“From the Street to the Strip”

The Emerging Man Chronicles…

Greg Stelse, the impetus for…

The book… The Joker: A Story About A Guy, A Gal & A Gasser!

And… Greg’s Speed Shop… Home of The Joker!

The book is Available in Paperback and Kindle versions on Amazon!

Ask him, “Can you point to a specific moment in your life when things clicked for you?”

“Yeah,” he said, “the day after I quit drinkin'”

The Joker: A Story About A Guy…

And that guy… is Greg Stelse, Custom Car Builder and Racer!

“A Guy” who went “From the Street to the Strip”

Who, with anyone else’s luck, should’ve ended up in jail! With newspaper headlines to match, “Crazy Driver Eludes Police But Gets Wrapped Up By Telephone Pole!”

Instead, now, he headlines across the country, nationally recognized, automotive INDUSTRY car shows, as owner of Greg’s Speed Shop, and driver of…

THE JOKER! A 2 door, 1957 Pontiac Chieftain Gasser Drag Racer!

Who in 2023 is clawing his way into a new racing association the SEGA!

The South East Gassers Association… fastest gassers in the country!

The Joker isn’t just vying for a #1 spot… no,no, he’s vying for a world record to boot!

In his first season with the South East Gassers!

The audacity of some people!

But he’s not racing just some “other guys” most of “these guys” are NHRA professionals who wanted to get back to their roots where “man and machine” still mean something.

They said, “He’s fast… up north, on a quarter mile…, and with that big motor, sure… he’ll catch you and drive around ya… towards the end, but we race on an eighth mile where he won’t have that kind of room, he might qualify 20th or so, and it’ll take him all year just to catch up to us.”

His first time out… he qualified 6th!

The Joker keeps breaking though, and getting bounced in the later rounds.

But still, last I checked, he was only 7/10ths off of that world record.

With 3 races to go he hasn’t even made it to a final yet… much less set any records. Heck, once he had to borrow “another guy’s car” to keep his points standing.

You can hear the frustration in Greg’s voice when he says, “We should be winning by now!”

A little side note: That car he borrowed. He drove that car to IT”S FASTEST TIME too!

Greg can drive. Greg has DRIVE! He has a drive that allows “a guy” to stay obsessively focused on a goal.

And he has the skill, determination, and audacity to see it through!

A popular baseball movie produced a great quote…

It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it.

The hard is what makes it great.

A League of Their Own

The hard part isn’t fixing what’s broke, Greg can do that in his sleep.

The hard part is not being able to go toe to toe with those top 5 cars like The Chick Magnet ’55 Chevy, or that old school ’31 Ford, yeah I said ’31 Ford, “that guy” is tearing it up!

And despite “all the hard knocks” The Joker is takin’… last I looked… in the points standings… he’s still in the top 10! Sitting in 9th!

With 3 races to go.

Not bad for a kid from “up north”.

So I gotta ask ya, “Who ya got?”

Me? I wrote the book! I’m TEAM JOKER ALL THE WAY! (But that ’55 Chevy ain’t no joke)

The Emerging Man writing to ENCOURAGE, EQUIP & ENGAGE!

And offering up “Positivity with Work gloves!”

#thejokergasser #gregstelse #gregsspeedshop #southeastgassers #vintageracing #theaudacity #1957pontiacchieftain