The Gear Jam Drags, Rod n Custom show, Swap Meet, May 10-11

[Brad54]

The Gear Jam vintage drags, traditional hot rod n custom show and swap meet is May 11 at the Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia, with a cruise-in/concert Friday night May 10 in the historic downtown area.

Check Mapquest: If you live East of the Mississippi, Commerce is a day’s drive for you!

Cruisin’ Commerce on Friday night from 6-10pm, with cruising on the main street, VIP hot rod parking, food tents, a beer garden and live music by Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho Devilles! This is being put on for us by the City of Commerce—to say they are excited to have us is an understatement.

Saturday’s event features race classes for Gasser, Front Engine Dragster, Altered/Comp Coupe, Nostalgia Super Stock, Hot Rod and Muscle Car (1974 and older), with attention paid to the cars looking like they’re from the ‘60s, not modern “Pro” style builds.

Heads-up racing with qualifying in the morning, and then the hard cases run a Quick 8 Elimination for $1,000 per class purse money, while everyone else is paired with the car (in class) closest to your ET for a best 2-out-of-3 shootout eliminations—Everyone gets to race all day, nobody gets put on the trailer, nobody gets their doors blown off, and nobody watches staggered-start racing. It should be fun for everyone, whether you run 7 or 17 seconds!

At the end, we’ll take the class winners and the two fastest non-qualifiers from the field for a final Mr. Eliminator.

Tech cards are $50, and gets the driver, your pit kitty and little grease monkeys in.

Gear Jam Car Show is for traditionally-styled 1966 and older cars, trucks and motorcycles. “Traditionally styled” meaning pastel or monochrome paint jobs and 20-inch Boyd wheels with rubber bands, or Pro-Street Camaros and the like will be in the parking lot.

Show Car entry is $35, and gets the driver, your chick and little grease monkeys in. (Immediate family.)

All other adults, race crew and spectators are $10 each. Kids 12-under free.

Show awards are:
Flat-out Bitchin! -- Sponsored by Sock F'ers Car Club
Best Paint-- Sponsored by the TW's Car Club
Best Survivor -- Sponsored by The Cross Members
Best Traditional -- Sponsored by The Iron Lords
Trick Truck -- W&H Restoration and Performance
Best Use of Louvers-- Bright Star Hot Rods

If your club or shop wants to sponsor a trophy, let me know.
Classes still available are:
Quality Breakage (Breakage coming to or at the event, including race cars)
Best Race Car
Best Engine
Best Wheelie
Best Custom
Best Interior
Just Kicks ***!

Swap Meet
We’re anticipating between 150-200 vendors, based on the vendor count for our monthly NE Georgia Swap Meet, put on by us at the same location.
Spaces are just $25 for all the space you want, and that gets you and a helper in the gate. One rig per space, please—no sharing spaces with your buddy’s truck and trailer.

Manufacturer’s Midway: $100, for as much space as you need; includes passes for your entire crew.

Back-up Girl Contest sponsored by Rich Venza’s FaceBook Back-Up-Girls page. $100 Cash prize for the Best Bug. This isn’t a “Hot Chick” contest-- the Bug Contest will be based on how well the BUG does her job, not how much she entertains the guys in the stands. This is open to all ages.

Burn-out contest sponsored by Hot Rod Deluxe Magazine. Prize to be announced.

For more information, go to www.gearjamdrags.com, shoot me an email directly at [email protected], or call (706) 424-5035

 

[Brad54]

Three weeks!!!

We want to thank the following clubs and shops for handling a trophy:

Flat-out Bitchin! -- The Sock F'ers cc
Best Paint-- The TW's cc
Best Survivor -- The Cross Memembers cc
Best Tradtional-- The Iron Lords cc
Trick Truck-- W&H Restoration and Performance
Best Use of Louvers-- Bright Star Hot Rods
Best Engine—US Army
Best Custom—RollFast Customs
Quality Breakage—Bethlehem Steel & Iron
Just Kicks ***!—The Roadents cc
Best Hot Rod on Cokers--Coker Tires (winner gets $200 gift certificate)

If anyone would like to sponsor a trophy,
Best Race Car
Best Wheelie
Best Interior

Burn-out contest to be sponsored by Hot Rod Deluxe: Winner to receive a full set of Mickey Thompson tires.

Back-up Girl Contest sponsored by the HAMB's own Rich Venza and his Back Up Girls Facebook Page: Winner gets $100 cash prize, and he's working on some more swag.

Final version of the race classes are as follows:
Gasser (sponsored by Lamar Walden Automotive Racing Engines)
FED (will include Altered and Comp Coupes)
Hot Rod
Muscle Car (will include Nostalgia Super Stocks)

Race Format:
Qualifying in the morning. Quick 8 in EACH CLASS will run Heads-up Eliminations for $1,000 purse money.
EVERY ELSE in-class will be paired with the car closest to their ET, to run a Heads-up best 2-out-of-3 Shootout through Eliminations, for bragging rights.
Everyone makes heads-up passes all day against cars in the same class, nobody gets their doors blown off, everyone has fun, and the "slow" guys are just as important as the "fast" guys.

We had 200 vendors at the swap meet last month, WITH the Charlotte Auto Fair the same weekend... we're anticipating 200-250 vendors for The Gear Jam.

Mark your calendars!
Cruisin' Commerce May 10, The Gear Jam May 11

 

[RustyRatRod]

Sounds like Charles is goin. Did he ever call you? I was at the shop the other day and he said he was. They just took the car to Douglas this past weekend and ran the best it's ever run. It went like 5.09 or some such. Charles said he was drivin hell out of it. lol He said they musta been chebbie boys runnin the track cause they kept puttin him up against another rail with an injected big block chebbie and he said he wasted um everytime. ....and the motor in that car was actually supposed to go in a doorslammer, so it's nowhere near as radical as it could be for a dragster. When you see the car, you will absolutely love it. It's reall old school badassary. I am gonna try to make it, but with everything that's happened recently, I probably won't be able to.

 

[Brad54]

I'll tell you what, putting on this event is PURE self-indulgence for me! From the pic I saw of his car, it's EXACTLY the kind of car I love watching run. FEDs, early Altereds and gassers just light my fire.
I'm like the Remington shaver guy--I like them so much, I started my own race!

Not sure where you're out of, but it should be a great event... I don't think you'll be disappointed.
I'm glad to hear Charles is planning on coming--I don't think I ever talked with him, but I've talked with Ken at Southern Slingshots and told him the lowdown on tech inspection and such. I really think all the racers will be pleased with the event.

-Brad

 

[RustyRatRod]

I'll call Charles tomorrow and remind him to call.

 

[RustyRatRod]

I talked to Charles a little while ago. He said he's gonna call you this week. I think his concern is to come to Commerce all the way from Milledgeville and not be able to run, because the car is a REAL old school front engine dragster and not a remake. So, as I told you before, it would have to be entirely rebuilt to be certified again.

 

[Brad54]

NEW DATE!
Due to NHRA moving their Southern Nationals because of weather, The Gear Jam vintage drags, traditional rod n custom show and swap meet, has been moved to Saturday, September 28, with Cruisin' Commerce held on Friday night, September 27 from 6-10pm.

We will be having the NE Georgia Swap Meet this month, on Saturday, May 18. For information, call (706) 424-5035, or send me an email at [email protected]

-Brad