Stick Shift Record Improves to 6.61-Seconds as “Grubb Worm” Flies at FL2K

There’s something special about the annual FL2k event that always brings out some awesome competition that is sure to have an ecstatic vibe on the premises. Those in attendance, this year, at the iconic Bradenton Motorsports Park, would be treated to a variety of top-tier action with plenty of outstanding performances.

This time, we take a moment to check in with one of those performances that just so happened to be record-setting.

There’s really just something about rowing the gears in an H-pattern stick shift car that makes the hair on the back of one’s neck stand up. It’s a sort of connection between man and machine that’s hard to replicate and even though the stick shift is dwindling in factory production cars these days, we would say that the stick shift drag racing community is still alive and well.

In this particular case, we catch up with Jonathan Atkins of Tick Performance and his early fourth-generation Chevrolet Camaro that goes by the name of “Grubb Worm.” At FL2k, fans would watch as the Atkins and his Camaro blasted its way down the quarter mile to become the fastest-ever manually shifted car to the tune of a 6.615-second pass at 216.41 mph. The record-setting pass would be good enough to push the racer into the final round of a $3,500 stick shift shoot-out as well but more importantly, pushed the record for H-pattern cars to a new height, taking the bad bowtie past the standing record of 6.69@221 set by Joel Grannas and his Toyota Supra.

Perhaps most impressively, the car that many have grown to know as the one that used old-school GM LT engine architecture recently underwent a combination change. Even though Atkin attests to the fact that the new setup is similar to the old one, the turbocharged 97 Camaro now features a small block Chevy under the hood. The machine had only done a few eighth-mile test passes with this new combo after switching from the LT architecture to a Gen one Chevy configuration before blasting its way into the record books yet again.

Who knows where things could go with a little bit more dialing in!?