When the 2025 Southeast Gassers Association season kicks off March 21-22, in Cecil, Ga., Greg and Leah Stelse will be there with plenty of optimism.
“Twenty-twenty-five is going to be a big year for us,” Leah predicted.
The journey to South Georgia Motorsports Park is a one-way journey of about 1,150 miles from Stelses’ home in Iola, Wis. Their car, a green 1957 Pontiac Super Chief named “The Joker,” is prepped about 20 minutes away at Greg’s Speed Shop in Waupaca.
As has been the case for the past two years with SEGA, the Stelses aren’t out for victory as much as they are in claiming SEGA’s A/Gas world record. The current mark is 5.18, and belongs to SEGA owner Leslie Horne and his ’55 Chevy known as “Chick Magnet.”
Before the Stelses decided to tackle SEGA competition, “The Joker” was set up solely for quarter-mile action in the Upper Midwest, with a best of 8.46 seconds at 159 mph.
But SEGA racing is only held on the eighth-mile, something Greg Stelse hadn’t tackled with “The Joker,” which he’s had for 11 years.
“We’ve run faster at home,” Greg said, “but the tracks aren’t as sticky as they are down South. The tracks are really sticky in the first 60 feet down there, and that 60 feet is where the race is won.”
A former stock car racer who turned to drag racing, Stelse is driven by the lure of the A/Gas record, even if he holds onto it for just one day.
The quest began with the 2023 SEGA season. The Stelses attended all 10 events despite the distance from home, and in the process put 24,000 miles on their tow rig.
“We learned a lot that first year racing with those guys. They’re the baddest on the planet,” Greg said. “I will take any (drag racer), put them in a SEGA car – I don’t care if it’s John Force or Kye Kelly or whoever – and I’m telling you, those guys are the baddest on the planet. No computers running things, no shift lights, 10-inch tires, all four-speeds. Good luck, that’s all I can say. We ate crow all year.”
Bewildered by his first-year SEGA issues, Stelse wondered what to do to regain the performance he’d enjoyed at tracks throughout his region. He got pointed in the right direction when another SEGA A/Gas racer, Todd Blackwell, stopped by the shop while on a hunting trip.
“I was telling him what was going on, and he said, ‘Man, I’m telling you now, the ladder bars are too chincy,” Greg said.
He reached out to Horne, who had just completed his purchase of SEGA from founder Quain Stott, for help. Horne and his tuner, Brian Harris, flew to Wisconsin to see what they could discern and what improvements they could implement.
“That’s one thing about all of us at Southeast Gassers, we all want to help everybody,” Horne said. “We tried to get him to go faster. They’re putting in the hard work and the money and travel and stuff. He’s good for us. He does a lot of promotion and stuff, and he’s turned into one of my good buddies – we talk two or three times a week.”
“We kind of already knew it was the ladder bars. (Horne and Harris) started pulling on them, and you could see they were flexing – and we struggled all year with that.”
“They were real lightweight and flexing kind of bad,” Horne added.
And how did that show itself on the track?
“It was cocking the rear end and making me go toward the wall, then they’d flex back,” Stelse said. “We didn’t know what was going on with the car. It would go straight down the track four times, then go hard left. That happened mostly when the track was good, like when they’d blow the track. When they hadn’t blown the track, everybody else would fall off and we’d go faster because the track would get crappier – and I’m used to running on crappy tracks. I was going the long way around to get to the finish line because the car was going from this side to that side to this side.”
Once a heavier set was installed, “The Joker” was ready for 2024. Stelse didn’t win a race, but he crept closer and closer to that A/Gas record he’s chasing. That involved getting an engine built by former IHRA world champion Gene Fulton.
“Leah told me I could never get serious about this like I did when I dirt racing late models,” Greg said. “She said, ‘Promise me you won’t get serious with The Joker.’ I said, ‘I won’t.’ When she finally ‘got it’ hook, line and sinker, she said, ‘You call Fulton and get that motor.’”
With Fulton power – freshened with new pistons and more in the offseason – and the beefier suspension, Stelse is ready to head to the track to beat his 5.23 best in the eighth-mile. And if the initial outing at South Georgia isn’t the answer as-is, he’s prepared to change from carburetion to fuel injection. The latter choice would provide a 150-pound weight break.
And if he doesn’t win a race, that’s OK – as long as he can lay claim to having the country’s quickest A/Gasser.
“Do I want to win a race? Yes. Do I want to win the championship? Yeah,” Stelse said. “But all I want is that world record so that at one point in time, I was the baddest gasser on the planet – with rules.
“It’s for the grandkids so that they can say their granddad went out and traveled the country to get it. I think with our new motor, it’s game over for the boys, I just really believe it. We’re going to get that record, no matter what it takes. If it takes us another year to do it, it is what it is – but we are not quitting until we do it. … I told Leslie to get ready, all that smack-talking he talks to me. I ain’t quitting.”
Horne won SEGA’s C/Gas crown in 2019, and the A/Gas title in 2022 and ’24. His response to Stelse’s comment was straightforward: “He’s got the confidence, that’s for sure. He’s my buddy and all, but he won’t ever have to worry about me making it easy on him. He’ll never be able to say I laid down.”
