Liz and Jeff Pitre love racing drag bikes.
They came all the way from the North West Territories to get their kicks on the strip in Prince George.
While the weather for the weekend Canadian Motorcycle Drag Racing Association races at Prince George Motorsports Park (PGMP) was less than ideal, at least the bugs weren't bad. That's not the case in Yellowknife, where a highway ride on a motorcycle never fails to leave a crusty layer of remains.
"The black flies are out now and they get behind your glasses and it just drives you crazy -- they leave you bleeding," said Liz Pitre, 48, the female half of the Midnight Sun Racing Team, who placed second Sunday in the Screamin' Eagle Stock 883 Hot Harley class.
"This is a sport we really enjoy so we like coming out here and it's great to have all our friends and family with us at the same time," she said, referring to the other racers gathered in the pits between races.
The couple met 11 years ago while drag racing snowmobiles and they've been married six years.
Racing bikes is similar to racing sleds, but the landings if you come off your bike in a race are a little harder on the body. Liz lost control of her bike in the Harley-Davidson V-Pro Destroyer class last year when it developed a high-speed wobble heading for the finish line in Ashcroft. She broke her wrist, her ankle and her big toe, and that took her out of racing for the rest of the season.
"I've been racing snowmobiles since I was 16," she said. "I used to snowcross but with all my injuries I'm better off just drag racing.
"I spent six weeks in a wheelchair and it hurts when you wipe out. The only thing I was racing was my golf cart, but I was able to pit for Jeff when he was out on the track."
Now in his third season racing bikes, Jeff, 49, prefers bare pavement to snow and ice, and he's done well on the CMDRA circuit, winning the Destroyer class last year.
"It's a lot warmer racing bikes," he smiled. "Snow is always uneven, so when you leave [the start] you have to muscle it around. I'm running the Destroyer bike class and it's a bit like that, too. When you leave you have to push it around to get it straight because often your wheel is in the air and you don't have steering."
In Sunday's eliminations at PGMP, he spun out off the line and lost in the first round. Jeff was in Grand Bend, Ont., near Sarnia, with Liz for national series races two weeks ago and got to the second round of eliminations in the Destroyer class.
With all the mining activity going on in Yellowknife, the first hour of the highway trip to Edmonton is rough from all that truck traffic, so the Pitres keep their motorhome, bikes and trailer parked in Edmonton and fly there first before they load up for the next race.
Jeff, who has his own audiovisual business in Yellowknife, had to rush back home from Prince George to prepare for the Royal visit. Kate and William will be there on Wednesday and Pitre is providing the sound system for the festivities.
