“But at the same time, if I save one vehicle a week that’s great, but then I’m gonna be the guy that has cars rotting in my yard. I don’t have endless budgets, and I like to show people that you can have fun and put cars on the street and enjoy them, and they don’t have to be pretty and shiny, or the fastest. I’m just a blue collar, hard-working guy, I work seven days a week. “My heart will always be budget builds and ‘how can we make this thing run on as little coin as possible’ content. Vice Grip Garage continues to evolve in order to keep up with Derek’s long term vision for the channel. They were essentially doing revivals and ‘will it run’ scenarios long before they were content genres. Even then, a teenaged Derek would cruise in town with Chad, scoping out junkers and getting them running to use or sell. The couples have been friends since high school. In keeping with this desire to promote hot rod culture, Derek and Jessica loaned their NASCAR tribute 1974 Monte Carlo to friends Chad and Haley Asheim to compete at Sick Week. It doesn’t even have to be a younger generation, if we can get friends or family or whoever involved, it’s kind of a strength in numbers thing.” “Because when you and I are toes-up in the daisies, if there’s not another generation to pass the torch to, this whole hot rodding scene is done. “It’s great because that’s my whole goal, getting another generation involved,” Derek said. The youngest son, Bentley, even has his own YouTube channel called Little Grip Garage, which chronicles his revival of go-karts and dirt bikes, with Derek’s assistance if needed. She contributes content to the channel and their three boys are often included as well. Vice Grip Garage is a family affair, and Jessica is not stranger to spinning a spanner or two - on camera and off. And of course snacks, I made sure we had all the best snacks, including the cold ones.” By the end of the week I was also in charge of doing tire swaps and fuel. To start, I did all of the packing and organizing, I made sure we followed the correct route, got to the motel and so on. “I was basically in charge of all the logistics. “It was a lot of work, but an absolute blast. “It was everything I expected, and nothing I expected at the same time,” she said. This included dropping in a working big block Kevin had on the floor, because it appeared Derek had already fed too many onions to the Chevelle and she was in need of a temporary transplant.ĭerek’s co-driver was his wife Jessica, and Sick Week marked her first drag-and-drive experience. The body and the paint are going to stay exactly the same forever.”įor Sick Week, Kevin Smith from KSR Performance and Fabrication helped prep Independence. After I heard the story, I said, ‘Well, now I can’t paint it.’ That’s very special to me. “It was painted by the previous owner, Rhonda, and her dad - who is unfortunately no longer with us - as a memorial to 9/11, right after it happened. To show people that you don’t have to have a huge budget and a giant race program to come do events. My goal was just to get it to as many events as possible. We wanted to keep it budget friendly, but still have a lot of fun with it. “It certainly is a fan favorite. Independence is torn, tattered, and scarred - but much like this country, it never gives up. And I think maybe that resonates with folks. Independence has been prominently featured on his YouTube channel ever since he rescued and revived it a couple years ago. It was always being closely inspected by an eager fan. At Sick Week this year, it was nearly impossible to get a photograph of his rough-and-ready, stars and bars painted 1972 Chevelle known as Independence. The fact that Motion Raceworks was willing to just throw me the keys to El Toro, gave me insight to how amazing the drag-and-drive community is.”ĭerek enjoys attending car events and engaging with his subscribers. “I’m a pretty hard guy to get excited, but I can tell you that experience blew me away. The duo ran eight-second passes all week and successfully completed the event. The casual drive was in anticipation of one more exciting to come at Rocky Mountain Race Week, where Derek was teamed with with fabricator/mechanic John Matzen in the Motion Raceworks Coyote-powered Mustang known as El Toro. He drove Tom Bailey’s ice cream truck along the route for the week, getting his first taste for the motorsport niche. His initial foray into this style of motorsport was at 2021’s Midwest Drags - albeit in a spectating capacity. For a man who likes racing and working on cars, and can do so in any location no matter how inconvenient, drag-and-drive was a perfect sport for Derek to get into.
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