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The Carolinas’ Full Throttle Magazine
Smoke Out Lucky 13
Story and photo by Alan Dockery The last weekend of June seems to always have several major events scheduled. A couple of them are tempting, but for me The Horse Back Street Choppers Smoke Out 13 was my destination. The Smoke Out has built a reputation as one of the best biker parties on the East Coast And it’s held at North Carolina’s Rockingham Dragway, an excellent place for a bike rally. There are lots of reasons why so many bikers love the Smoke Out from cool people, the coolest bikes, lots of vendors, and great bands to thundering down the drag strip just for fun. The party starts Friday afternoon with plenty to see and do for the folks who have camp already set up. Rockingham has lots of camping area and they put the trailers and motorhomes (think generators) on one side of the dragstrip and tent campers on the other. Both campgrounds rock all weekend. Friday afternoon is a good time to slowly cruise the vendors before the crowd gets big and the Smoke Out in high gear. Even the music on stage was mellow, solo, acoustic guys. By mid-afternoon the tempo and volume increase with chainsaw art carving then the All American Stunter’s Stunt Show. That dude did stunts on a Sportster, too, not a little crotch rocket. After the stunt show, the party got real loud as it moved to the drag strip. First, four All Harley Drag Racing Association Pro Dragsters rattled the stands. These are nitromethane-fueled machines that run the quarter mile in seven seconds at more than 170 miles per hour. A couple Carolina Boys were riding them, too. World famous builder and tuner Johnny Vickers and Jay Beasley on the Bobby Hoover machine ran a match race. Then the dragstrip was open to anyone and we saw everything from street race bikes to ratty old Japanese choppers make passes. About every 30 minutes Edge, Smoke Out Coordinator, escorted a new lady to the starting line. Yeah, the Smoke Out is old school and they had pretty ladies flagging the bikes off the line. They let a few ladies start the bikes since it was hot and they didn’t want the body paint to melt or the chest to sunburn. Later afternoon Hammer, Englishman, and Edge brought the crowd to the stage for the official welcome to the Smoke Out Lucky 13 and gave away some t-shirts, too. One band I look forward to, Rebel Son, took the stage and got a crowd down front for the Wet T-shirt Contest with Roadside Marty. I commend Marty on running a great Wet T-shirt Contest. Then Rebel Son played for a couple more hours as we sang along to their rowdy honky tonk tunes. Sometime that afternoon we
had a brief rain shower that cooled things off nicely. Friday night the party moves to the campground for a few more hours after the main gate closes. The band Control Freak cranked out current rock tunes while folks smoked it out in the burn out pit. Saturday the Smoke Out crowd really swells. You better get a schedule because there is so much going on it’s easy to miss something. Early in the afternoon there was a Painted Ladies contest. The Horse staff provided the paints and brushes, and we judged folks’ “artwork.” The main stage was often a busy place and the staff was often giving away some cool prizes, too. With all the action on the drag strip, in the vendor area, and on stage, you really should make time to slowly walk the bike show area. The Smoke Out has my favorite bike show of the year. These ain’t your usual store-bought customs or bikes with some paint and bolt-on chrome doodads. Bikes in the Smoke Out show are unique rides that always have me wondering, “How did they do that? and “What’s that made out of?” You have to make a few passes down the show line to catch it all. And the parking area has lots of cool rides too that will give you ideas for your next real custom. Near the bike show was a gas tank making demo. The Artimus Pyle Band, a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band, took the stage mid-afternoon to start us dancing and singing along to songs we all knew. A rain shower cancelled the Saturday afternoon drag racing and sent folks back to the camp to cool off for a while. Soon as the rain stopped, it was time for the XS Speed Mini-Bike Races. This is always a popular Smoke Out event with lots of folks entering cool little mini-bikes and dressing up in Super Hero costumes, too. I even represented The Carolinas’ Full Throttle and entered the mini-bike race as a WalMartian. Beaner won the main feature race after several heat races. Saturday is packed with things to do and see at the Smoke Out with more stunt shows, vendor demos, and the Horse Staff on stage. Bike show winners and Stampede and Long Road riders were honored during the afternoon. As the sun went down we were treated to Sami Te Fire Show and another great wet t-shirt contest. Highway to Hell, an AC/DC tribute band, closed out the Smoke Out rocking the stage for a couple hours. After the official events the party moved to the campgrounds with the band Control Freak on the campground stage. Some ladies took turns in a pole dancing contest while the rest of