After Engine Problems at the 2023 and 2024 Editions of Sick Week, Matt and Meg Lamphier Look to Rebound for Sick Week 2025
As one of the participants that’s attended every year of Sick Week presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, Matt Lamphier has experienced the highs and lows of a drag-and-drive event.
He won the hotly-contested 235 Outlaw Street Race class at Sick Week in 2022, but had the reversal of fortune the last two years of Sick Week. But Matt and his wife / co-pilot Meg have a plan for 2025 to return to winning ways.
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One year after scoring a coveted Sick the Magazine class-winning orange helmet, Matt and the LS-swapped 1992 Mazda Miata known as “The Turtle” had the engine lock up less than an hour from his day two destination – Bradenton Motorsports Park. But he managed to get everything rebuilt in time to make it from Florida to Texas a month later for TX2K, where he scored a win in the Street Car class.
Matt and Meg were back in the game at Sick Week this year, a little over three months after their wedding, and entering day three at Gainesville Raceway, he was in the top five in the standings of the 275 class with an 8.538 average.
The northern-most Florida track visit would get Matt his best pass of the event, an 8.504 at 162.59 MPH, but it came with a hefty price tag. The engine came apart just past the finish line just before 2 p.m., with the rods coming out the bottom in a mess that not only put racing action on hold, it put the Lamphier’s chances of finishing the event on hold.
Matt and Meg refused to give up during their ‘honeymoon trip’, and managed to not only find a stock complete 5.3-liter replacement engine, but make the swap and leave Gainesville Raceway just before 4 a.m.
The duo hit both checkpoints, and rolled into South Georgia Motorsports Park on no sleep. Matt suited up for a single shot at the Georgia track, got a ‘turned-down on power’ 13.92 time slip, and even managed to get a couple hours sleep in their trailer in the pit area.
The Lamphiers returned to Orlando ‘Sick’ World Dragway for day five, collected an 11.19 pass, and completed their second Sick Week in three years.
With some planned upgrades to his next 5.3-liter LS, Matt was pleasantly surprised to have BTR jump onboard to help with his rebuild efforts. The engine was completed with a bunch of BTR products, a new intake from fellow Florida drag-and-drive runner RC Flint, and Matt also upgraded the rear end to a tubular subframe design, with a 5 lug set-up and a set of TBM Brakes.
“We are amped about going back to Sick Week in 2025,” Matt said. “We also got accepted to the Christmas Tree Drag Racing World Championship at Bradenton Motorsports Park, so the Turtle gets a chance to take a tree into the sevens this month.”
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine and Matt Lamphier.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com