67-year-old Jerry Conrad was just barely old enough to drive when the popularity of the gassers faded away in the late 1960's. Watching the gassers as a kid and as a young man hooked him on the sport of drag racing and he wanted to get involved. Jerry said by the time he was able to have a drag car of his own something changed big time. Jerry said racing like he got hooked on in the 1950's and 60's was gone and something called bracket / index racing had took over the sportsman part of Drag Racing. Jerry tried to understand and get interested but he said it just didn't make any sense to him to lose because it went too fast. So he went on about his life and other than some street racing he never got involved in the sport.
Fast forward to today where Jerry is retired from running a very successful business building super cool Hot Rods from the ground up. With the memory of the old 60's gassers still etched in his mind someone told him about a group that runs and classify the cars like they were done in the mid 1960's. Jerry is thinking this is too good to be true so, he starts researching and sure enough ONE such Association does exist called the Southeast Gassers Association. The SEGA has very strict rules that keep the cars looking and racing very close to the way he remembers them as a kid. In no time Jerry locates a 62 Chevy 2 body shell that was an X gasser to finally build and race his dream car.
Since building Hot Rods is his profession, once he started building it only took him 7 months to complete even though it was just a spare time project. The car never left his shop. Jerry built the 292 CI Chevy engine, chassis, roll cage, rear end and to stay as era correct as possible to the exact car he wanted as a teenager he even painted it with old-school enamel paint.
Jerry wants to thank his loving wife Ronda Conrad for supporting him in this dream and also good friend Mike Marshall for a helping hand building the car. Mike also plans to be on the road with Jerry to help at the SEGA races.
Old time racers will remember the name Albert Clark from his string of Gassers, Modified Production, all the way up to NHRA Pro Stock cars back in the day. Mr Clark is Drag Racing Royalty to us older racing fans and will be will be coming on board as an Associate Sponsor. Also extending a helping hand on sponsorship is AJ Hetrick Enterprises.
Jerry said the only down side to this project is his lifelong friend and partner on the car John McMasters didn't live to see it finished.
July 25th will be Jerry's first time ever behind the wheel of an ill handling 4 speed gasser. He will be the first to admit it's going to be a steep learning curve, but Jerry is looking forward to the moment in time that he will finally get to feel what he has craved since he was a young man and to be able to mark this off his bucket list.
Be sure to see Jerry and many more July 25th at Wagler Motorsports Park
in Lyons Indiana for the 3rd stop on the SEGA 2020 tour.
Additional sponsorship help from Carquest of Covington and Attica, IN and Dingy Dave's Body shop, Tilton, IL