Texas Scooter Times

...Jerry's Place Bar & Grill located at the end of the shut off at Little River Dragway has been a welcome stop for bikers ever since a young motorcycle fuel bike racer named
Red Roberts rented the dragstrip to hold a "shop party" for Austin Harley Davidson in 1978. Actually, the old "Road House" on hwy 95 heading to the farming communities north of Austin
had quite a large part in the creation of the dragstrip it's self!!!
....According to local legend, the old bar was built in 1942 and by 1957 was owned by Jerry Tomastick who also ran cattle on the land he owned north of the bar alongside the nearby Lttle
River. In the mid-50's the Texas Highway Department decided to build a new highway bridge over the river. Figuring that it would be more practical to move over aways and build the new
bridge, Jerry realized that the now bypassed road he owned would make a GREAT DRAGSTRIP!!!. It did, and Little River Dragway is now the oldest continuiously running Sanctioned Drag
Strip in Texas..
...Much to the delite of decades worth of Texas Drag Racers, Jerry Tomastick ran his dragstrip AND his bar. Jerry's Place has been the site of many many a race's end celebration and
has always been a good spot to "cry in you'r beer" over a busted part or a rain - out.. Now quite a few years after Jerry's and his son Clifford's deaths both the bar and the dragstrip have
passed out of the family's hands - but into hands of people who respect the traditions of these "Texas Institutions".
...Much has been written lately about the 2 time NHRA World Champion longtime dragstrip owner Robert "Hutch" Hutchison that saved the dragstrip from an uncertain future but there's
another tale to be told, that I heard last Saturday evening over the coldest bottle of beer I've had in my hand in years.
...I'd been working on the track's p.a. system all afternoon, tuning it up for the Independence Day Celebration, Wheelstander, Jet Car, Top Fuel Car, Old Time "hot rod" Roadsters.. I was
scheduled to work the track's cordless microphone on the ground while Don the track announcer held down the tower. We'd practiced the week before, having a good time going back
& forth, calling the race, betting. I was really looking forward to it. BUT when I got there Saturday, the cordless microphone system had experienced a "line spike" the night before and
wouldn't work for nothin' - I was bumbed out... I couldn't do nothin' to fix it... I was sidelined, so looking for something useful to do, I went to go meet the new bar owners...
....The air conditioned hit me hard as I walked in and introduced myself to Audrey & K.C. Cox. Hutch told me he'd been eating pretty regularly there so I set down and was tickled with the
$3 hamburger I got with that cold beer I was talking about a couple of paragraphs ago. Sittin' at a table where stories had been told over a cold beer for 66 years, K.C. (middle in photo)
told me how much he and his wife enjoyed owning the unique bar and making friends with the long time customers and the community. K.C. commutes the 65 mile drive to Austin each
day to his day job as a Superintendent for Moore & Associates located on Congress in downtown Austin, but he says as he fights the traffic his thoughts are on the "oasis" he and his
wife enjoy owning between the little towns of Holland and Little River/Academy..
...A few minutes into our conversation, Nelson (left in the photo) came in. He bought me a beer and as the conversation about Jerry's Place continued it became evident that he was part
of the tradition too and didn't even know it. (Those are the best). The 62 year old Nelson told tales of how his daddy used to bring him to the bar when he was a kid and how he and the
other boys used to play "ALAMO" on the roof that kinda resembles the Texas Shrine in San Antonio. Tales of the Saturday afternoon "Turkey Shoots" with 22 rifles behind the bar and
Sunday dragracin'. Tales of how he raced at the track most of his life and of a race that turned into something mythical in the 1960's when Jerry posted an unheard of then $750 to win
race. 350 race cars came out trying to take the money clogging not only the track but backing up traffic for miles around with spectators... We passed lots of storys..
...There's lots of storys left at that little bit of history alongside the highway. When I walked out the door, straining engines filled my ears like they had other folks walking out of Jerry's
Place with a smile on their face for decades. Part of that smile I had was knowing that soon that'll be the sounds of thunderin' Harley Davidson dragsters that people will hear.. Don't
forget to drop by Jerry's Place yourself when you get to LIttle River Labor Day Weekend and mabe "tip one" yourself for all the folks that's been there before 'ya and meet some nice
folks while you're doin' it........