PHOTOGRAPHS BY VAN ABERNETHY |
How Elk Creek Dragway’ s Original Gear Jammers sparked a stickshift Renaissance in the Southeast— and why the movement still has momentum today By Van Abernethy
As Elk Creek Dragway’ s Original Gear Jammers series turns 35 years old in 2025, the impact this group has had on resurrecting stick-shift racing in the Southeast simply can’ t be overstated. By 1990, automatic transmissions at the dragstrip were pretty much the norm when this little country track, located in a stunningly scenic locale on the Virginia / North Carolina border, decided to try and revive interest in race cars of yesteryear. They reached out to all the known racers who still had a clutch-equipped race car and let them know they had a standing invitation to come join in the gear-banging fun at Elk Creek, but initially almost nobody did. Oh sure, there were enough racers in the general area to make Elk Creek’ s revival effort a success, but most of them were serious, championship-chasing competitors who mainly had touring with IHRA on their mind,
|
particularly in the Super Stock and Modified categories.
Current track manager Mike Walters was instrumental in the attempted stick-shift resurgence back in 1990, and he vividly recalls the most amazing story of how the stick-shift class at Elk Creek was cancelled, and then reinstated... all in the same day!“ It was mid-season back in 1990 and it was pretty clear this deal wasn’ t gonna fly,
|
since we were only averaging five or six stick-shift cars per race. I was standing in the staging lanes talking with then-track manager Dennis Jackson and he told me they were going to pull the plug on the class,” recalls Walters.
Jackson had no more than spoken those disappointing words when Walters looked up and saw one of the most decorated Super Stock racers to ever take a tree pulling through the gate! It
|
September / October 2025 |
DragIllustrated. com | Drag Illustrated | 83 |