05/21/2026
Elmer Trett wasn't just fast. He was everything.
The first motorcycle drag racer over 200 mph. Then 220. Then 230. Career best: 6.06 seconds at 235 mph. Numbers that still rank in the top 15 quickest and fastest riders in history. Set before 1996. Still standing among the all-time best three decades later.
But Elmer Trett wasn't just numbers.
He was a large man. Big enough to intimidate. Athletic enough to dunk a basketball — something nobody expected from a drag racer. And charismatic enough to hold a room, a pit lane, or a phone call for hours.
Larry "Spiderman" McBride — 20-time Top Fuel Motorcycle world champion — was Trett's protégé. McBride says he wouldn't have the elapsed-time or mph records if Trett were still alive.
"He would have been over 250 mph multiple times. He was the mph king."
McBride still wears an Elmer Trett t-shirt under his leathers every time he makes a run. Every time he's broken a record — including the first five-second motorcycle pass in 1999 and the eventual 5.79 at 245.36 mph world record — Trett's shirt was underneath.
When the International Drag Bike Association dropped Top Fuel Motorcycle, Trett kept the class alive by personally arranging match races across the country for three years. He got the Top Fuelers into NHRA as an exhibition class. He fought for the sport when the sport didn't fight for itself.
His daughter Kelly remembers him staring at punk rockers on a sidewalk in England during a racing trip: "Daddy stopped right in the middle and stared. Then said very loudly, 'Why in the hell would anyone want to do that to their head?' We were like, shh, they heard you. He said, 'I don't care! I just want to know what would possess someone to do that to themselves.'"
He began every race weekend by drag racing his dog with his motorhome. "On a good day that dog could run 40 mph," McBride laughed.
He once locked a promoter in a timing tower and refused to let anyone leave until the racers got paid. They got paid.
Another time, a promoter in California skipped town without paying. Trett and McBride found his hotel. They got paid again.
His wife Jackie and daughters Gina and Kelly traveled with him. The family was the team. Trett's Speed and Custom was the business. Racing was the life.
September 1, 1996. NHRA U.S. Nationals. Indianapolis. Elmer Trett lost his life during competition. The greatest motorcycle drag racer of his era. Gone at the biggest race of the year.
Steve McBride — Larry's brother and crew chief — looks at Trett's picture every day. "He'd probably be kicking our butts if he was still here."
Kelly Trett believes her father would be disappointed in how drag racing has declined. But she also knows he'd be doing exactly what he always did: Setting up match races. Fighting for the sport. Making phone calls. Telling stories. Making everyone laugh.
Elmer Trett was the mph king. The storyteller. The protector of Top Fuel Motorcycle. The man who locked promoters in towers and drag raced his dog.
And 27 years later, his t-shirt still rides under the leathers of the fastest motorcycle racer alive.
