Valerie Thompson Racing

SCOTTSDALE - Valerie Thompson is Scottsdale's fastest woman on two wheels.

The drag bike racer clocked 153.563 mph last September at the hard-packed Bonneville Salt Flats speed course on a borrowed racing motorcycle.

"I didn't want to do it," she said, worried that the bike would wobble. "I tried to get out of it."

But ride she did, and her Bonneville speed isn't too far off her personal best effort so far on a drag bike. Last October, she chewed up the quarter-mile track at Rockingham, N.C., in 10.26 seconds and crossed the traps at 135.01 mph.

This year her goal is to go faster and win her first drag race.

"I've had some close races," she said.


The Arizona Republic March 1, 2006
Scottsdale woman a speed demon on Harleys Bike racer clocked 153 mph on salt flats Richard Gray Special for The Republic Mar. 1, 2006 12:00 AM
SCOTTSDALE - Valerie Thompson is Scottsdale's fastest woman on two wheels. The drag bike racer clocked 153.563 mph last September at the hard-packed Bonneville Salt Flats speed course on a borrowed racing motorcycle. "I didn't want to do it," she said, worried that the bike would wobble. "I tried to get out of it." But ride she did, and her Bonneville speed isn't too far off her personal best effort so far on a drag bike. Last October, she chewed up the quarter-mile track at Rockingham, N.C., in 10.26 seconds and crossed the traps at 135.01 mph. This year her goal is to go faster and win her first drag race. "I've had some close races," she said.
Sitting in her stylishly decorated condominium that she shares with two male tabby cats, she glances at the laptop running in front of her, tuned to her Web site and with her rhinestone-encrusted cellphone a fingertip away. Her personal Harley-Davidson Fat Boy motorcycle is parked in the garage. Thompson - Miss Arizona Bike Week 2004 - speaks with conviction when she says, "I'm going to be the world's fastest female on two wheels." Thompson, 34, wasn't always a "race girl," as she says. She spent most of her working life in the collections department of a bank. In fact, she has been racing for only a year. Her first experience on two wheels was five years ago, when she wanted to take a ride on the back of a friend's bike. He was afraid that she would scratch a fender. "He said I could get my own," she said. "I went down and bought a bike the next day." As she met other riders, she discovered amateur racing and decided to turn her hobby into her new career. She threw herself into every aspect of drag racing, including the marketing side. As she begins the 2006 season, she'll ride a Hacienda Harley-Davidson of Scottsdale "Screamin' Eagle V-Rod Destroyer, powered by a 1300cc engine pumping 165 horsepower. It's capable of 10-second quarter-mile runs and speeds of more than 130 mph. Thompson is planning a full schedule in the All Harley Davidson Drag Racing Association, a group that began in the 1970s as a club that now attracts 250 competitors with a 14-event card this year and more than $1 million in prize money. At first, her fellow drag racers viewed her as a curiosity, but after she earned the "No. 1 Qualifier" distinction last November in Las Vegas, attitudes began changing. "I think now I'll be more respected out there," she said. Like all aspiring racers, Thompson sets her goals high. She hopes to break into the National Hot Rod Association's premier motorcycle racing class, Pro Stock, and compete against the series' female star, Angelle Savoie. Thompson hardly can sit still as she talks about her racing and her ambitions, but her easy smile vanishes when she says that she's a "sponge," soaking up everything that she can learn about her sport and her racing bike. "I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty," she said. "I'm not afraid of breaking a nail." Richard Gray is a correspondent for the Scottsdale Republic.