Elmer Trett and the Gods of Thunder: Chapter 3 – The Teen years
About This Series
This article is part of an ongoing monthly series on Dragbike.com featuring select chapters from Elmer Trett and the Gods of Thunder, the 2012 biography by Senior Editor Tom McCarthy. Released throughout 2026 to honor the 30th anniversary of Elmer Trett’s passing, this series chronicles the life, legacy, and impact of one of the most influential figures in motorcycle drag racing history. Each chapter explores Trett’s journey from humble beginnings to global Top Fuel dominance, while also preserving the deeper history of the sport and the pioneers who shaped it. New chapters are published monthly exclusively on Dragbike.com.
Before reading this article, read the previous article posts:
Chapter 3 – The Teen Years
By the time Elmer reached age thirteen in 1956, his life was accelerating at a lightning pace. His dad was already fifty-seven, his oldest sister, Elizabeth, was thirty-six, and his next closest brother in age was now twenty-three. Elmer may have been barely pubescent, but his brothers and sisters were leaving the nest quickly. This was his example to follow. So, his independence grew from this model as his life advanced through the years.
One of the things that brought independence to Elmer at a young age was his first motorcycle. Smoking alone was no ticket to manhood. A man needed a job, and to have a job, he needed transportation. His first choice was, of course, a motorcycle for sale.
One day, the young teen, still barely in grade school in the late nineteen fifties, noticed a neighbor had a motorcycle with a “for sale” sign in their front yard. Elmer had to check this out. An 80 cubic inch U or UL model, most assuredly a pre-1941 vintage Harley-Davidson, sat in the sunlight before him. Lighting up a “Lucky Strike” smoke, Elmer pondered what it might take to make it his.
The UL series flat heads were discontinued by H.D. in 1941. Around 1958/59, when Elmer was considering his first motorcycle, he was looking at a well-used bike with its share of issues to fix to make it roadworthy. This made him smile. “I’ll bet I can get this at a right price,” he thought. After knocking on the neighbor’s door and asking a few questions, he found the new apple of his eye had a price tag of $200. In 1958, this might as well have been $2000 dollars! Heck, he hardly had lunch money most days, never mind that kind of money. He was gonna have to ask his father about this one.
While Mom was easier to talk to, Elmer knew that hard-working Dad was the man of the house. To talk money, you had to talk to Dad. So, he readied himself and, one evening after dinner, he spoke up. “Dad, you know how you’ve been talking to me about thinking about work and sometime soon me getting a job one day? Well, I was thinking about that too and I can’t really get a good job unless I have a reliable ride. Dad, there’s this motorcycle down the way for sale and I was wondering if you could help me buy it?”
Robert Lee, seated at the head of the dinner table, looked his boy square in the eyes and replied, “Son, if you don’t have a job, how are you goin’ to pay me back? You want me to spend family dollars I worked for at the railroad? You want money this family earned by selling potatoes, money we all worked so hard for and you don’t even have a job to pay me back? Son, have you been in the sun too long today?”
“Robert Lee,” Allie spoke up to the conversation, “Can we talk about this? You have been asking Elmer about work. Elmer does have a point. How can he get a good job if he can’t be on time?”
Elmer respectfully waited his turn and spoke once again. “Dad, this bike needs work and I can do that work. I know I can. $200 is not a lot of money for a motorcycle like that.”
Dad’s arms quickly folded across his chest as he spoke. “You have been in the sun too long, ain’t ya?”
Robert Lee took in a sharp breath and spoke briskly. “Elmer, what are you gonna do when the weather gets cold and it’s ice and snow outside? Now, how are you gonna get to work and not catch your death of cold? If you get sick, when you get sick, you’ll be outta work and out of a job and then you’ll be out of a motorcycle too. Then what? Didn’t they teach you anything in school yet? I thought you were smarter than this Elmer,” he said sternly.
After a silent, uneasy pause, Mom came to the rescue as she often did for the baby of the family. “Robert Lee, just a moment please. Son, would you excuse us please for a few minutes?” Elmer rose up and excused himself from the dinner table. He stepped outside for a bit while hoping his mom could work another one of her miracles that she was always talking about.
Before she spoke to the patriarch of the household, she had to gather herself. This was not easy for her because she knew her husband possessed the “Trett Temper.” Going against the grain on anything was as treacherous as running barefoot through a mine field. Even though she hated the thought of Elmer on a motorcycle, she knew it was what he wanted. Elmer must have wanted it badly to ask his father at the dinner table for such a large sum of money.
With no small measure of apprehension, she spoke softly and clearly to her husband, who, with arms folded, had obviously already made up his mind. “Robert Lee, he’s doing good in school, he helps when we ask him to, and you’re often too busy give him a ride when he needs it. All his brothers and sisters are grown and moved on. Olen had a motorcycle by his age, so why not Elmer?”
Robert Lee spoke, “If we were to help him buy this cycle, where would the money come from and how would he pay us back?” As he spoke this time he unfolded his arms and picked up his water off the dinner table. Allie smiled. She knew she was winning this one.
