Hey guys, I'd like to thank you for your input and opinions from a couple months back, when I asked about running a muscle car drag class at a traditional hot rod and custom show and swap meet I'm planning. Your views were MUCH appreciated!
After having spent 15 years as a magazine hack going tosome of the best events in the country, I've often though "Man, I'd LOVE to put on one of these! But if I did, I'd do this, this and that differently."
Well, now's my chance.
Announcing The Gear Jam vintage drags, traditional hot-rod and custom show, and swap meet! Saturday, May 11 at the Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia.
We’re shooting for traditional-looking race cars—not bracket Camaros with throttle stops and launch control.
Heads-up racing in five different classes for ’66 and older: Gasser, Front Engine Dragster, Altered/Comp Coupe, Nostalgia Super Stock, Hot Rod, and a Muscle Car class for cars ’74 and older.
My purpose is to give guys a vintage race, with cars running in-class with evenly matched competition, from qualifying to the final rounds of Top Eliminator.
Qualifying will be by class in the morning, and in the afternoon/evening the Quick 8 will run for purse money, everyone else in class will run a best 2/3 shootout with the car closest to your ET. This way, the heavy-hitters can run for the money, and the rest of us slow pokes can still run heads-up through Eliminations Rounds with someone we’re close to. Because the point of having a vintage race car is to make passes and have fun, right? Getting put on the trailer after qualifying, getting your doors blown off every round, and handicap/bracket starts off the line all suck!
At the end of the race, the six top qualifiers from each class, and the two fastest qualifiers who didn’t make the cut, will battle in a Round-Robin Quick-8 elimination for Top Eliminator of the event.
The car show portion is open to 1965 and older traditional hot rods, customs, trucks and bikes.
Store-bought trophies suck, as do judged shows. I’d much rather see some clubs build trophies and give them out to their favorite rides… To me, those mean a lot more than some gold plastic thing or judging by points or even worse, popular ballot-box-stuffing.
If any car clubs would like to build a trophy for your favorite vehicle, pick one of these categories and let me know.
Best Engine
Best Paint
Quality Breakage (Breakage coming to or at the event, including race cars)
Best Race Car
Best Wheelie
Best Custom
Best Interior
Trick Truck
Best Survivor
Best Use of Louvers
Flat-out Bitchin!
Just Kicks ***!
We will be running the North East Georgia Swap Meet in conjunction with The Gear Jam—by the end of 2012 (our first year at the Atlanta Dragway), we were pulling over 150 vendors and almost 1,000 spectators for the swap meet…We expect to have 175-200 vendors for The Gear Jam. Also, note these are actual vendors, not vendor spaces… Our spaces for The Gear Jam are $25, for all the space you want. Most swap meets have limited space sizes, and many vendors buy multiple spaces for their stuff, and the shows advertise their size by vendor spaces sold. A lot of our guys would take up 2-5 spaces at other shows.
Hot Rod Deluxe magazine is sponsoring the burn-out contest, winner gets a set of tires.
We’re looking for sponsors for the race classes—if you’d like to be involved, drop me a note at: [email protected]
We’re also trying to keep this a family-friendly event, by making the prices something a family can afford. As a father and husband, there's nothing I disliked more than having to pay to enter my car, pay for a Spectator entry for my wife, and pay again for my son. Times are tight, but even if they weren't, why should it cost a family $100 just to be part of a car show?! There isn't enough family-oriented stuff these days, so I'm gonna do my part:
Race entry:
$50 per car; covers Driver, Pit Kitty and your little grease monkeys.
Show car entry:
$35 for your show car, your chick and your little grease monkeys.
$10 entry for anyone else. (So your adult brother riding shotgun in the show car, or crew members for your race car, will have to pay $10)
Spectator Entry:
$10
Swap Meet Vendor spaces (including one helper)
$25
We’ve got a few other things in the works for the event, so check out our website, or shoot me your email address and I’ll put you on our update list.
