Dirt
Big-Money
Bracket
Bikes
Roy Hagadorn scores
historic $50,000 payday
at NHDRO’s Big Show
By Tim Hailey
It was a straight-up bracket hustler’s
convention. The most dangerous
motorcycle bracket racers in the nation
converged on Lucas Oil Raceway in
Brownsburg, Indiana, for the $62,000 BB Racing
Bracket Shootout—the biggest-ever payout in
motorcycle drag racing history. It was all part of
NHDRO’s Big Show, July 30-August 2, which
included the rain-delayed June race.
Two ladders – one with delay boxes and one
without – with 64 bikes each ran off to put a
finalist from each ladder in one big final round.
Round after round, blow-by-blow, with margins
of victory decided by tens of thousandths until
each bracket boiled down to finals.
Box eliminations saw Tennessee’s Ronnie
Woodall Jr. coolly slicing his way through the
field to meet Florida legend Roy Hagadorn in the
final. In a perfect example of what defined winning
and losing in this intense event, Woodall’s
.015 light was just far enough behind Hagadorn’s
.011 to push him out too far with a 9.311 on his
9.32 dial in the double breakout race. Hagadorn
ran an 8.844 on his 8.85 dial-in.
Two street bike racers reached the No-Box
final – Louisville racer Terry Hoke and Gateway
regular Janie Palm. Hoke’s light went red as a
Cardinal, sending Palm to the Big final.
So there it was, the defining battle of sportsman
motorcycle drag racing—Palm on her true,
stock hand-clutch Suzuki Hayabusa street bike
vs. Box skills master Hagadorn on a Suzuki GS
wheelie bar bike.
Palm was stellar at the tree, nailing a .007
Bond Bulb to Hagadorn’s .021. But then it was
Roy who was Bad to the Bond, going dead-on with
a .007 against his 8.85 dial. Janie’s 9.133 on her
9.11 left her $38,000 short and lit Hagadorn’s win
light – Palm’s closest round of the day.
Last year’s Big Money bracket winner (a quaint
$12,000 by comparison, and $1,000 less than
what Palm got to runner-up this year) Tom Klemme
rode an ancient KZ Kawasaki from the
late 1970s. This year, Hagadorn won $50,000
on a bike he bought brand new in 1981, proving
that it doesn’t have to be new or fancy to be lethal
and profitable. As someone once said, “It’s not
about the bike.”
“I put 160 miles on it and I’ve drag raced it
ever since,” Hagadorn says.
“I wanna thank my daughter and my wife,”
continues Hagadorn, who also thanked his crew
and friends. “My daughter, every round, dialed
me in from Florida. She’d punch in [to her computer]
the weather every time. On my two time
runs yesterday, she’d say ‘Dad, it’s gonna run 8.82
with a 2,’ and it ran 8.82 with a 2. She came back
and said ‘Dad, it’s gonna run 8.88 with a 2,’ and
it ran 8.88 with a 2.”
“To my knowledge and research, Roy is the
winningest drag racer ever, or at least in the top
four,” says drag racing historian Bret Kepner, who
inducted Hagadorn into the East Coast Drag
Racing Hall of Fame in 2015. “NHRA? Can’t find
anybody close. He has won the Division II bike
title at least 10 times.”
“This, by far, is the biggest race I’ve ever won,”
says Hagadorn, casting huge praise on NHDRO’s
Big Show and its 128 competitors – the absolute
best motorcycle bracket racers on the planet, with
the exception of NHDRO’s many Canadian racers
who couldn’t cross the border due to COVID19
restrictions.
The NHDRO’s Big Show also featured numerous
other classes, with winners including Chad Isley
in BB Racing Super Comp, Chase Van Sant in
Pro Ultra 4.60, Terry Hoke in the Pro Ultra 6.40
Shootout, Joe Deck in Hardcore Cycles Top Gas
8.20, Jeremy Teasley in M2.Shocks 8.70 Quick
Street, Richard Gadson in HTP Super Stock, Brad
Christian in both Pro Street and the Pro Street
Shootout, Ron Arnold in Dirty 30, Jason Keller
in MPS Pro ET, Wes Brown in Kevin Dennis
Insurance Street ET and Kaleigh Welch in Hard
Times Parts & Service Jr. Dragster. DI
PHOTOS: TIM HAILEY
32 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated.com Issue 159