“Robert, our last dairy cow has had better days. It’s time. I’ll bet we can get not only the money we need for the cycle, but will have some money remaining for groceries and bills too,” she said hopefully.
Robert Lee gave this some thought. Work at the railroad was slowing down now that the war years were over and there were fewer hours to work. Pushing age sixty, Robert Lee was slowing down too. The great family oak tree who fathered this clan was finally starting to mellow. He looked down at the fried green tomatoes on his plate, took another bite and savored them a bit. He paused before he spoke. “Well, let’s see what we can get for that old milker. She’s not putting out milk like she used to, and we do have another property tax bill coming up. That extra money could help with that.”
Allie replied, “I’ll have Elmer get to this first thing tomorrow. I’m sure he’ll be pleased. Thank you, dear.” With that, she began clearing the dinner table of dishes. As she shuffled back and forth between the kitchen table and the big, deep, porcelain sink, she had a bit of a spring in her step to accompany the smile on her face. She had once again done right by the two favorite men in her life at this moment. Not an easy task in this household. Omer, Elbert, Olen and Albert had all moved on from the house but she still had Robert Lee and Elmer to attend to. This was her life.
The sale of the dairy cow brought three hundred dollars into the family’s funds. Two-thirds of that amount gave Elmer his first motorcycle, an “80 Inch” Harley, as his family recalls. Soon as he got it home, out came the tools. He had to see what made it tick and, more importantly, how to make it run better. Thus, he began the journey on his quest for motorcycle performance. It would become his vocation for life. Twenty years later, in the 1979 racing season, he would emerge as the fastest man in the world on a Harley Davidson. THE World’s Fastest Harley Davidson Builder: Mr. Elmer Trett.
Education for young Elmer now took on a new direction, a much more personal one. His Dad had been a railroad mechanic, earning his living with his hands all his life. So, when it came time to fix the farm implements, and now, Elmer’s motorcycle, it was his father who taught him tool craft right from the start.
“Son, if you take care of your tools, your tools will always take care of you. You keep them clean, neat and where they belong and you’ll never have to go looking for them,” Robert Lee told his son. He also taught him, “If something is worn out you throw it out. Don’t try to reuse it.”
It was his Dad taught him the difference between a box wrench and an open end wrench. He taught Elmer the difference between a twelve-point socket and a six-point socket and when to use one but never the other. This became the classroom that mattered most to Elmer. His big hands, strong back and broad shoulders were not comfortable pushing a pencil. They were in perfect harmony, a big ratchet in one hand and a large crescent wrench in the other, breaking loose a stubborn axle nut on the rear end of a motorcycle. This was not just work to Elmer, it was fun. Doing English and social studies homework was not fun. Learning how to tune-up an engine with an open exhaust system was fun, great fun in fact. His area of the garage soon became a toy factory of sorts.
For Elmer, once he started working on engines, transmissions and such, his life took on a new meaning and a new direction. Sure, he had fun fishing, swimming, riding his bicycle to the country store, but that was kid stuff. Men worked, his dad worked, all his brothers worked, too. Now, by age fifteen, there were motors to rebuild, transmissions to be changed, carburetors to be adjusted.
“Elmer, what the heck is that?” his nephew Orla said to him one day in the garage. Orla Lee stood, puzzled, looking at a strange contraption that was once likely a car or small truck but it had no body on it. A frame, an engine, a seat with a steering wheel in normal position, and that was it. The rest of the vehicle, whatever it was, had vanished as if consumed by bugs. Heck, it even looked like a bug. “What is it Elmer? Looks like a skeeter of some kind, don’t it?” Orla asked.
With a big smile Elmer replied, “Yeah, it does look like a big skeeter, don’t it? Let’s take it for a ride. I just finished it.” The stripped-down machine was bare essentials, raw motor vehicle madness like something from a movie. Only items necessary for operations were present on the Skeeter: a motor, a battery, a gas tank, a seat, four wheels with tires in scrapyard condition, and, of course, an open exhaust without a muffler. Now this was homework worth the time and effort.
Orla Lee and Elmer hopped onto the bench seat. Elmer twisted a pair of wires together, then touched two more briefly together and the beast roared to life. Quickly the chickens ran from the garage as if running for their lives. The dogs started barking too, but the boys couldn’t hear that, nor did they care. They tore out down the driveway in a big dust cloud that made them both howl with laughter. There is nothing better than a dusty, dirt covered country road and two teenage boys on a hot, Kentucky summer day. They did donuts in the dirt kicking clouds of silt in the air so thick it looked like a bomb went off. With faces caked with mud from the combination of sweat-dust, the boys could not have been happier. Life was good that summer in 1959.
In August that year, Elmer made a monumental decision that shocked his Mom and Dad; a decision that would set the course for his life for all his days. In the spring, Elmer had graduated eighth grade. He loved basketball in school and he liked school in general, but he loved building and rebuilding engines. High school was next for this sixteen-and-a-half-year-old boy. He thought a lot about this.
