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.

Following the success of Sick Week and Sick Summer, it was clear the tracks and timing for the duo of events would remain in place. But for Sick the Mag creator and enthusiast Tom Bailey, he knew the community wanted more; a stand-alone event that would be unique each and every year.

For 2025, those ‘one-off’ events - Sick Michigan Miles Presented by Driven Racing Oil, and Edelbrock Sick Smokies - are poised to take the community to the next level!

“Having a different drag and drive event each year gives the Sick The Mag slogan ‘For The Adventure’ a different meaning,” said Tom. “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.”

Although not the first time drag racing has seen a ‘cost-limited’ or ‘budget-build’ style of car / class, Cleetus McFarland brought the latest round of his popular ‘Cheap Car Challenge’ to the 2025 edition of Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.

Although we’ve seen Cleetus, James Taal and Tye Braun compete in quicker and nicer rides in drag and drive events, this idea was met with enthusiasm from not only Cleetus and crew, but also the fans and FRDM+ stream viewers.

By the final day of Sick Week, all four cars survived the week, and Cleetus started that the cars will be back for our Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks event, held June 15th through June 20th, 2025.

The question is: could this style of build / class be the next big thing for a drag and drive event, or in general for drag racing?

Although she comes from a family with a long history of not only racing, but also some quick Ford Mustangs, JoAnna Iacobelli Reid has never done a drag and drive event before 2023.

She changed that status by jumping into the second running of Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, with husband Bryan joining her as co-pilot in her 8-second supercharged 2018 Mustang.

And although she’s traded her helmet to work at events recently, JoAnna and Bryan have plans to jump back into a competitor spot at this summer’s Sick Michigan Miles Presented by Driven Racing Oil, right in the Reid’s home state.

Doing a drag and drive event in the home state of Sick the Magazine marks not only the first time a major event has been held solely in the state of Michigan, but also a first time for a couple additional classes.

Sick Michigan Miles Presented by Driven Racing Oil, scheduled for August 10th through the 17th, 2025, will feature Junior Street and Motorcycle classes for the first time at a Sick the Mag event!

This event is one of many that was discussed for the popular ‘one-off’ event structure that Tom Bailey first tried at Death Week on the west coast in 2023. “The thing I’ve preached about a drag and drive event is about the adventure,” Tom said. “Your main goals should be surviving the week and creating some awesome memories.”

One big element about Sick Michigan Miles Presented by Driven Racing Oil, is adding the Junior Street and Motorcycle classes into the program. “A bunch of enthusiasts have asked me about the possibility of adding those two classes to a Sick event,” said Tom. “After weighing our options, we’re excited about them being a part of Michigan Miles.”

After the success of the Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive in 2022, Tom Bailey came up with the idea of keeping a consistent drag and drive event each year, as well as a unique one.

Following in the footsteps of our Edelbrock Sick 66 event in 2024, Sick the Magazine will host a pair of ‘one-off’ events in 2025, the first being in our home state with Sick Michigan Miles Presented by Driven Racing Oil, August 10th through the 17th, 2025!

“When the idea was first proposed, I started thinking about how nice the areas around northern Michigan are,” said Tom Bailey of Sick The Mag. “The more Luke Nieuwhof (Sick The Mag editor) and I discussed it, it made sense that we could visit four great tracks, incorporate an August tradition for automotive enthusiasts, and do a 1,000 mile road trip in one week’s time.”

In a state that has seen several dozen tracks since the 1950s, Palm Beach International Raceway looked to have the staying power, even going through a complete revamp in 2008 to become an all-concrete track.

Fourteen years later, April of 2022, the track saw its last action, and the land was going to be repurposed for warehouses. And although the southeast Florida area has been devoid of an operational quarter-mile track since, there’s been a good bit of news that could return PBIR to its former glory.

The sale never went through due to a variety of factors, and the track has continued to sit vacant and unused. The owner at the time of the closure, IRG Sports and Entertainment, has since fallen into liquidation of their assets, and as of a few weeks ago, the 174-acre property was listed on the open market with a “call for price” listing. Could the track possibly be saved?

