From the 1930s through the mid-to-late ’60s, every decade is represented within the Southeast Gassers Association, and they’re impressively competitive despite any perceived aerodynamic or weight transfer advantages or disadvantages.
Stott has strained relationships and taken his share of heat with friends, racers, and even track promoters over the years for his hard-nosed stance regarding the Southeast Gassers, but his many years of experience in organized drag racing has taught him that there’s simply no other way — if you give an inch, soon enough you’ll be giving a mile.The Southeast Gassers maintain the strictest ruleset among the many Gasser organizations that exist in various regions of the country. When he retired from professional drag racing, Stott sought out a nostalgia venue to compete heads-up; when the various groups he looked into and even built a car for couldn’t meet the bill, he constructed a Gasser and arranged a match race a local racer with a similar car. Thus, the Southeast Gassers was born.
How period-correct is the Southeast Gassers Association? Don’t even try bringing a fancy radiator overflow can — Ernie Smith says Quain Stott yanked the can that was on his machine off and told him to find something more in-line with the era. What might that be, you ask? A rusty Old Chicago Lager beer can.
Early on, his rules were less strict — automatics weren’t forbidden, and he quickly saw the writing on the wall when automatic-equipped cars began to take over competitively. And so he drew a line in the sand, allowing the existing automatic cars, but permitting no others to be built. Since that time, Stott and his racers have collectively chosen to run only manually-shifted, clutch-equipped cars. Modern transmissions are allowed for the sake of cost and reliability, but the rules center largely on being as period-correct to 1967 as possible.“Do you know why they called them Gassers? It’s because they ran on gasoline, not on alcohol. Would you believe we’re the only Gasser series in the world that requires the use of gasoline?” Stott asks matter-of-factly as he shares the intricacies of his rules.
The Southeast Gassers invited a pair of vintage A/FX cars out for exhibition — both of them tributes to drag racing icons Huston and Hubert Platt. Fittingly, the Georgia Shaker (pictured) is driven by Hubert’s son, Allen, and the Dixie Twister by Huston’s son, Rocky. The Platt’s put on a wail of a show with their lengthy burnouts and dry hops on the starting line.
It’s this stance that’s drawn the ire of others in the Gasser arena, some of whom have left the series and attempted to chart their own course with a competing organization with less stringent requirements. Too strict, they say….but Stott disagrees.“Our rules are written to where there are no magic parts. It’s man against man, talent against talent, driver against driver. That’s the reason for the four-speed: put automatics in them, that takes away all the talent. If I outrun you, it isn’t because we have different equipment — I outran you because I was smarter than you,” he exclaims.