Tommy Auger

Tommy Auger p***ed away on Monday, July 11. As some of you may remember, he was one of the pioneers of drag racing back in the early 50's who raced a Vincent Black Lightning motorcycle. He raced from the early 50's and into the 60's. He and my Dad (Pat Berardini) knew each other as teenagers, they both went to Fremont High School in Los Angeles. After his racing days, Tommy was a softball pitching instructor for many years. He also enjoyed photography. In 2006, he was the recipient of the California Hot Rod Reunion Golden Age Award. That same evening his beloved Vincent Black Lightning, which had just been fully restored by John Hanson, was unveiled to Tommy with his family and friends and all the CHRR crowd applauding. It was truly a memorable evening for him. Tommy was also a very good writer, he wrote a riveting story about a race between his Vincent and Lloyd Krant's "The Giant Killer". (http://www.mindspring.com/~bigsid/author1.html)

R.I.P. Tommy

 

He was on the cover of Cycle mag 1957 it was a nite photo on that Vincent at LONG BEACH drags. I can remember that photo to this day.

 

RIP Tommy.

 

He was a rider's rider. He wrote a great description of doing two different drag strips in one day.His best descrition was of what it was like to have a motor firing on fuel and making horsepower.YOU could feel it too from his description.
RIP

 

Wow, I did not know of this man. I wish I had. As a former top fuel/ funnybike rider, my condolences, and may he rest in peace...

 

Here are two pictures of Tommy, one back in the day on his Vincent and a recent photo on the same bike after it's restoration. He was truly one of the motorcycle drag racing pioneers. He has been mentioned several times on The Jockey Journal's Vintage Fuel Drag Bike thread.

 

I had to join as I was looking up Tommy and saw this thread. I had the privelage to know him quite well as he was a close neighbor of a friend of mine. If you want to see some very cool pics of him I found some at http://www.flickr.com/photos/55637443@N05/5185970403/in/photostream/
He was not only a great motorcycle rider, pioneer of motorcycle drags, but also one of the best people with the keenest sense of humor you could ever want to meet.

I will miss you Tommy.. RIP and God bless... His funeral is today at 11am at crystal cathedral.

 

Please post the pic if you have it. Dam I missed his funeral. I didnt get the notice of his p***ing. Great guy. I met him while doing a job in his home two years ago. He regularly included me in his daily emails to friends there after then it stopped after a year. I got a friending on Facebook from someone on his account 3 days after his p***ing but didnt find out till today. I hope he was able to use his text to speech device he said he ordered. I was there that day he found one after doing a search on the web. Dan