Elmer Trett and the Gods of Thunder: Introduction
About This Series
This article is part of an ongoing monthly series on Dragbike.com featuring select chapters from Elmer Trett and the Gods of Thunder, the 2012 biography by Senior Editor Tom McCarthy. Released throughout 2026 to honor the 30th anniversary of Elmer Trett’s passing, this series chronicles the life, legacy, and impact of one of the most influential figures in motorcycle drag racing history. Each chapter explores Trett’s journey from humble beginnings to global Top Fuel dominance, while also preserving the deeper history of the sport and the pioneers who shaped it. New chapters are published monthly exclusively on Dragbike.com.
Read Series Intro to learn more.
Elmer Trett and the Gods of Thunder (Abridged): Introduction
This book began a very long time ago with my initial infatuation with Top Fuel motorcycle drag racing in the summer of 1980, when I read a magazine article entitled “Fuel Frenzy at Fremont.” As a soon to be racer, when I read of the exploits of Elmer Trett, I started to read everything I could get my hands on about motorcycle drag racing and, most of all, about this guy, Trett.
Later that year, I met Elmer at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. It was impossible not to be in awe of him and his immaculate machine. A year later, when I completed building my first Harley drag bike, I was stunned to learn Elmer had “jumped the fence,” and started building a Jap bike. From 1981 forward, I always noted his every move and it took me decades to understand the man: how and why he did what he did. His results as a racer were staggering on an annual basis.
In 1981, I not only embarked on a life long journey as a motorcycle drag racer, but as a journalist. It was only fitting to me to write this book about a man who I watched so closely, a man I learned so much from. Now that the story of the life and times of Elmer Trett is a reality, there are many people I need to thank who have helped me bring this book to life.
First, I would like to thank Facebook, where in November of 2010, I discovered Kelly Trett-Thomason, who I knew immediately was Elmer Trett’s daughter. My sudden reconnection with Kelly and the Trett family soon led me to have her ask her mother, Jacquelyn Trett, Elmer’s widow, for her blessings to start this book. Jackie’s nod to begin was the nudge I needed to write the book I had been waiting to write for decades. Without the social medium of Facebook, there is no telling how much longer this book would have remained unwritten. To Kelly Trett-Thomason, Jacquelyn Trett, Kent Thomason; thank you, this book would not have happened were it not for you.
To my kids, Megan Jade Carroll and Patrick McCarthy, you’re always there for me as I will always be for you. I’m lucky to be your Dad.
To my ex-wife, Kelly McCarthy, had you not taught me to reach out beyond myself, I would never have gone where I have been nor accomplished what I have done.
To John Shumaker, who allowed me into his shop to see where he and Elmer created some of the world’s most powerful drag bike engines ever built by man: thank you for taking the time to tell me of your dear friend, and thank you for the mechanical masterpieces you and Elmer created.
To Elmer’s sisters, Lillian and Vela Trett, who took the time to tell me of their years with their little brother who they will always love and fondly remember. Thank you so much. To Darrell Trett, Orla Lee Smith, Wilma Smith, and Robert Smith, thank you for inviting my son and me into your lives, and thank you for the recollections of Elmer you shared with us all.
To Steve Ruggiero, who first introduced and seduced me into motorcycle drag racing, you magnificent bastard you, thank you!
To Larry and Stevie McBride, as well as the entire “Spiderman” race team: you have helped keep Top Fuel motorcycle alive and have kept Elmer’s memory alive as well. The sport is better for it, we are all in your debt.
To Vic Force, your help in researching old motorcycle drag racing magazine clippings was vital to the research for this book.
The following people, in alphabetical order, in one form or another, have also contributed to this book: Andy Gotsis, Bob Frink, Bob Spina, Bo O’Brachta, Brian Johnson, Bruce Owens, Byron Hines, Carl Ahlfeldt, Chris and Sharon Hand, Clyde Denser, Danny Johnson, Dave Schnitz, Dick Prime, Floyd Olinger, Frank Spittle, Fred Brunson, George Smith and S&S Cycle, Gina Trett-Lang, Greg McCormick, James “Puppet” DiTullio, Jerry Cooper, Jim Fox of ART, Joe Smith, Joe Thronson, John Alwine, John Dixon, Kenny Youngblood, Ken Tipton, Keith Lee, Kevin McKenna, Leo Castell, Marion Owens, Mark Miller, Mary Lou Brewton, Mike Grey, Pete Hill, Peter Barnhart, Phil Burgess, Ray Price, Rick Stetson, Roy Holder, Roy Strawn, Ron Webb, Russ Collins, Sam Wills, Sandy Kosman, Steve Stordeur, Terry Vance, Tom Loughlin, Tony Lang and Family, Vela Chapell, Wayne Davis.
