybe in the stillness of these beautiful Tennessee hills after all the noise died down Sunday, Savoie could hear the echo meant for him: “You did a good job.”