Peggy Llewellyn competed at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma in July 2007, and again in Las Vegas in October. She was racing in her rookie year in the Pro Stock Motorcycles in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series. She was good. She stood out. She was friendly, and she always had a smile on her face. You could tell she was having a blast.

No one saw it coming when Llewellyn won a national event in Pro Stock Motorcycles at the O’Reilly Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas on Sept. 23 that year, got the Full Throttle Award (number one qualifier in all four qualifying rounds) and bulldozed her way to the final four for NHRA’s first “Countdown to the Championship.”

Out of Nowhere
Before Dallas, Llewellyn qualified for every event, and made it to the semifinal round four times, but each time she lost. She needed to win in Dallas to make the Countdown, and she did it on a hole-shot, beating three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle World Champion Andrew Hines. She snuck up on everyone.

“The Countdown was totally unexpected,” Llewellyn said. “We got to the semifinal and I started to get butterflies in my stomach. I told myself, I’ve got to calm down. I got past the semifinal round, and I’m like, ‘OK, we made it through that.’ I said to myself, ‘This is my first final,’ and then I said to my crew chief George Bryce, ‘What do I do? I’ve never been to a final before.’”

Bryce told her to do what she’d done in the other three rounds.

“The whole weekend was kind of trying because of what happened to John Force [who had a harrowing crash in Dallas],” Llewellyn explained. “Then I’m starting to get nervous again, because I had lost to Andrew [Hines] two or three times before. Then I said to myself, ‘No, I’m not going to think about that; this is a whole new round.’”

Jackie Bryce sent George over to check on her.

“Are you breathing?” he asked.

Llewellyn staged her bike and remembered, “The lights blinked and I let the clutch go and I heard Andrew next to me the whole time. When I got to the end I thought to myself, ‘OK, I didn’t do anything silly, I shifted, I got the bike down the track.’ I knew it was a really close race because I heard him the whole way. Then I saw the microphones coming towards me and realized I won and I’m like, I can’t cry. I was just shaking and trying to get my gloves off. I was elated. My friends and family were all there and it was just perfect.”

The Politics of Racing
Llewellyn finished an impressive fourth in the 2007 NHRA POWERade Pro Stock Motorcycle point standings for 2007, but then team owner Karl Klement announced in December that he would not be renewing her contract for 2008. He didn’t give a reason why.

Bryce had a history with two-time Pro Stock Motorcycle World Champion Angelle Sampey. He tuned Sampey’s bike beginning in 1996, and he was there for the first 28 of her 41 national event victories and her three Pro Stock Motorcycle Championships (2000-02).

In the fall of 2007, the U.S. Army announced they would not be sponsoring Don Schumacher’s two Pro Stock Motorcycle riders, Antron Brown and Sampey, for 2008. After Klement said he would not be renewing Llewellyn’s contract for 2008, he announced Sampey would be riding for Klement on their Rush Racing Products Buell for 2008, with George Bryce as her crew chief.

“Karl wanted to go in a different direction,” Llewellyn said. “At first, he really didn’t know what he wanted to do, but he wasn’t going to leave me in limbo, so he released me. That way I could go and look for something else. It stunned everyone, and at first, I was saddened, but I thanked him because he gave me an opportunity to do what I did, and I knew it was a business decision. It might look harsh, but that’s the reality of drag racing. It happens.”

After she was released, Llewellyn received calls from two teams. Both said if she could get sponsorship they had a second bike available for her. One of those teams was Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Matt Guidera’s, of Rocklin Motorsports.

“Both teams that called were competitive and that was important to me,” Llewellyn said. “I wasn’t going to go up like I did and then have to come down and start from the bottom. It was important for me to find the right team, and that ended up to be with Matt and his family.”

More Complications
When Llewellyn made the decision to go with the Guideras, she thought she had a deal for major sponsorship wrapped up, but at the last minute it fell through.

“Matt said to me, this is how much money we need to run. I immediately started looking again for sponsorship, and it looked like a couple of deals might come together, but then as fast as they seemed to come together, they fell apart,” Llewellyn said. “I was disgusted, and I said to Matt, ‘Forget it.’ Matt said, ‘No, no no! Let’s put our heads together.’ He talked with his family, and he came back and said, ‘OK, this is what we can do. We can run these two races, because the most important thing is to get you back on the race track, let people see your face, and let them know that we’re looking for sponsorship for you with our team. Everything is ready, we just need funding.’”

Together, Llewellyn and Guidera put a plan together to have her compete in Denver in mid-July, then at Infineon at the end of July. She said it was a blessing that she was able to go to the semifinal round in Denver, her first time out in 2008. She raced at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma three weeks ago and qualified, but lost in Round 1 eliminations.

“I’m having fun,” Llewellyn said. “I love drag racing and I love being on the Pro Stock Motorcycle. I just love it. I can’t explain it. There’s a lot of exciting stuff happening and working with the Guideras; that’s another blessing.”

She will be competing at Indianapolis Aug. 27-Sept. 1, at Las Vegas Oct. 30-Nov. 2, and at the finals in Pomona, Nov. 13-16. She will unveil a new bike in Indy with her sponsor for that race.

The Guideras are excited about working with Llewellyn, although they admit that without funding, it’s difficult to get out on the road.

“We are looking for sponsorship for her,” Matt Guidera said, “That’s why we are on the track. She’s got way more fans than anyone in Pro Stock Motorcycles.”

Now all she needs is the money.