It was his grandfather, Joe McDermott, who saw something in that.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AS4-1024x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The kind of person who doesn\u2019t just tell a kid \u201cthat\u2019s cool,\u201d but pushes them a little further. Tells them to keep going. Tells them it could be something.<\/p>\n
That matters more than people realize.<\/p>\n
Because years later, when Flemming walked into Bickel\u2019s shop for the first time, he didn\u2019t walk in as \u201ca builder.\u201d He walked in running a laser.<\/p>\n
That was it.<\/p>\n
No spotlight. No big introduction. Just another guy learning how to do his job.<\/p>\n
But five years has a way of changing things if you actually care.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AS5-1024x684.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Now he builds every driveshaft that comes through the shop. Works on one-off pieces\u2014things like titanium rear-end components that most racers will never even see, much less understand. Floats between fabrication, problem solving, whatever needs to get done.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I just do a little bit of everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s not a throwaway line. In a place like Bickel, that means something.<\/p>\n
The shop itself is changing too. New ownership in the last year has shifted the way things operate\u2014less siloed, less \u201cthis is your one job,\u201d and more cross-training. More people learning more parts of the process.<\/p>\n
There was a time when Flemming was the only one who could run the laser.<\/p>\n
Not anymore.<\/p>\n
That evolution\u2014both his and the shop\u2019s\u2014sits right in the middle of something every industry deals with: the tension between old school and new school.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t dodge that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe older guys being stuck in their ways\u2026 that\u2019s a blessing and a curse. But the younger guys wanting to change everything is too.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s truth in that. The kind you only get from being in the middle of it.<\/p>\n
But then he said something that cuts through all of it:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t teach someone to love this.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the line.<\/p>\n
You can teach someone to weld.
You can teach someone to measure.
You can teach someone to follow a process.<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t teach them to care.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what separates the ones who stay from the ones who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AS2-768x1024.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n
The truck tells the rest of the story. “BlueCollar56”<\/p>\n
A 1956 Chevy pickup. The kind of vehicle that, for most people, is either a high-dollar showpiece or something too far gone to bother with.<\/p>\n
He paid $275 for it.<\/p>\n
It was headed to the scrapyard.<\/p>\n
That should tell you everything you need to know about where it started.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been a stick shift truck guy,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve always loved the tri-five trucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
But this wasn\u2019t a \u201cdream build\u201d in the Instagram sense. There was no blank check. No perfect plan laid out from day one.<\/p>\n
There was a budget. A blue-collar job. And a decision to build something anyway.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s what he did.<\/p>\n
A blown combination\u2014because, in his words, \u201cyou just can\u2019t beat the look.\u201d A stick shift, because that\u2019s what he\u2019s always been drawn to. And a build that wasn\u2019t focused on being perfect, but on being real.<\/p>\n
Functional.<\/p>\n
Thought out.<\/p>\n
Personal.<\/p>\n
When he talks about the truck, he doesn\u2019t talk about horsepower numbers or ETs first. He talks about how it comes apart.<\/p>\n
The bed lifts off with four pins. Everything is designed so it can be worked on. Accessed. Fixed.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not something you think about unless you\u2019re the one who\u2019s going to be under it.<\/p>\n
And maybe more importantly\u2014unless you\u2019ve spent enough time in a shop to know what matters.<\/p>\n
He said if he built it again tomorrow, he wouldn\u2019t really change much.<\/p>\n
Not because it\u2019s perfect.<\/p>\n
But because he took his time making decisions as he went.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a builder\u2019s answer.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AS1-684x1024.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n
But the part that sticks with you isn\u2019t the shop.
And it\u2019s not the truck.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s what happens after.<\/p>\n
He already knows where he\u2019s going the first time he drives it for real.<\/p>\n
Not to a track.
Not to a show.<\/p>\n
To his grandfather\u2019s grave, the same place it went on a trailer the first time it left the shop.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AS3-1024x598.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first place I\u2019ll go\u2026 is to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a pause there when he talks about it. You can feel it, even through a phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wish I could pick up the phone and talk to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the part of this sport people don\u2019t always put into words.<\/p>\n
We talk about horsepower.
We talk about chassis.
We talk about who won and who lost.<\/p>\n
But underneath all of it, there\u2019s something else.<\/p>\n
Cars are how a lot of us remember people.
How we stay connected to them.
How we carry something forward.<\/p>\n
For Flemming, that truck isn\u2019t just something he built.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s proof that what his grandfather saw in him was real.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AS8-1024x622.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n
Somewhere along the way, the kid playing in the dirt and drawing cars in his free time became the guy building parts for some of the fastest cars in the world at Jerry Bickel Race Cars<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n And now he\u2019s building one for himself.<\/p>\n Not to impress anyone. But to finish something that started a long time ago.<\/p>\n His goal this year is to have it at the PRI Show<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n If you see it there, you\u2019ll probably notice the blower first. Maybe the stance. Maybe the details.<\/p>\n But if you know the story, you\u2019ll see something else.<\/p>\n A kid. Austin wants to thank his sponsors and those who have helped him along the way<\/p>\n Drunken Fish Fabrication -Kyle Weintraut Most people in drag racing fall in love with it the same way. They don\u2019t start in a shop.They don\u2019t start with a welder in their hand. They start in the dirt. Pushing around toy cars. Drawing them. Imagining what they could be long before they ever understand how they actually work. That\u2019s where Austin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59,56,50],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[55],"class_list":{"0":"post-4049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-drag-n-drive","9":"category-driver-features"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AS9-600x400.png","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AS9-600x600.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Kline Whitley","author_link":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/author\/klinewhitley"},"authors":[{"term_id":55,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"klinewhitley","display_name":"Kline Whitley","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Me.png","url2x":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Me.png"},"first_name":"Kline","last_name":"Whitley","user_url":"http:\/\/www.DragCoverage.com","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4049"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/DragCoverage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=4049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Not to chase a number.<\/p>\n
A grandfather.
And everything that happened in between.<\/p>\n
\nDynamic Racing Headers -Craig Sheffield
\nInnovative Fab – Tyler Koester
\nKing Coatings – Sean Eckman
\nJerry Bickel Rae Cars
\nCameron Johnson Race Cars
\nPoppy’s Patina
\nCVF Racing – Sam Seyfert
\nMichigan Motorsports – Dalton Shearer
\nHolley – Alex Stivaletti\/Donny Cummins
\nMonster Clutch Company – Jason Worlitz
\nXS Power- Jed Emert
\nStroud Safety – John Gentry
\nBeCool Radiators – Justin Larocque
\nRaceTech Titanium – Devin Milkovich
\nTick Performance – Alex Barriga-Calvario
\nFrankenstein Engine Dynamics – Nash Hestily
\nManton Race Products – Trevor Manton
\nThe Driveshaft Shop – Lee Mejia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"