How Jerico^® Came About...


Photo Courtesy of Dave Miller -- Circle Track Magazine.

     Every successful entrepreneur has an interesting "start-up" story to share. One of the best is told by the husband-and-wife team of Jerry and Cheryl Hemmingson, whose Jerico^® Racing Transmissions may be the only company that owes its existence to a snowmobile accident.

Prior to that fateful day in 1972, Jerry Hemmingson had been a parttime drag racer and a professional snowmobile racer, driving full-time for a factory team. That promising career came to a painful, premature end in his home state of Minnesota when a competitor's snowmobile crashed into Jerry's side, breaking his shoulder and shattering his elbow. Worse, the radial nerve in Hemmingson's right arm was severed. Consequently, this right-handed racer's "good" hand no longer worked at all.

     "So, I learned to work with the other hand," he explains, matter-of-factly. two years and several unsuccessful operations later, Hemmingson's right elbow was still broken, but his NHRA Modified Production Mustang was back at the drag strip -- still equipped with its four-speed manual transmission. Though power-shifting was extremely painful, Jerry found that he could still pull the shift lever into second and fourth gears with his damaged right hand. However, because his radial nerve and arm muscles didn't work, he could no longer push the Ford Toploader into third gear. Anyone else might've switched to an automatic transmission -- or found another hobby. Not Hemmingson: "I hooked a bungee cord from the firewall to the shift lever, and it pulled itself into third gear!"

     Satisfied that he could still drag race competitively, Jerry decided to complete the Pinto-bodied NHRA A/Gasser that was under construction at the time of his snowmobile accident. He simultaneously enrolled in a rehabilitation program that would teach him the fundamentals of pattern work and metal casting. For his first class project, Jerry designed and produced a lightweight, aluminum tailhousing for Ford's heavy Toploader four-speed. Next came an innovative, all-aluminum transmission case that opened from both the top and bottom. "The car had to weigh 2150 pounds to fit the class," he explained. "Initially, I made these parts to save weight."

     His first season back, Hemmingson shattered both ends of NHRA's national A/Gas record -- and broke transmissions with alarming regularity. So, one piece at a time, he started replacing internal components with custom parts that he'd designed on a computer and machined with his own equipment. By 1978, Jerry was manufacturing complete gearsets out of billet steel. Among other benefits, his unique slider-and-tooth combination ended this handicapped driver's difficulty executing the two-three gear change.

     During the five years that Hemmingson continuously held NHRA's elapsed-time and mile-per-hour records, his Modified eliminator competitors developed the usual two reactions: First, they protested his unique transmission -- unsuccessfully. ("We were always legal," insists Jerry, laughing. "they figured I shouldn't be able to shift it that quick, especially being handicapped.") Later, they began lining up at his pit area, asking to buy his spares. Thus was Jerico^® -- a contraction of "Jerry and Company" -- born at the race track, in the back of the Hemmingson's trailer. In 1980, demand for these parts grew so intense that Jerry and Cheryl reluctantly sold their record-holding Pinto to concentrate on their customers. Their home 6-car garage in Minnesota became the first home of Jerico^® Racing Transmissions.

     Twenty-three years later, Jerico^® gearboxes are equally familiar to superspeedways, road courses, salt flats, drag strips and oval tracks around the world. And today in the year 2003 the husband & wife team are still working together, their marriage is still strong after thirty-six years. This unique team is very goal oriented, and work smoothly together. Jerry doing all the R&D, and the manufacturing, while Cheryl takes on all other tasks as Jerry's assistant. And, after twenty-plus years of working with the race community, Jerry still prefers that all phone calls are diverted away from him and towards his wife. Being a racer at heart, Jerry Hemmingson couldn't stay out of it long, and now the husband and wife team race a B/A using his 5-speed clutchless Air Shifted transmission. And take advantage of every race-opportunity they get. Their son, Tom Hemmingson has spent the majority of his life around drag racing and has his own M/S Chevelle. He also holds the national record with an 11.85 et.

Jerry Hemmingson shown with wife Cheryl and son Tom July 2003.