For more inforation, shoot me a note at: [email protected], and check out our website at www.gearjamdrags.com
The Gear Jam--Take Your Hot Rod Out and Beat It!
After having spent 15 years as a magazine hack going tosome of the best events in the country, I've often though "Man, I'd LOVE to put on one of these! But if I did, I'd do this, this and that differently."
Well, now's my chance.
Announcing The Gear Jam vintage drags, traditional hot-rod and custom show, and swap meet! Saturday, May 11 at the Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia.
We’re shooting for traditional-looking race cars—not bracket Camaros with throttle stops and launch control.
Heads-up racing in five different classes for ’66 and older: Gasser, Front Engine Dragster, Altered/Comp Coupe, Nostalgia Super Stock, Hot Rod, and a Muscle Car class for cars ’74 and older.
My purpose is to give guys a vintage race, with cars running in-class with evenly matched competition, from qualifying to the final rounds of Top Eliminator.
Qualifying will be by class in the morning, and in the afternoon/evening the Quick 8 will run for purse money, everyone else in class will run a best 2/3 shootout with the car closest to your ET. This way, the heavy-hitters can run for the money, and the rest of us slow pokes can still run heads-up through Eliminations Rounds with someone we’re close to. Because the point of having a vintage race car is to make passes and have fun, right? Getting put on the trailer after qualifying, getting your doors blown off every round, and handicap/bracket starts off the line all suck!
At the end of the race, the six top qualifiers from each class, and the two fastest qualifiers who didn’t make the cut, will battle in a Round-Robin Quick-8 elimination for Top Eliminator of the event.
The car show portion is open to 1965 and older traditional hot rods, customs, trucks and bikes.
Store-bought trophies suck, as do judged shows. I’d much rather see some clubs build trophies and give them out to their favorite rides… To me, those mean a lot more than some gold plastic thing or judging by points or even worse, popular ballot-box-stuffing.
If any car clubs would like to build a trophy for your favorite vehicle, pick one of these categories and let me know.
Best Engine
Best Paint
Quality Breakage (Breakage coming to or at the event, including race cars)
Best Race Car
Best Wheelie
Best Custom
Best Interior
Trick Truck
Best Survivor
Best Use of Louvers
Flat-out Bitchin!
Just Kicks ***!
We will be running the North East Georgia Swap Meet in conjunction with The Gear Jam—by the end of 2012 (our first year at the Atlanta Dragway), we were pulling over 150 vendors and almost 1,000 spectators for the swap meet…We expect to have 175-200 vendors for The Gear Jam. Also, note these are actual vendors, not vendor spaces… Our spaces for The Gear Jam are $25, for all the space you want. Most swap meets have limited space sizes, and many vendors buy multiple spaces for their stuff, and the shows advertise their size by vendor spaces sold. A lot of our guys would take up 2-5 spaces at other shows.
Hot Rod Deluxe magazine is sponsoring the burn-out contest, winner gets a set of tires.
We’re looking for sponsors for the race classes—if you’d like to be involved, drop me a note at: [email protected]
We’re also trying to keep this a family-friendly event, by making the prices something a family can afford. As a father and husband, there's nothing I disliked more than having to pay to enter my car, pay for a Spectator entry for my wife, and pay again for my son. Times are tight, but even if they weren't, why should it cost a family $100 just to be part of a car show?! There isn't enough family-oriented stuff these days, so I'm gonna do my part:
Race entry:
$50 per car; covers Driver, Pit Kitty and your little grease monkeys.
Show car entry:
$35 for your show car, your chick and your little grease monkeys.
$10 entry for anyone else. (So your adult brother riding shotgun in the show car, or crew members for your race car, will have to pay $10)
Spectator Entry:
$10
Swap Meet Vendor spaces (including one helper)
$25
We’ve got a few other things in the works for the event, so check out our website, or shoot me your email address and I’ll put you on our update list.
For more inforation, shoot me a note at: [email protected], and check out our website at www.gearjamdrags.com
The Gear Jam--Take Your Hot Rod Out and Beat It!
