Drag Illustrated Issue 149, October 2019 | Page 26
Dirt
The Trophies Tell the Story
G
eorge Bryce has a problem. He
doesn’t know what comes next.
But the six-time championship-
winning NHRA Pro Stock Bike team
owner isn’t going through some sort of exis-
tential crisis; he’s anxious about what’s in store
for Star Power, his high-performance Harley-
Davidson engine shop that got its start as Star
Racing nearly 40 years ago. At 65 years old,
he recognizes it’s time to start thinking about
passing the business on to the next generation.
Turns out, however, that’s not nearly as easy as
it might seem.
“I’m not closing the doors. I’m not even ready
to quit racing,” insists Bryce, who these days is
driving (he disdains the term, “riding”) “Bag Zilla,”
his 9-second, 145-mph, street-legal H-D Road
King bagger. “And you know, there are people that
tell me almost every week, ‘Man, I would come
there and work for free if I could just learn from
you.’ And that’s cool and all, but I really would
hate for it to just fade away.
“Because it’s not just about the will to win, it’s
really the will to prepare to win. That was said by
the great Vince Lombardi and the will to prepare
to win is really hard work,” Bryce stresses. “It’s
like when a guy’s watching us on TV or reading
the magazines or looking at all the cool videos
online, it’s all just a snapshot of a moment after
a long time of preparation.
“We would work for weeks and weeks and
weeks to prepare for a few seconds on the race
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track, a few seconds in the winner’s circle and a
few seconds for an interview on TV. What you
don’t see is how it took weeks and months of
preparation to reach that moment. And there’s
just not many people that want to put in that kind
of work for that small of a return. It takes a very
unusual person.”
A literal wall of Wallys greets
visitors as they enter the Star
facility in Americus, Geor-
gia, attesting to the type of
person Bryce has been since
moving from Florence, South
Carolina, in 1980 with his new
bride, Jackie.
Together they built Star Rac-
ing, a quarter-mile dynasty that
began with Bryce on the bikes,
but eventually included the
late John Myers, who earned
the team’s first three NHRA
championships (1990, ‘92, ‘95);
Angelle Sampey, who won three
consecutive class titles (2000-
’02) on her way to becoming the
winningest female professional
racer ever; double-below-the-
knee amputee Reggie Showers,
who in 2003 delivered for Star
a legendary U.S. Nationals win;
and among several others, reign-
ing Pro Stock Motorcycle champ
Matt Smith in the early stages of
his career.
However, after enduring rules
setbacks and a two-year reunion
with Sampey that ended in team-splitting acri-
mony, Bryce called it quits on professional racing
following the 2016 NHRA season.
Now, looking at those trophies, those Wallys,
Bryce calls them “the encyclopedia of my career.”
He says he can pick up any one at random and
A lifetime of racing has
George Bryce feeling
anxious about the future
By Ian Tocher
Issue 149