After Not Completing Sick Week 2024, Michael Turner is Committed to Completing His Next Drag-and-Drive
Drag-and-drive events can bring amazing memories, new friends, and in many cases, new performance standards that can get a participant fired up for their next outing.
It can also bring about side-of-the-road fixes, finding the true limitations of a part, and premature endings to an event that takes months of planning and preparation.
Interesting in attending Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks as a spectator or in Sick Ward? Purchase your tickets online before April 30th, 2024 (including the Summit Racing Sick Ward Presented By PEAK Performance), and one lucky spectator will have the opportunity to drive away in this Pontiac Fiero!
Drag-and-drives are a thing of normalcy for Michael Turner, and his 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger has become something of a common sight on several of them. Turner has participated in several drag-and-drive events in fact, the most recent being this year’s Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.
The flat-black Dart participated in nine drag-and-drive events since making its debut on Hot Rod Drag Week in 2019. Packing a 360 cubic inch Mopar powerplant with Edelbrock cylinder heads and a NX nitrous system, the car has continued to evolve from its 13-second runs at the first event, to 10-second laps at the 2023 edition of Hot Rod Drag Week. Turner even picked up the win from the Street Machine Eliminator category 32-car shootout from last year’s Hot Rod Drag Week.
“Seeing the country and different racing venues has been awesome,” said Turner of his appeal towards drag-and-drive events. “Hanging out with everyone I have met over the years, and new people at the various events, sharing stories in the staging lanes.
Everyone doing whatever it takes to help others complete an event. The thrashing, trash talk, barley pops in the evenings, seeing a variety of cars and meeting people from all around the world in some cases.”
In addition to participating on Hot Rod Drag Week since 2019, Turner also attended Rocky Mountain Race Week in 2020, Sick Week since its inception, and Sick Summer in 2023. “Every event has been different but a blast at the same time,” said Turner.
For his tenth drag-and-drive event, Turner made his third-straight Sick Week appearance, and had completed three days of racing before being sidelined. “I finished every event before Sick Week this year,” said Turner. “I broke the transmission bellhousing, damaged the driveshaft, and tore most off the passenger side rear spring mount.”
That ended Turner’s streak at nine events completed, but Turner would rebound quickly, finishing fourth at the recently-completed The Circuit event in the You versus You class. Turner will also return to Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks, Hot Rod Drag Week, and the new Edelbrock Sick 66 event.
“Sick Summer is a fun short drive event at some cool tracks and close to home,” he said. “Hot Rod Drag Week, I got to defend my title, and it’s the OG event. Sick 66, I’ve never driven Route 66. It sounds like a great drive and a chance to see cool sights and a chance go down three tracks I’ve never been too.”
“It is always finishing, there was a couple of times I wondered if we were going to be able to due to fuel system issues, broken alternator mount, lost second gear at the first ever drag-and-drive I did,” Michael admitted. “The drive is always challenging but also the most fun, as well as the checkpoints when there are large crowds. People have no idea what they are in for when doing their first one; you look at a map and go not bad; just 200 miles. Seven to eight hours later you finally arrive. Lack of sleep, it all catches up. The ride home is the hardest, you’re riding a high all week on adrenaline, and then Saturday the drive home is hard to stay awake.”
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, BME Photography and Mike Turner.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com