Jerry Savoie shook the sand out of his leathers Friday night from a freakish Q2 trip into the “beach” at the end of the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona quarter-mile track – and shook the Pro Stock Motorcycle standings, taking the lead by a single point on the first day of the Auto Club NHRA Finals.
 
His White Alligator Racing Suzuki clocked a 6.856-second, 194.38-mph pass (slower than his chart-topping 6.844, 195.93 from earlier in the day). But he couldn’t get it stopped. He saved it from tumbling over and spilling him on the asphalt, but he ended up in the sand.
 
“I’ve been hit by a train and dragged 350 feet. I’ve crashed an airplane. You think this s--- scares me? You’ve got another think coming,” Savoie said.
 
He flies helicopters and raises alligators in his revenue-producing job in Cut Off, La. So it seemed perfectly natural for him to say, “We’ll clean it up and come back for more.”
 
Savoie will need more points if he is to prevent the Vance & Hines organization from earning a 12th championship in the past 20 seasons and a ninth in 13 years. He has one more point than Eddie Krawiec, who has two more points than Andrew Hines. Krawiec and Hines started the day tied for the lead with Savoie three points behind them.
 
The lanes, Savoie said, aren’t the same: “That left lane is so rough. We got into a bad wobble. It's a tough track. Both of the lanes are not the same. There's a three-quarter-of-an-inch difference from the left to right lane, so your wheelie-bar adjustments are totally different. It takes a little bit of figuring out.”
 

He said, "In the shutdown, you can clearly see on the slo-mo [camera] that everything went nice and smooth. I'm not picking on anybody or anything. It's so damn rough down there that if your bike is set up not to be really soft and if you hit those bumps, it will get away from you.
 
"I couldn't hit the brakes, or it would have spit me off. I just rode it out,” Savoie said.
 
“They had several riders that were upset, more upset than I was. They were struggling, too. I was actually thinking about Scotty Pollacheck, because I saw him do the same thing. The shutdown is really rough in the left lane. Here's the deal, and I told Tim [crew chief Kulungian], 'You're running for a championship, and you crash a motorcycle ... If you look at the film, I did nothing wrong. It was all due to the conditions of the track. They need to address it, do something about it."
 
Meanwhile, Kulungian and Co. will have some work overnight to be ready for Saturday’s final two qualifying sessions.
 
"We have the bike totally stripped down, both wheels off of it,” Savoie said, “but this thing is so buttoned up it's tough for any rocks to get inside. It's all apart. We'll clean the wheel bearings, brakes, and everything.” 
 
Savoie’s train accident happened in 1985 in Kenner, La., during his 30-year truck-driving career.
 
“Dragged 350 feet in reverse. I'm not proud of it," Savoie said.
 
He said he in an 18-wheeler, sitting three cars back at a red light. The cars started to move. I began shifting when I heard him blow the horn, and he was 100 feet away. None of the lights or the [safety crossing] arms worked at the crossing. We went to court over it, and they lost,” he said. "He hit me and I got hung up in the front grill [of the train], and I stood up to jump out [of the truck] and I quickly realized that wasn't the right thing to do. So I sat down and just rode it out.
 
"[When we stopped] I looked up at the top of the train and couldn't see anyone. They were all laying down, hurt,” Savoie said. “I got the better end of the deal.”
 
As if it just this moment occurred to him, he said reflectively, “I fly helicopters during the summer. It’s dangerous. I fly out of the envelope all day long. We fly 150 feet [from the ground]. If something happened, we cannot recover. Everything I do has some risk to it. You put your faith in God and you go home at the end of the day. If you have to worry every time you take a step, you won't leave this building."
 
His plane crash was more recent. It happened this May on his way home from the Atlanta race.
 
"When I left Atlanta, flew back to Louisiana, and a friend of mine begged me to drop him off, 9 o'clock at night. It's a Cessna 206. I landed perfectly, but when the front wheel touched the ground, it took a left-hand turn and never stopped. I couldn't bring it back. As a matter of fact, when it folded everything under, the right pedals were still all the way to the floor,” Savoie said. 
 
"The nose wheel was to the left, folded over and in the grass. A full investigation by the FAA, and my license didn't get suspended,” he said. “A friend of mine with the exact same plane, and his son was filming, it touched down and did the same thing. It never stopped, but his was in the daylight, and he was able to save it." 
 
And Savoie was able Friday evening to save – better yet, enhance – his chance to win the championship.