Deere mpany : Down Time

Logger Wayne Sugg, owner of Sugg & Sugg Logging, works hard - and plays hard. When he's not harvesting pine, he likes to race his motorcycle at drag strips near his home in Ellerbe, North Carolina. Beginning when he was 16 years old, Sugg would drag race almost every weekend from March to November. 'That has always been my thing to do after work - racing motorcycles or building race motors. I'm not as active as I once was, but I really enjoy having a good time on weekends with my family and friends.'

Sugg competes in 'grudge races,' an exciting, no-holds-barred form of drag racing where bike setups are kept secret and scores are settled. Similar in feel to street drag racing, these legally sanctioned events are regularly scheduled at many local drag strips. Sugg typically races against five to ten other competitors, vying for purses ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. He's won six events over the years.

Sugg keeps some pretty fast company. His 1400-cc nitrous-equipped bike competes against motorcycles that run the quarter mile in seven or eight seconds, topping out at about 190 miles per hour. To put that in perspective, today's fastest production bikes do a quarter mile in over nine seconds, with a top speed of 150 miles per hour. He feels the need for speed!