Nearly two decades ago, Donald ‘Duck’ Long noticed that one of the biggest groups of heads-up racing, Outlaw Drag Radial, wasn’t being given the amount of attention he felt they deserved. So, he did something about it, and sixteen years after the ‘Lights Out’ event debuted at South Georgia Motorsports Park, it remains a destination race for racers and fans where the wild and unpredictable happens, as well as many a record are set.
Paolo Guist would be the lone car to dip into the 3.4-second range in the top tier Radial Versus The World (RVW) class during the first session, clocking a 3.498 at 213.60 MPH blast for the top qualifying spot. The impressive run was just twelve thousandths of-a-second off the world record of 3.486 at 213.83 MPH from ‘Stevie Fast’ Jackson, set last March at Alabama International Dragway. But Guist wasn’t done yet.
With the sun all but gone and track temperatures dropping quickly, the entire list of heads-up classes had completed their first session of qualifying. But the decision was made for one more round of RVW qualifying. Guist would be in the first pair of cars out of the staging lanes, lining up alongside a former Lights Out event winner, Ken Quartuccio.
The scoreboards would show history less than three and-a-half seconds later, and for more than one reason!
The drag and drive season is underway, and with Sick The Magazine’s Sick Week, Sick Summer, and Sick Michigan Miles events in place and sold out, we turn our attention to our fourth drag and drive of the 2025 season.
Our second ‘one-off’ event - Edelbrock Sick Smokies – will take a group of competitors, as well as Sick Ward participants, through Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee on an eighth-mile drag and drive adventure.
“Having a different drag and drive event each year gives the Sick The Magazine slogan ‘For The Adventure’ a different meaning,” said Tom Bailey of Sick The Mag. “I appreciate each and every participant, and for our Sick Week and Sick Summer events, they work great in their current form. Why would I change them?”
“But some participants want more. They want to travel different roads, see different tracks, to make the experience about the adventure, the memories, and say I was part of a one-time deal. We answered that call with Death Week in 2023 and continue it in 2025 with Sick Michigan Miles and Sick Smokies.”
Registration for this eighth-mile event opens Saturday, March 22nd, 2025, with Expression of Interest competitor spots going on sale at 9 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. General registration will start at 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Sick The Magazine - the print magazine dedicated to drag and drive, includes benefits like free live streaming of events, entries into vehicle giveaways, and more!
After a decade of participating in drag and drive events, Tom Bailey knew this increasing community needed more attention than they were seeing. “When you have a lot of people supporting a segment of the car hobby, well as each other on the events, I felt that that deserved more recognition.”
Tom dropped the news in a May 2021 YouTube video, signaling the launch of the first issue of Sick The Magazine, which would hit mailboxes in August as the Summer 2021 issue. “To try and fill a gap in what’s there (for event and participant coverage), especially to bring more credibility to a lot of the drag and drive events that are out there, we’re looking at creating a magazine.”
In just over three and a half years since, the print edition of Sick The Magazine has brought coverage of not just Sick’s events, but several others, to a growing subscriber base. We’ve also added in more benefits than just a great print magazine.
Nearly two decades ago, Donald ‘Duck’ Long noticed that one of the biggest groups of heads-up racing, Outlaw Drag Radial, wasn’t being given the amount of attention he felt they deserved. So, he did something about it, and sixteen years after the ‘Lights Out’ event debuted at South Georgia Motorsports Park, it remains a destination race for racers and fans where the wild and unpredictable happens, as well as many a record are set.
Paolo Guist would be the lone car to dip into the 3.4-second range in the top tier Radial Versus The World (RVW) class during the first session, clocking a 3.498 at 213.60 MPH blast for the top qualifying spot. The impressive run was just twelve thousandths of-a-second off the world record of 3.486 at 213.83 MPH from ‘Stevie Fast’ Jackson, set last March at Alabama International Dragway. But Guist wasn’t done yet.
With the sun all but gone and track temperatures dropping quickly, the entire list of heads-up classes had completed their first session of qualifying. But the decision was made for one more round of RVW qualifying. Guist would be in the first pair of cars out of the staging lanes, lining up alongside a former Lights Out event winner, Ken Quartuccio.
The scoreboards would show history less than three and-a-half seconds later, and for more than one reason!
After a barn burner of a debut in 2024, the PRO Superstar Shootout returned to Bradenton Motorsports Park to give enthusiasts their first dose of nitromethane for the 2025 season.
Run as a 3-day event, fans were treated to 8-car qualified fields of Top Fuel and Funny Car, a 16-car field of Pro Stock, and a trio of sportsman classes: Stock, Super Stock, and Top Sportsman. Tom Bailey made a couple exhibition runs in the ‘Sick Seconds 2.0’ Camaro.
With four qualifying sessions over two days for the 3 professional categories, as well as a trio of sportsman classes, just getting to eliminations was a victory.
Who scored victory to take home the six unique trophies and a bundle of money?
After five days of traveling through Georgia and Florida, Sick Week presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive rolled into South Georgia Motorsports Park for the final day to see who had enough left in the tank to complete a nearly 850 mile trip, and their final pass, from five days of work.
We may have started with rain and cold temperatures on Day Zero that prevented any on track activity, but on Day Five, the all-concrete surface in southern Georgia was scorched with record times and shocking faces as competitors just kept getting quicker throughout the day.
