WAR STORIES MEMORIES - STEVE EARWOOD
In the week leading up to the second annual CompetitionPlus.com War Stories we will re-publish some of the finest moments from last year's contest. You'll hear some of the finest stories laid down in competition. The program works like this: 16 figures within the drag racing community are voted on by the readers of CompetitionPlus.com to determine who they feel could tell the best story. From that voting, an NHRA professional elimination ladder pairs the contestants and they battle it out until one is left.
Today's story comes from Steve Earwood, a former NHRA publicist and current owner of Rockingham Dragway.
In the week leading up to the second annual CompetitionPlus.com War Stories we will re-publish some of the finest moments from last year's contest. You'll hear some of the finest stories laid down in competition. The program works like this: 16 figures within the drag racing community are voted on by the readers of CompetitionPlus.com to determine who they feel could tell the best story. From that voting, an NHRA professional elimination ladder pairs the contestants and they battle it out until one is left.
STEVE EARWOOD - LOST TO BOB GLIDDEN FIRST ROUND
STORY OF MOOSE AND THE MOTORCYCLE JUMPER
Of all the promoters and track operators I have met and have worked with in my 35-year career , Norman “Moose” Pearah of Louisiana would by far be remembered as the most enterprising, if not entertaining.
Of his numerous attempts to pull off that one big promotion we all dream of that will fill our racetracks and our pockets, the motorcycle jumper he promoted in the early seventies would be the most amusing. How ironic with the recent death of Evel Knievel that this particular show comes to mind. In order to protect the innocent and to keep the libel lawyers at bay, I’ll refrain from using the young man’s name who is the subject of this tale.
This fellow shows up at Moose’s State Capitol Dragway near Baton Rouge wearing a metal flake leisure suit and tells Moose, “I’m gonna break Knievel’s record for jumping cars.”
Moose inquires, “What makes you think you can jump over 23 cars?”
Leisure suit says, “We done an analysis by computer on the thing.”
Seeing an opportunity to make headlines and to draw a crowd, Moose booked the young man and influenced a local Ford dealer to provide 25 Mercury EXP sub-compact cars, a very narrow car made by Ford Motor Company that saw few sales.
The jump was scheduled at 8 p.m. and by 9 p.m. the packed house, made up of mainly over- served Cajuns enjoying Moose’s $1.00 a can Schlitz beer, began to get a bit rowdy and were demanding to see "The Jump". The star of the show was holed-up in a little pull along camper trailer getting “psyched up” for the jump. As the crowd became more demanding and intoxicated, Moose rather loudly beat on the camper door and yelled, “Son, this crowd’s gonna kill you, and worse, want their money back if you don’t come out and jump!”
The door finally opens and out of a heavy cloud of marijuana smoke staggers our hero and he mumbles, “Moose, I’m gonna do it”.
He jumps on his first pass up the ramp, and if you had bet on car number four you would have been a winner as he hit numbers 4, 5, 6, 7 and finally slid off number 8.
He got out of the hospital about nine months later and briefly considered Moose’s proposal to come back on a three-wheeled bike to attempt another record. He considered it, but finally called one day and said, “Moose, listen, I talked to the Lord and the Lord says ‘Don’t do it’.
A good piece of advice I always thought.