When you sit straight up in bed at 7 a.m. thinking “crap; I’m late heading to the track.” But then realize it’s the day after Sick Week 2025 is complete. Facebook and social media timelines are starting to show stuff other than Sick Week updates from competitors and Sick Warders, photos from all the photographers, and you start to question reality and feel weird. Congrats, your ‘drag-and-drive hangover’ has started.

Luke Nieuwhof wrote about how we can fall into a little made-up world when doing a drag-and-drive, and I got to see both sides of it back in 2022 when I did my first Sick Week event. Being a typical male, I injured myself about a month before the event. The ensuing pain led me to do the drives on Sick Week from track to track alone, and I didn’t follow the specified route until the final day. I rolled back to my regular job on Monday, and the normal grind probably masked my ‘drag-and-drive-hangover.’ One year later, I got the full experience.

The drag-and-drive that started it all, Hot Rod Drag Week, released their dates and tracks for the 2025 event about a month ago, December 17th, 2024. Today, the details on registration, as well as the anticipated rule set, were released for the 21st running of the event, which will visit the Northeast region for two new race tracks, as well as two track Hot Rod Drag Week has visited before.

 Hot Rod Drag Week, which will be contested from September 14th through the 19th, will start and end at Maryland International Raceway, located in Budds Creek, Maryland. Following day one activities, the event will visit Numidia Dragway in Pennsylvania for day two and stay in Pennsylvania to race at Maple Grove Raceway on day three. Day four will return to Maryland to battle on Cecil County Dragway’s surface, before arrival back at Maryland International Raceway for day five to wrap up the event and crown winners.

In addition to announcing the registration date, which will open on Saturday, February 22nd at 9 am EST, Hot Rod Drag Week released their newest rule set.

Many will stress that the main focus of a drag-and-drive event is to complete the event, while having a good time and making memories. But we’d be lying if we didn’t talk about some of the incredible performances that are accomplished as well.

From the quickest cars in Unlimited, to the Rowdy Radial rides that clock 4.6-second times on an 8.5-inch tire, we celebrate those that push the envelope of performance. The 6-second barrier in the small tire, stock suspension, Super Street class could be broken for the first time at Sick Week 2025 Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.

Two competitors clocked 6-second runs in testing during the 2024 season; can they do in competition next week?

While much of the United States may be in winter hibernation, we’re ready to see passes on the race tracks, as well as putting down miles on the street of Florida and Georgia. It’s just about time for the fourth Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, and with so cool stuff in store, we wanted to cover all the bases!

First things first: all the information on Sick Week is available at the event section on our website. We’ve also been covering some of the competitors coming to Sick Week in our news stories, as well as on our social media channels.

But we wanted to go over all the details, so buckle up and take a few minutes to prepare yourself for Sick Week 2025!

“There are just two weeks until the Sick Week event, the next drag-and-drive we’re going to compete in here on Finnegan’s Garage, and I have some problems.”

This is how Mike Finnegan, the host of the popular Finnegan’s Garage YouTube channel and recently concluded Roadkill show, started his most recent video upload. The urgency to get his 1955 Chevrolet packing a supercharged HEMI engine, appropriately named ‘Blasphemi’, completed and ready for Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive is apparent, but peppered with humor and a little sarcasm.

Finnegan has had a love-hate relationship with drag-and-drive events, and although not uncommon to some participants, Finnegan has experienced a variety of reasons for not completing the event.

Will he complete Sick Week in his first appearance since 2022?

In everything he does, from piloting helicopters to 5-second race cars, hosting events to rebuilding a race track, Cleetus McFarland continues to elevate not only his impact on the sports and hobbies he enjoys, but brings along millions of viewers to watch the adventures on his popular YouTube channel.

It was about five years ago that Cleetus (the adrenaline-fueled alter face of Garrett Mitchell) purchased DeSoto Memorial Speedway, an oval track adjacent to Bradenton Motorsports Park that had sat abandoned for nearly two years.

And after a lot of work and success from that track, Cleetus didn’t have to look far for his next opportunity, as he announced today he is partnering with good friend and current owner Victor Alvarez, as 50 percent owner in Bradenton Motorsports Park.