If I missed anyone, please know it was not intentional.
Elmer Trett and the Gods of Thunder
By Tom McCarthy
© 2012 Tom McCarthy, DBA TMC Publishing
PO Box 524, West Brookfield, MA, 01585
All rights reserved. No portion of this material may be copied or reprinted by any means without the expressed written consent of TMC Publishing.
ISBN: 978-0-615-61075-7
This book is dedicated to:
Elmer Trett, Carl Ahlfeldt, Bo O’Brachta, Mike Gray and Sam Wills.
Because I told you I would
“It’s not what you have in life that matters; it’s what you do with it.”
– Tom McCarthy
By Larry “Spiderman” McBride – April 9, 2011
Elmer Trett is an American motorcycle drag racing hero, an icon to the sport. The thousands of fans worldwide and racers who encountered him during his racing years from 1970 to 1996, will never forget him.
In 1978, when I was dirt dragging with my mentor, Squeaky Bell, I watched the motorcycle magazines pretty close. That was about the first time I laid eyes on the name Elmer Trett. He was racing a double engine Harley Davidson at that time. Squeaky and I had been on dirt drags. Squeaky came to me one day and said, “I’m build’n you a nitro bike, we’re going drag racing on asphalt.” I already knew then Elmer was the man to beat.
When I was twenty years old, I met Elmer Trett for the first time and I was in awe of him. Elmer was thirty-five at the time, and had been racing a long time. Everybody knew his name, so when it came to building a nitro bike to go drag racing, it just made sense to look him up. That was the start of our sixteen years of racing together.
I can’t tell you how many hundreds of hours we spent on the phone together, the number of passes we made down the quarter mile together, or the nights we spent just sit’n and talkin’; two country boys who just liked to go fast. Elmer was one of a kind and I don’t think the world will ever see the likes of him again, certainly not in my lifetime.
In the almost two decades we raced together, Elmer accomplished pretty much everything there is to accomplish in a life time as a Top Fuel motorcycle racer. He set track records at almost every drag strip he ever raced at, broke the world speed records repeatedly and was always ready to help fellow racers. If you borrowed parts from Elmer, then beat him, he was ok with that. He was always about Top Fuel motorcycle drag racing.
A Top Fuel bike is unlike any other motorcycle in this world. They’re the biggest and the baddest, and that was Elmer: he was the biggest and the baddest of us all. No matter who did what, from 1979 until his death in 1996 , Elmer was the King and we all followed him. As far back as I can remember, he was always the man to beat. Every dog has their day, but Elmer was top dog.
The only goal Elmer didn’t attain was breaking the five second barrier that I broke, but he deserved that so much more than I did. I only did it because he paved the way for me. That’s why to this very day, as long as I race, I wear an Elmer Trett t-shirt under my race leathers every pass I make. Elmer was the man.
Elmer was the first Top Fuel motorcycle drag racer to officially break the 200 mph barrier for Top Fuel bikes. He was also the first to go 210 mph, 220 mph, 230 mph and he eclipsed 235 mph in the quarter mile before his death in September of 1996. I will never forget that day as long as I live. I was on my bike in the lane right behind him when he made his last pass.
This book is important because people need to know who he is, what he accomplished, and the sacrifices he made along the way to become the best of the best. I am where I am today as a racer because Elmer helped me get here. Top Fuel bikes, as a class, are where they are because it was Elmer that showed us how. We are all faster, better racers in Top Fuel because Elmer was here. If you don’t know who Elmer Trett is, you don’t know much about Top Fuel motorcycle drag racing.
– Larry McBride
This is the story of a country boy who grew up, barefoot at times, but always wide eyed with endless curiosity. His love of motorcycles, doing what he loved and loving what he did took him, and his name, around the world more than once.
Not bad for a kid with an eighth-grade education.
There are many forms of motorcycle drag racing in the world of speed. Classes, sanctions and categories come and go, but they all have one thing in common: Top Fuel motorcycle drag racing sits at the head of the table. No category of motorcycle racing is faster or more dangerous in all of drag racing.
Every Top Fuel (T/F) motorcycle racer knows that when they zip up their head to toe leather suit, slide on their ‘best that money can buy’ helmet and pull on their gloves, this is their roll cage. There is nothing between the racer and the race track except this thin false skin, a trust in God, and a roll of the dice that they may return safely from a pass down 1,320 feet of race track at mind-numbing speeds.
