Drag Illustrated Issue 149, October 2019 | Page 30
Dirt
to be interested in starting anew as an
entrepreneur, Bryce remains cautiously
optimistic that Star Power will carry on
for decades to come. In relatively short
order, Star made the transition from full-
on race shop to a consumer-oriented
operation primarily building horsepower
for Harley-Davidson owners who want a
little more oomph on the streets and the
capability to lay down a decent number
at the drag strip.
“My plan right now is to keep doing
what I’m doing and keep learning what
I’m learning. The clientele that I have
today are delightful. They want what
I’ve got and what I know, and they don’t
want to fight me about it. And what a
difference that is,” Bryce declares with
obvious relief.
“It’s so different from when I was in
professional drag racing. It was dog eat
dog. Like, if one guy got money, then
there were six shops lined up trying to
get some, too. It was so hateful. I didn’t
like it. It was such a terrible way to live,
but boy, what an education.”
Bryce also reveals that within a few
months his shop will become debt-free
for the first time in history. And while
obviously a welcome development, he
adds it makes him look at things a little
differently and feels it may even help
with the inevitable transfer to a new
owner, whenever that may come.
“You know, I have a team of people
that I rely on and they rely on me, so for
now at least I’m not going anywhere. I have to do
what’s best for them, too,” he says. “And maybe
that guy – or girl – that we’re looking for, maybe
he or she has already worked here.
“See, when we were running Star Racing, guys
would come in and work for me, work with me
for one, two, maybe three seasons, and they
would learn a lot about how I did things, but I
never let them know everything. It goes back to
that jealous guarding of information because I
didn’t want them to know everything and then
be able to turn it against me. I really think that’s
the mistake Warren (Johnson) made when he
trained Greg Anderson. He created his own
worst competition.”
Bryce claims he’s a lot more comfortable now,
a lot more relaxed than when he was racing full
time. He says he lost the desire “to prove how
smart I was” that somewhat defined his en-
tire career.
“I really thought that God put me on earth to
show everybody how to do it. Little did I know
how much of a gift it was. I was blessed with a gift
of focus; I was given the gift of drive and deter-
mination; and Jackie Bryce, she was my precious
gift from heaven,” he says. “She kept me despite
everything that went wrong sometimes. And we’re
really close right now. I’m also so thankful for my
baby girl, Julie, because she showed me real life
is different than racing. That’s been incredible.
She actually helped me appreciate racing more
than I ever did.”
So the search for a successor goes on for Bryce.
No doubt a difficult challenge, but one he now
feels better prepared for than when he was chas-
ing race wins and championships.
“I know there is a guy or a girl out there that
could fill my shoes,” he says. “I just have to
find them.”
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
30 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 149
GEORGE BRYCE