The Last Big Harley Drags For Atlanta Dragway

Story and photoS by alan dockery

everal carolina

race teams were at Commerce, Georgia’s Atlanta Dragway in the middle of April for the last race down this famous strip. Well, the last Big Harley Drags anyway. Two weeks later the National Hot Rod Association held the Southern Nationals as the Final Event T-Shirts declared racing there is over.

Next time you see Bill Rowe, All Harley Drag Racing Association Boss, thank him for setting up this race and giving us one more time to enjoy a great old drag strip. A large apartment community has been built overlooking the staging lanes. And we know, those folks ain’t gonna be race fans. Like so many race tracks the property is too valuable for us to just play on it.

OK, wipe the tears outta your eyes and I’ll tell y’all a little about the race. Atlanta was the 2021 season opener for the All Harley Drag Racing Association. Bill revived AHDRA last year and Harley Drags fans are happy since it means we get more races in our area. Commerce was a good one, too. I saw several of my old biker race fans there. Some even camped “on the hill” like we did for many years.

A bunch of the Top Fuel field in Georgia was from the Carolinas or had close ties. Jay Turner Racing machines based in Julian, NC, were well represented. Many of the entries in the field was racers y’all know. Tii Tharpe, East Bend, NC; Tyler Wilson, Walnut Cove, NC; Mike Beland, Maiden, NC and Tracy Kile, Asheville, NC, competed in the Top Fuel field. Jay Turner made it to the final round before losing to Ryan Perry.

Johnny Vickers and his Hawaya Racing shop in the mountains is building Top Fuel Harleys now. Tim Kerrigan from California rode one of Johnny’s newest, very impressive builds. I need to ride over to Johnny’s shop and do a story for y’all on his new Top Fuelers.

Armon Furr, Orangeburg, SC, lost to Michael Balch in the Nitro Funny Bike final round. Sam White, Chapin, SC, went out in the Pro Fuel Semi-final round. Mike Motto, Richlands, NC, won the Pro Open Class. Man, I love those big motor gas bikes.

Ken Strauss, Terrell, NC, qualified at the top of the quickest index class, Top Eliminator, running against a 9.30 second index. Then he won it in the final round with a 9.473.

Sorry if I missed some of the other Carolina teams, I didn’t get my usual paperwork this time. I saw lots of the Bagger Draggin’ Guys from North and South Carolina. Those bikes are fun to

Tii Tharpe

Tracy Kile watch. They do big burnouts on those powerful built streettype machines. And with no wheelie bars, they can be tough to hold down. So, I dig the wheelies as they hit second gear and hook up.

Some of the sportsman class racers y’all cheer for were down there in Georgia. Richard Boone and David Minton were making passes. The Big Injun Guys from Cherokee and Rick Medford were going rounds. The Dial-In ET Class is always full of local racers. Sadly, another famous old drag strip is gone to the developers. I liked going to Commerce where they first raced in the mid1970’s. For my adult life, it was a nice upscale strip. My buddies and I camped there many weekends. Several of us celebrated our birthdays in Mid-April at Harley Drags in Georgia. Even when they would not let us to camp with just our motorcycles and tents inside the fence, and made us camp across the ditch, we always had fun at Commerce. But ya know what, we still have Rockingham Dragway and some other great strips. If you want to see a whole bunch of Nitro-Fueled Harley Drag Bikes plus lots of quick gas bikes and sportsman racers, then you must come to Rockingham Dragway June 4 – 6 for the AHDRA Nitro Summer Nationals. We will be camped in the shade for the weekend and having a great time at the Harley Drags.