AHDRA at St. Louis

Words and photos by Bret Kepner

It was a clean sweep in all sixteen eliminator categories of the All-Harley Drag Racing Association Gypsy Rendezvous Nationals at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois: rain won everything. Annually one of the most anticipated motorcycle drag racing events in the Midwest, a schedule revision made the Gypsy Rendezvous, presented by Gateway, Surdyke and Dale‘s Harley-Davidson dealerships, the season kickoff for the 2009 AHDRA Screamin‘ Eagle Parts Tour.

Once again drawing a strong field of entries from 27 states and two provinces of Canada, Friday‘s open test session was followed by Saturday‘s qualifying program that ended when rain hit the facility just prior to the completion of the day‘s activities. Unfortunately, the precipitation never stopped for the next 36 hours and eliminations were completely washed out.

AHDRA events are seldom rescheduled and the ‘09 opener was no different. Under the association’s rules, contestants were paid the equivalent of first-round loser cash for their respective eliminator category and points were awarded for entry, qualifying position and first round appearance.

The AHDRA tour moves on to the Stone Mountain Harley-Davidson Southern Nationals at Atlanta (GA) Dragway on April 25-26 to hopefully crown the first series event champions of the year.

Here then, is DRO’s pictorial coverage of the action that did manage to get into the books before the event ended.