Draggin' Main returns to Clovis streets

Sporting sleek aviators and a Draggin’ Main T-shirt, Sherri Wilson pointed to a parking spot while strolling down Clovis’ Main Street.

“Right there,” she nodded.

At a Draggin’ Main event in 2021, this spot was occupied by a bottle-nosed 1932 Ford Coupe and Wilson’s father Wiley talking to its owner for several hours. The classic whip was just a vehicle for them to stroll down memory lane.

“His face just lit up,” Sherri said. 

After Wiley passed away more than a year later, the scene marked one of his and Sherri’s last meaningful moments together. It’s also a window into why Draggin’ Main has become one of eastern New Mexico’s biggest car events: That uncanny ability to blend passion with nostalgia. 

“We’re creating a legacy with families and we’re gonna leave a legacy,” said Wilson, Draggin’ Main’s 2024 event coordinator. 

Designed to be a one-day cruise for locals a decade ago, Draggin’ Main has evolved into a week-long city touchstone. Thousands flock from Clovis and beyond annually.  

“Last year, we hit 7,000 at Gear Head,” Wilson said, referring to an event for classic and vintage cars, before adding, “on Saturdays, it’s consistently over 10,000 people.”

She expects thousands to come once again.

Part of this explosion could be linked to Clovis’ small-town feel, according to Wilson. Among the sprawling ocean of engines are people who grew up in rural areas where they spent Saturday nights uniting over cars, cruising main drags.

“We’ve had people as far as Wisconsin come,” said Gene Porter, who co-founded Draggin’ Main alongside Brian Boone in 2014 and ran it with him before retiring from the volunteer job last year.

Perhaps, the real origin story of Draggin’ Main dates back to Porter’s childhood in the 1970s. 

The son of Larry, the “neighborhood car guy,” Porter remembers being around cars and hot rods from “as long as I could walk.”

He remembers being his dad’s “flashlight guy,” inspecting under cars alongside him, scavenging for parts through wrecking yards and trips to drag races. 

“That was the bonding spot for me and my dad. If it had to do with a car, that’s what we did,” Porter said. “... Everything about cars I owe to my dad.”

All this laid the foundation for Porter’s high school days spent dragging Main in summers throughout the 1980s; everything he and Boone wanted to replicate – and relive – through Draggin’ Main. 

During this time, Porter spent mornings and afternoons working at an auto shop to collect spending money to fund his escapades on Clovis’ Main Street. 

Motley Crue and Metallica provided the soundtrack. Main Street’s brick road provided the platform. “Smothered burritos” from Foxy’s Drive In and “Hailey Specials” (chili, fries and cheese on a hot dog bun) from Wienerschnitzel and one-liter drinks from Taco Box provided the fuel. 

“There wasn’t anything else going on. You’d go downtown, you’d look for somebody to race, you’d challenge them to a race for a tank of gas, money, food or whatever – or just to do it,” Porter said. 

But those days quickly faded into adulthood responsibilities. Porter graduated from high school and then followed in his father’s footsteps. It was time to pay the bills. Main Street itself lost that electricity over time. 

Eager to bring some semblance of those glory days back to Clovis, Porter and Boone created Draggin’ Main. Porter hustled around town, marketing it through Facebook and radio, and they scribbled ideas down on napkins. They expected “100 people to come.” 

Eleven years later, tens of thousands of wheels now collect tread all over the city. Part of that explosion could also be linked to how Draggin’ Main has events for any and all vehicles – not just hot rods or vintages. This acceptance will help keep Sherri Wilson’s father Wiley alive. 

After Wiley passed in 2022, Sherri sold his prized, black, mid-1990s Suburban on Facebook MarketPlace. It was a very “difficult” part of the grieving process. He was enamored by it.

Then there’s how she and Wiley built a close bond through cars. Wilson remembers playing “with his hair and telling him to run red lights” as a child. 

Unbeknownst to her, the man she sold it to – Clovis’ Carlos Vazquez – bought it with intentions to renovate it and take the SUV to Draggin’ Main with his two kids. 

“I kind of told her, ‘I’m not buying it just to buy it and destroy it. I actually want to see this thing go down the road and drag Main,” Vazquez said, who’ll be draggin’ Main again this year, too.