A Tale of Two Sick Weeks with a Unique Pick-Up Truck
If you have to Google the name and history of a car you’re interested in, you may have found something truly unique. For Mark Foresman, he wanted to build a classic, but ended up stumbling into this 1954 Willys Pick-up truck.
“I wanted to build an old truck,” said Mark. “C10s, although cool, are everywhere. I wanted something a bit more unique. A family friend said he had an old Willys in his backyard that he would sell to me for one thousand dollars. I said yes, then had to Google what a Willys truck actually was.”
The Willys made its debut in drag-and-drive competition at the 2021 edition of Hot Rod Drag Week, running in the Street Machine Eliminator class. Mark’s best pass of the week was his first one at 11.77, but then the Willys slowed at the remaining stops at the event, averaging out at 14.089 for the week.
Hoping for better luck in 2022, Mark made the trip to Florida for Sick Week and signed up for the Bullseye Challenge class. This time Mark had better luck, producing a pair of 12-second runs at two tracks, and a pair of 11-second runs at the other two, with a best of 11.21 at 117 mph on the final day.
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After his Sick Week success, Mark went about getting the truck a lot more power than the factory ever could have offered, swapping in a 6-liter LS on a late model Chevrolet truck from the junkyard. He gutted it and replaced the factory stuff with a forged crankshaft, pistons and rods. A Holley mid ram intake with a Tick Performance intercooler tops off the engine, and an 88-millimeter VS turbocharger makes the usual noises associated with more power from an engine. A turbo 400 3-speed transmission and Circle D Specialties converter passes the power to a Ford 8.8-inch rear end that Mark modified to work with a 4-link and Moser axles.
Mark hoped to keep the good fortune going at this year’s Sick Week. “Starting in late October 2022, I decided to complete rebuild this truck,” said Mark. Thrashing to get things back together, Mark made a trio of eighth-mile passes near his home base of Texas to verify things would stay together, then loaded up and headed for Florida.
After getting through tech inspection and registration, Mark headed for the staging lanes to make a couple of full runs to prepare for day one. “The first pass was a personal best at 10.4, and the second one was even better at 10.2,” said Mark. But on the second pass, the throttle body shed the throttle cable and spring, leading Mark to fight the battle of gas and brakes at the same time, and he ended up in the sand trap. “The next few hours consisted of digging out sand and installing a new throttle body from Motion Raceworks,” said Mark.
Day one had Mark hoping for his first 9-second pass, but he was rewarded with a 10.3 and fluctuating oil pressure. “I thought the sensor was going out,” said Mark. “Didn’t think much of it, just focused on getting packed up and on the road.” But Mark got some bad news once he got on the street. “Idling through the parking lot was fine,” said Mark. “But the second I stepped on the gas to merge with traffic, the horrifying sound of rod knock rattled the truck.”
Mark made an immediate U-turn back to Orlando ‘Sick’ World Dragway, removed the oil filter and found a bunch of bearing material packed inside, and decided to wave the white flag. "I had just put way too much money into the fresh build to completely destroy it driving 5 miles down the road,” Mark admitted. “So that was when I grabbed my truck and loaded everything up to drive home. Still had no idea what caused it but I guess at that point it really didn't matter.”
“All my experience is learned through my mistakes,” said Mark. “I am only here today with the knowledge I have because of the journey I've undertaken. We need to live to fight another day; Drag Week 2023 here I come.”
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Motion Raceworks and Sick the Magazine.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com