Elmer wasn’t too fond of all the homework that was coming his way now that school was getting serious. He loved playing basketball and was good at it, so much so he considered getting serious about the sport. The best school in the area with a good basketball program was the Red Bird Mission School in Beverly, Kentucky. This school was close to fifty-five miles away as the crow flies, well into the mountains. Elmer told Lillian, “They got the best basketball program in the state. I’d love to play ball with those guys.” At twenty-one, Lillian was now leaving home too. She was ready to marry and start a family of her own. Elmer was the last one left in the family nest, but not for long. His mind was made up.
Sometime in mid-August, in the summer of 1959, Elmer sat down at the dinner table one night and dropped a bomb on his parents. He did so with forethought, courage and great determination. His mother lit the fuse without knowing it when she asked the question, the same question she asked every August, “Elmer, when are we going down to register you for school?”
Elmer shocked them by responding, “I’m not going back to school.”
Both his parents stopped what they were doing and looked at Elmer. His father locked his stare into Elmer’s eyes and he had that look on his face. The look that told him to be real careful what he said next or there would be hell to pay. What took the sixty year old Robert by surprise was, this time, that very same look was staring right back at him. This was as serious as serious got in the Trett Household. There was only one head to this household and insubordination was never tolerated, not even for a moment.
Allie defused the situation quickly by confronting Elmer first, “What, exactly, do you mean you’re not going back to school?” she asked with great concern in her voice. She was scared. She didn’t want the dinner table to become a war zone and she sure didn’t want two bulls in her kitchen going at it. Allie knew this was a turning point, she just didn’t want it to go the wrong way.
Elmer started to speak but was cut off by his angry Dad. “Just what are you talking about BOY?” was the challenge from his father.
Elmer froze, but he wasn’t as scared as he was determined. He looked his father right in the eye as he spoke. “I want to go to Red Bird Mission School. If I have to go to high school, I wanna play basketball and that’s the school I wanna be at. But we all know it’s too far away,” he reasoned. “They can’t bus me, we can’t afford to send me, so it’s time I just make my own way, I figure.”
Robert Lee could see Elmer was ready to fight over this. His wife, sitting next to him, was terrified of what could happen next. Robert Lee saw this and it made him pause; that uncomfortable, silent pause. After looking at his shocked wife, Robert Lee turned to Elmer and said, “Son, I’ve done all I can to provide you and your brothers and sisters with a good life.” He went further. “We don’t always have much, but what we need, we have. Now, you’re trying to tell me you’re ready to be a man and make your way in the world on an eighth-grade education? What, exactly, are your plans to do this Elmer?”
Elmer replied, “Well, I’m good at engine repair, fix’n what needs fix’n, so that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna be a mechanic like you dad.”
Robert put his chest out a bit as he reached for the potatoes and Allie started breathing again. She could see there would be no fight, at least for the moment. As Robert Lee filled his plate with goodness from the garden, he spoke paternally to his son. “If you’re not going to school, you’re going to work like any other man, Elmer. You earn and pay your way like anyone else, Son, or you can’t be here. If you’re gonna act like a man, I’m gonna treat you like one.”
Elmer smiled now, easing the situation a bit as he answered his father. “Orla Lee and I are talking about going to Ohio to visit his dad soon. I bet we can find work there no problem.”
“Oh, no you’re not,” replied his father, “You’re not legal to go out of state to work until your seventeen, young man. You’ll find work and contribute here ‘till your seventeenth birthday.” Elmer hadn’t seen that one coming, but while he was about to lose this small battle, he knew he was winning the war. At this point he backed down.
“Yes, sir, I can find work here, and I will contribute all I can,” Elmer said respectfully. His mother was very upset by this. She sat quietly for a while waiting her turn to speak. She chose not to; she was too overcome to say anything. She started to weep. Elmer was embarrassed and said, “Ma, what’s wrong?”
Through the tears she tried to speak, but all she could do was mutter a few words. “Elmer, you’re my last, don’t grow up too fast, please.” She was losing her youngest, her last, and her baby of the family. His years of growth may have evolved this young boy into a young man, but that was her baby announcing his eminent departure at the dinner table. This was too much for the gentle woman who raised them all with love and God in her heart. Finally she gathered herself to speak again, this time with a bit of force. “Elmer Trett, you’re not going anywhere ‘till after your seventeenth birthday. You hear me, Son?”
“Yes, Ma, I hear you. There’s plenty to do here for now,” he replied, trying to comfort his mother.
She rose up from the dinner table and excused herself. She dried her tears with her white apron as she spoke to her son. “You can start your work here now. Soon as you’re done eating, you be sure to clean off the dinner table and bring me all the dishes. Then, wipe down the dinner table, please.”
“Yes ma’am,” he replied with a grin.
The Next Installment of Elmer Trett and the Gods of Thunder will be released on March 15, 2026 on Dragbike.com
| For those interested in owning a printed copy of the original book, please contact Tom McCarthy. Limited copies are available. |
Copyright & Republishing Notice
Republishing of this content, in whole or in part, requires prior written authorization from Dragbike.com or Tom McCarthy, confirmed through a valid news service or via email with Dragbike.com copied on the correspondence. Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution, or use of this material will be considered infringement and may be pursued to the fullest extent permitted by law.