One of drag racing's great behind-the-scenes gentlemen has passed.

Joe Sherk, 75, passed away on June 24, 2018, in Bremerton, Wash.

Sherk's resume revealed a writer chock full of experience. He was the sports editor at The Kitsap Sun in the 1960s before moving on to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Tacoma News Tribune. After 18 years as a sportswriter, the South Kitsap High School graduate worked as a media/public relations professional for more than 30 years in NHRA drag racing. He represented many of the greatest drag racers in the history of the sport, including Don “The Snake” Prudhomme’s team of Larry Dixon, Ron Capps, and Tommy Johnson Jr.; Warren and Kurt Johnson; Gary Beck; Ed “The Ace” McCulloch; JR Todd; Clay Millican; Cruz Pedregon; Kenny Koretsky; Doug Herbert; and Steve Torrence.

Sherk was also a contributing writer for CompetitionPlus.com from time to time.

“Joe Sherk was one of the first individuals to interpret the drag-racing landscape for me when I began to cover the sport in 1996,” Competition Plus writer Susan Wade said. “Joe was a true gentleman. He often would take me – and other reporters – to see racers who weren’t even his clients, because he wanted to do everything he could to promote the sport. He and his colleagues were family, so that just seemed natural to him.

“Joe had a ready laugh, and you seldom caught him without a smile on his face,” she said. “When the animated movie ‘Shrek’ came out, he joked that it was about ‘my dyslexic relatives.’ He used his sense of humor even in his later, more difficult years, as he faced the reality of Alzheimer’s. He genuinely was an inspiration, handling the condition he didn’t cause or invite - and certainly didn’t want - with grace and laughter. We talked on the phone many times, and we had lunches together several times in the past couple of years. And he was unfailingly funny and a joy to be around.”

In 2016, Pacific Raceways renamed the Media Center in Sherk's honor.

Pacific Raceways owner Jason Fiorito said, “Joe’s been around my grandfather’s track since its inception and not just with NHRA drag racing. When the Can-Am cars and Indy Cars and Mark Donohue and Mario Andretti and Phil Hill were racing here, Joe was covering that. He’s been intertwined with Pacific Northwest Racing for the 56 years Pacific Raceways has been in existence.” And to Sherk, he said, “It’s fitting that for the next 50 or 60 or 70 years your name’s going to be on the door, not only for the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series but all the road racing we plan in the future. This room is dedicated to you from now on. I am humbled to be in the presence of a Northwest racing icon.”

Past NHRA champion Ron Capps, who was once represented by Sherk, remembers those days when the public relations icon plied his trade as high of a level as the best in the business.

“Our sport has grown so much," Capps said. "When I came in, we had to go out in these small areas and get on our soapbox and preach about our sport and how much we want people to come out. We had a lot of fun doing it. I had Joe as a mentor. I got to hear some of the best stories.

"Anybody new in the PR ranks, the stuff that you could have learned from them . . . It was about taking care of the media. It was a personal thing. We built relationships.”

Capps at the 2016 media center dedication said to Sherk, “Thank you because there’s no way I’d be where I am today without everything you taught me.”

Respected crew chief Mike Kloeber, also a Washington State resident, said, “I probably helped contribute to some of Joe's worst assignments: how to write a good story about a team that didn’t qualify. Joe has always been easy to talk to and one of the best P.R. guys. I've been fortunate to have worked for a number of people who employed Joe. He's a really easygoing guy who always was tactful in his questions after a race. A lot of sportswriters go unnoticed . . . but he's certainly done some noteworthy things in his career."

And, drag racing was a better sport for having had Joe Sherk as a part of it.