A T/F motorcycle accelerates from zero to 100 mph in less than two seconds. Two seconds later, at half track, the bike may well be going 199 mph, if it’s on a good pass. Then something magical and almost incomprehensible happens as the bike is shifted into high gear; time to go now. The remaining 660’ of race track, known as the “back half”, can be covered by a properly tuned T/F bike in less than two seconds.
Like a motorcycle out of a science fiction movie, the machine violently accelerates as if shot from a cannon when high gear is engaged. The land-locked missile now covers the back half of the track in less than half the time it took to run the first half! In less than six seconds, the safest part of the ride is completed at the finish line. Now comes the dangerous part; stopping the thundering beast.
Bringing a ten-foot-long, one-thousand-pound, thousand-horsepower motorcycle to a stop from a pass at over 200 mph, is not easy. Especially when said motorcycle has a giant marshmallow for a rear tire. One wrong move and this day will end very badly. It takes great skill, great focus and no fear to race a Top Fuel bike.
Apprehensions; every fuel racer has them. Concerns; yes. Men drive these bikes, not robots. They know, at any time, Murphy’s Law can come into effect. Fear has no place in a Top Fuel pilot’s combination. Fear causes panic, panic kills people. All motorcycle drag racers know this. Top Fuel motorcycle drag racing is strictly for lions, no lambs are allowed. In the history of Top Fuel motorcycle drag racing, one lion stood above the pride for over fifteen years: Mr. Elmer Trett.During his reign of power from 1979 to 1996, there were many challengers to his throne. Some even managed to beat him on occasion. This only served to push Elmer to greater levels of performance, and in two seasons of racing, or less, he always managed to go faster or quicker than his opponents. Elmer Trett was always about performance in racing. He wanted to be the fastest and quickest motorcycle drag racer in the world and he accomplished that on many occasions during his decade and a half of performance.
Elmer was in a perpetual state of development with his machines. There were days when he had it figured out, and days he wished he did. He never stopped trying. With his steadfast and stubborn nature, eventually Elmer always became the faster, quicker racer. Because Elmer was always going quicker and or faster every year, every top fuel motorcycle racer on the planet followed his exploits closely. Some even challenged him. He found great amusement in this, as well as motivation.
Every Top Fuel bike that races today is a descendant of Elmer’s racing machines that he built or designed during his reign of power. Mr. Trett was an innovator, a curious custodian of all things related to nitromethane racing. Elmer was not always the first with an idea, but whatever the case, no one did it better than Elmer during his time.
Elmer was an endless tinkerer who could never leave well enough alone. “Good enough” was never good enough for Elmer. He just instinctively knew inside him there was a better way to do things. He also knew that if he looked hard and long enough, he’d find what he was looking for, with the end result that he would go faster than everyone else.
If Elmer were here today and someone asked him what he thought about his career, all he accomplished in his more than two decades of drag racing, his answer would be typical Elmer Trett, “Not bad for a guy with an eighth grade education. Thank you.”
The humble man from Kentucky’s accomplishments came through focused devotion to a single cause and at great personal sacrifice, including his loss of life on September 1, 1996. As history has so often taught mankind, great men who accomplish great things often do so at great price.
This book is to not only chronicle his accomplishments, but celebrate his life and salute the American dream: If you want it badly enough, if you devote yourself to something completely, you can accomplish your dreams. Elmer Trett’s life was the epitome of the life lesson, it’s not what you have in life that matters, it’s what you do with it.
– Tom McCarthy
Series Introduction: An American Motorcycle Racing Icon
Table of Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Foreword
Epitaph
Chapters
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Humble Beginnings
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The Origins of Mountain Magic
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Changes: The Teen Years
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North to Ohio
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Fuelish Intentions
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Class Dismissed
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Fateful Liaisons
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A Terminal Lesson
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Single Solution
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Very Unpopular Decisions
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It’s Not What You Have in Life That Matters
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Historical Developments
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The Trett Power Evolution
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International Expansion
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The Big One That Got Away
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The Beast From the East
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Trett Immortalized
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Five Second Fate
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Epilogue: Along Came a Spider
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The Gods of Thunder
The Next Installment of Elmer Trett and the Gods of Thunder will be released on February 1, 2026, on Dragbike.com
| For those interested in owning a printed copy of the original book, please contact Tom McCarthy. Limited copies are available. |
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