Jeff Pitre is not one to brag about his achievements as the reigning Western champion and sole motorcycle drag racer from the Northwest Territories.

The Yellowknife entrepreneur began drag racing motorcycles at age 45, after several years racing skidoos around the territory. In a small but dedicated community of motorcycle drag racers, Pitre has done well, winning the Western Championships in the V-Rod Destroyer category two years in a row and the National Championship in both Super Gas and XL 883 last year.

A relatively unknown sport outside of the racing world, motorcycle drag racing involves two motorcycles revving up and racing along a '1/4 mile' or 1320 foot strip. The rider to reach the end of the strip first wins.

Pitre races in two categories, the XL 883 class and the Super Gas class. The XL 883 is a standard drag race, where first to the finish line wins, each racer uses a Harley Davidson Sportster motorcycle. Pitre's specialty is Super Gas. This category involves racers on B Twin Harley Davidson motorcycles, trying to reach the finish line at the quickest time without going under 9.7 seconds. Pitre used to race in the V-Rod Destroyer class, switching over to Super Gas as he saw less and less competition in the other class.

SA国际影视传媒淚 always competed all my life, I mean I used to do track, I played football, hockey. I was always a jock. When I got older my body just couldn't take so I started using machines. Bikes I always wanted to try,SA国际影视传媒� Pitre said. After he started racing, Pitre said it took off from there and he has been winning both Western and national championships over the past three years.

Patrick Lambie at the Canadian Motorcycle Drag Racing Association said he sees Pitre get on the race track, switching from the easygoing and friendly type to a hyperfocused racer. He said Pitre's success is due to his consistency and a quick reaction time.

SA国际影视传媒淭he secret to drag racing is being consistent and also it's all about reaction time. When the tree turns green you've got to be gone, so he's very good at that,SA国际影视传媒� he said.

At the Badlands Nationals held in Medicine Hat, Alberta June 24 to 25, Pitre won the Super Gas category and came second in the XL 883. He achieved the same results at the Summer Nationals in Rimbey, Alberta from July 8 to 9.

With another win at the Northern Nationals August 12-13, and wins at the final two September race events, Pitre has a possibility to claim the national championship title once again.

The motorcycle drag racing world is a small one, made even smaller by a waning oil and gas sector. Lambie said across the board racing is taking a hit because of a slowing economy.

With tough times for the racing world, Pitre has been pitching in to help keep the sport alive. His company Pido Productions has been sponsoring trophies for the past few years. This year he bumped up his support a notch, sponsoring the XL 883 class.
SA国际影视传媒淚t shows to me that he really believes, he understands that racing is a tough gig right now. There's a lot of racing series that are discontinuing and the CMDRA is continuing along. But we're highly dependent on our sponsors,SA国际影视传媒� Lambie said.

Lambie said Pitre's committment, funding his participation in races that are often very expensive due to equipment and travel cost, is impressive.

SA国际影视传媒淭he fact that he travels down from Yellowknife for all these races, he's doing it because he loves it,SA国际影视传媒� he said.