Pete Hill
1990, Competition
On November 2, 1932, when Dessie Hill gave birth to a baby boy
named Carl Thomas Hill, who would have known he would grow up to be
Pete Hill, motorcycle racer?
If you asked his two sisters, they would probably have told you
about his fascination with motorcycles. Once Christmas parade in
his home town was all it took! He was totally fascinated by those
two wheeled machines that made all that noise and went fast!
The excitement never ended for him either. When he got to be a teenager,
the first thing on his mind was to find himself a Harley Davidson,
in any shape, just to have it for his own. As luck would have it,
it wasn't long before one was found - and as anyone who knows Pete
would logically guess, it wasn't long after that the modifications
on the engine were to be top priority.
His best friend had a Triumph and Pete had to outrun him. Speed parts
were not easy to come by, but someone in California was marketing
a dual carburetor set up he read about in Cycle magazine. It was
outrageously priced for someone in his financial position, but get
it he did. He made his ouw -- the Triumph was history!
When I met hime, he had a garage full of Harleys. Some of them were set
up for drag racing, some for touring, and some for just leisure riding,
but they were all fast.
After we were married, he sold them for a down payment on our first
house. I really didn't realize just how much he missed them until he
went down to Daytona one year for Bike Week with some friends. After that,
it wasn't long before there was another Harley with us... and its been
the same ever since.
After our son Tommy was born, we got into some drag racing a supercharged
alcohol knucklehead. We campaigned this for a few years, and were pretty
successful with it. We learned a lot about a supercharged engine and how
to keep one together.
We stopped racing for a few year but he never lost his love of drag racing.
He still went to a lot of big meets like the Indy Nationals. He would come
home from these races and tell me about some of the Top Fuel motorcycles that
were beginning to run there. I was home with a new baby girl named Barbara
during those years, so all I knew was what he and Tommy told me about these
motorcycles.
In 1976, he made a big mistake though. He took me to Indianapolis and I saw a
Top Fuel motorcycle go down the track and I was hooked!
We had opened our motorcycle shop by then and I was working with hime there and
I had learned to love Harleys as much as he did. All I could think about was
building a Top Fuel Harley, It didn't take a lot to convince him, either, so we
had a frame built and went to work. It took two years to get this motorcycle
finished, but we were really excited about it.
We finished 4th in points for IDBA this first year. We felt this was quite an
accomplishment. In 1979 we finished #3 for dragbike! Number 2 in 1980 and #1 in 1981.
In 1979 IDBA awarded us the First Family of Drag Racing Award.
There have been many memorable races and experiences over the years that we
have been running the current bike, but each time you analyze these, they were
memorable because of the people who were there in the stands cheering you on.
This is what has been one of the best parts of racing.
The MMA race in California in 1981, was one of these. The fans poured into the pits
after our win, and as one of the other racers was heard to say, it was Pete Hills
day! We've had many more!
The burnout on Main Street in Sturgis has to be another highlight. It just happened,
but the reaction we have had from people over the years about this is unbelievable.
The crowd loved it, the promoters of the race loved it, and so did Pete!
Pete has always loved doing these kind of things, like running the bike on Daytona
Beach during the Sand Drags held there in the early 80's. He just wanted to be able
to say he was the fastest bike to run the beach - 147 mph.
Dirt drag exhibition were also fun for him. The looser the motorcycle, the more
he enjoyed the ride!
Then there are the special races like Truett & Osborn in Wichita. You just had to
be there to experience it!
In 1988, Pete ran the fourth Harley Davidson in the world that run a 4 second
eigth mile. This was quite an accomplishment for us and definitely one of the highlights.
This was at Clarksvill Dragstrip in Tennessee. Also, Pete won the #1 plate for AMRA
that year and again in 1989. In October of 1989 he again went to Tennessee and set
a world record for Harleys on this same strip - 4.75 seconds in 1/8th mile.
It's nice to hace these notches in our belts, but if it weren't for the friends and
fans met and enjoyed it wouldn't be nearly so good. Pete has always said his main goal
in life is to be liked by his friends in racing and other people he meets. Maybe this
induction into the Hall of Fame indicated his success in this endeavor. If so, thanks
to all of you!
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