Motorcyclist wins $75K prize in race
Luling native Jerry Savoie decided to chase his dream and become a professional motorcycle racer at the age of 52, simply hoping to maybe one day win a race — this hope in spite of a 30-year layoff from Savoie riding at all.
This was in 2011. Just five years later, Savoie had not only long surpassed the goal of winning a single race, but now could call himself world champion.
Savoie, now 57, clinched the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series world championship in the Pro Stock Motorcycle division at Sunday’s NHRA finale in Pomona, Calif. Savoie clinched the season title when he reached the semifinals and his two closest competitors were eliminated in the quarterfinals, thus cementing him at the top of his division’s points list. He won two races this season and secured four runner-up finishes.
“Everything just reminds me of being a young teenager, going up and down the street racing in St. Charles Parish,” Savoie said. “I’m living a dream for a lot of people.”
Savoie was an accomplished motorcyclist in his youth, the Hahnville High School alumnus breaking records racing locally in the 1970s. He gave up the sport in 1979 as he began to raise a family.
But eventually, he found himself around the sport and found the itch again — this time, to ride professionally at the national level.
“That fire still burns in me,” he said. “I’ve always had that edge. To find myself in this position and to win a world championship, that’s a pretty amazing feeling.”
Savoie proved he still had his instincts on the racetrack as well. Despite his more than 30-year layoff, he finished eighth in points in his rookie season in 2011.
One thing that kept him around the sport was his friendship with Angelle Sampey, also a native of Luling and successful professional racer. Sampey captured the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle championship three times in her career, earning the crown in three straight years from 2000-2002.
“We both lived in Mimosa Park,” Savoie said. “I’ve been very good friends with her mom and dad and she went to school with my brother.”
Sampey, incidentally, finished fourth at the NHRA finale, and handed her old friend an assist along the way.
“She knocked out my closest competitor in the points race (in the quarterfinals),” Savoie said. “We were hugging and celebrating. It’s pretty cool that we’re both world champions and both from St. Charles Parish … it’s funny how life comes full circle.”
The uniqueness of his story doesn’t end with his late entry to the sport. An alligator farmer by day who has a farm in Cut Off, Savoie believes some of his skills from that job followed him onto the track.
“Raising alligators is a challenge in itself,” Savoie said. “We fly in helicopters, run in airboats. It tests your reactions and keeps the brain fresh. At a late age, my reactions are still good.”
He also did it his own way. Rather than join an established racing team, Savoie formed his own with a name inspired by his other profession, White Alligator Racing.
“These guys are my family,” Savoie said. “No animosity, no stress. Instead of riding someone else’s bike, I ride my own. To do what we’ve done, on our own, our way with our own equipment. We’ve truly been blessed.”
The championship victory almost didn’t happen as Savoie nearly retired in 2015. A brief health scare — a biopsy revealed potentially cancerous lesions in his throat, though later tests came back negative and quelled those fears — and the fact Savoie desired more time at home with his family became the motivators behind the idea he might walk away.
“I stuck it out another year,” he said. “I’m glad I did.”And while the idea retiring as world champion might be tempting, he plans to ride for at least one more year. “Who knows where it takes me? I might want to step aside and maybe focus on being a team owner one day and let someone else ride. But I’ll be out there racing for one more year at the age of 58.”
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