After a period where cars were more about the styling and add-ons versus performance, the tables slowly started to turn in the 1980s, where multiple vehicles started to emerge from their smog handcuffed shackles. Trucks also started to get a boost in these times, including the 1990s Chevrolet SS and Ford Lightning pick-ups, and for David Cedoz, the Chevy truck would become a part of his life for 34 years.

David got his first taste of the OBS Chevy pick-up when his father picked up a brand new 1990 SS model, and after his father enjoyed it for ten years, David purchased it to tow his Bass boat for tournament fishing. It would see daily driver orders, and eventually a bump in power for more fun on the street and 8-second runs on the track.

David lost that truck to a fire in 2023, but managed to put a new one together in under 8 months! Can it back-up the glory runs the first jet black pick-up produced in 2023 at Sick Week?

Now, this is a story about how the life of Will Fair got flipped upside down by cars, motorcycles and multiple forms of racing, and his latest chapter with a Chevrolet Bel Air.

It’s an interesting tale with street racing, drag racing and dirt track racing, before getting this classic Chevrolet ready for his first drag-and-drive event at this year’s Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.

Along with best friend and co-pilot Dean Leppo, they brought this ’56 to completion in one year. “This car was pretty much a Facebook Marketplace build, except for the transmission. So we will see how it all holds together; fingers crossed.”

As trends come and go, one thing that’s shown staying power is the drag racing world and the history behind it. As each year rolls by, the history of racing, as well as the cars that participated as part of it, become talking points at more benchracing sessions and staging lane gatherings. It’s just cool to see cars with history come back into focus once again, and for Darin Hendricks, he’s ready to write the next chapter of a storied history for this Ford Mustang Cobra.

Now, the fact this is a real deal 1993 Ford Mustang Cobra, one of 5100 originally built for the model year (including the rare Cobra R models). But despite its collectability, Darin was anything but gentle with it. “It has spent most of its life as a race car,” said Darin. But after almost two decades as a race ride, Darin is ready for the next chapter - drag-and-drive action with a supercharged combination under the hood, and a 5-speed manual transmission!

The drag-and-drive community can go beyond the racing scene, into developing friendships, supporting businesses, and getting the car community back to the idea of enjoying cars and truck and the memories they can make.

For Chuck Stefanski, Rick Trunkett, and Bob Hess Jr., they combined their enthusiasm and knowledge into Big 3 Racing, a shop in Ohio. Unfortunately, the shop suffered a devastating shop fire in July of 2024, but today Big 3 Racing announced they have brighter futures ahead, with a new building starting to take shape!

“We have not one, but two buildings being built trackside: One for mechanical work, fabrication and parts sales and the other to house our dynos.”

Even though some of the EV models that have come out in recent years have made for some quick times, there’s a clear divide from most enthusiasts about whether they like them or not.

But in the case in this Tesla, enthusiasts get the mix of the modern EV styling combined with horsepower fueled by E-85 instead of batteries. And for 2025, owner Greg Ward and builder Chris Doane are hoping to take it to the street and track.

After participating on the 2024 edition of Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive in Sick Ward, Greg and Chris are wanting to add the on-track element to things this time around. “We want to run as many events as possible, including Sick Week,” said Chris. “It is a great way to enjoy racing without having to chase that win. You can choose to be competitive or just enjoy the ride.”

Although some may recognize this 1972 Chevrolet Nova as a regular participant on Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, its performance still catches a lot of people off guard. The ‘plain brown wrapper’ appearance, complete with hub caps instead of flashy wheels, doesn’t give the appearance of 8-second potential. And for 2025, the Boosted By Rhino and Jimmy Rinehart-tuned Nova will kick the performance up another level in time for Sick Week 2025.

After three successful drag-and-drive events and pushing the single turbo set-up to its max, Jimmy and Drew discussed the next step for this year’s Sick Week. “The goal was to get that 8 second pass. I think we're about at the limit of the (single) turbo.”

For 2025, a new pair of turbochargers will feed the Texas Speed 5.3-liter short block, going through an air-to-water intercooler.