A Rocky Mountain Race Week Regular, This American Rambler Gets a Big Boost for This Year’s Event
It’s been said that families that race together, stay together. In the case of the Mackey family, the racing family does drag-and-drive events together, including Sick Week and Rocky Mountain Race Week.
And when the head of the family has the quickest car, it can trickle down to the children of the family, including our subject Austin Mackey.
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Austin, who has done well in both his local bracket program at Julesburg Drag Strip and at Rocky Mountain Race Week (RMRW), wheels a unique 1965 AMC American Rambler. “I have been bracket racing since I was 8 years old,” said the 21 year old Austin. “I started in junior dragsters, and worked my way up to a full-sized door car.”
And although he has succeeded in bracket racing, Austin also enjoys the drag-and-drive events like RMRW. “It's something different. It's one thing to have a ‘race car’ you can only take to the track, and another to have a ‘street car’ that suffers at a race track,” said Austin.
“Drag-and-drives combines the best of both worlds. It also is a very like family-oriented event; everyone helps one another even though they may be competing against another it gives it a ‘small track’ kind of feel to it.”
At RMRW 1.0 in 2023, Austin experienced highs and lows. “It was definitely the most memorable,” he said. “I ran my quickest pass to date, an 11.30 at Kearney, then stopped at Julesburg dragstrip since it was on route and my home track, completed in their points event, won the class, and took first place in the points.”
As much of a huge high that was, Austin hit the road to Pueblo, and that is when the tide started to change. “I left Pueblo with 7 cylinders, and while on the road lost another cylinder,” said Austin. “Made it back to Kearney with 6 cylinders still operational. Decided to enter the end of event bracket race with what I had left won 3 rounds with 6 cylinders remaining to close out RMRW 2023.”
The compact AMC, powered by a 302-based small block Ford powerplant, will start 2024 sporting 347 cubic inches of displacement based on a Dart block. The car will go from naturally aspirated to forced induction as well, as a single turbocharger from Forced Performance will provide the boost numbers.
Austin will continue to employ a 4R70W overdrive transmission, and his girlfriend of two years Brooke Wilcoxen will continue to ride shotgun. “I'm very lucky that she is able to put up with me and work with me when I'm at my worst,” Austin said, and he plans to once again run RMRW 1.0 in June, but may add another drag-and-drive based on how his year plays out.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Austin Mackey and 1320 Video.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com