The announcement of Cleetus McFarland purchasing half ownership in Bradenton Motorsports Park recently didn’t come as a shock to many, as Cleetus currently owns the Freedom Factory circle track right next door in southwest Florida.

Cleetus is known for some radical ideas, but when he got together to discuss ideas with track co-owner and friend Victor Alvarez, they came up with a simple concept involving street cars and a top ten list.

“We’re doing this top ten list because I realized our cars are getting really fast,” said Cleetus. “Although it is fun to make a killer fast pass, it’s one of the most stressful forms of racing you can do. Everything has to go right.”

So, a plan was put together to get back to basics: using a test and tune night at Bradenton Motorsports Park instead of a big race, real street cars that needed to be driven in the gate, and creating a top ten list.

“I wanted to do something to make test and tunes more fun again for myself and my buddies,” Cleetus said. The initial race would be a 16-vehicle roster, and races would be paired by random chip draw each round, and a four-tenths pro tree start would be used, with no transbrakes allowed. A floating break out to keep a reasonable gauge on attainable performance would be used (meaning cars can’t run quicker than the accepted limit).

After four days of cold temperatures, insane racing action and sizable crowds at South Georgia Motorsports Park, some recognizable names and repeats winners led the storylines at one of the biggest drag radial tire themed races, Lights Out 16.

After two days of qualifying, eliminations got underway on Saturday, February 22nd, and were completed on Sunday, February 23rd, 2025, by crowning winners in thirteen different classes.

As we covered on Thursday’s first qualifying session story, the Radial Versus the World class grabbed headlines when Paolo Guist reset the class record with a 3.479 pass. The other half of that pair, Ken Quartuccio, clocked a 3.49 on that run, but would return on Friday, February 21st, to drop the record further with a 3.743 run.

Quartuccio employed that performance through eliminations, using a pair of 3.4-second runs to score his third final round appearance in as many events.

Nearly two decades ago, Donald ‘Duck’ Long noticed that one of the biggest groups of heads-up racing, Outlaw Drag Radial, wasn’t being given the amount of attention he felt they deserved. So, he did something about it, and sixteen years after the ‘Lights Out’ event debuted at South Georgia Motorsports Park, it remains a destination race for racers and fans where the wild and unpredictable happens, as well as many a record are set.

Paolo Guist would be the lone car to dip into the 3.4-second range in the top tier Radial Versus The World (RVW) class during the first session, clocking a 3.498 at 213.60 MPH blast for the top qualifying spot. The impressive run was just twelve thousandths of-a-second off the world record of 3.486 at 213.83 MPH from ‘Stevie Fast’ Jackson, set last March at Alabama International Dragway. But Guist wasn’t done yet.

With the sun all but gone and track temperatures dropping quickly, the entire list of heads-up classes had completed their first session of qualifying. But the decision was made for one more round of RVW qualifying. Guist would be in the first pair of cars out of the staging lanes, lining up alongside a former Lights Out event winner, Ken Quartuccio.

The scoreboards would show history less than three and-a-half seconds later, and for more than one reason!

After a barn burner of a debut in 2024, the PRO Superstar Shootout returned to Bradenton Motorsports Park to give enthusiasts their first dose of nitromethane for the 2025 season.

Run as a 3-day event, fans were treated to 8-car qualified fields of Top Fuel and Funny Car, a 16-car field of Pro Stock, and a trio of sportsman classes: Stock, Super Stock, and Top Sportsman. Tom Bailey made a couple exhibition runs in the ‘Sick Seconds 2.0’ Camaro.

With four qualifying sessions over two days for the 3 professional categories, as well as a trio of sportsman classes, just getting to eliminations was a victory.

Who scored victory to take home the six unique trophies and a bundle of money?

After five days of traveling through Georgia and Florida, Sick Week presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive rolled into South Georgia Motorsports Park for the final day to see who had enough left in the tank to complete a nearly 850 mile trip, and their final pass, from five days of work.

We may have started with rain and cold temperatures on Day Zero that prevented any on track activity, but on Day Five, the all-concrete surface in southern Georgia was scorched with record times and shocking faces as competitors just kept getting quicker throughout the day.

As Georgia starts to thaw out from the freezing temperatures and snow they experienced last week, the action also heated up in more ways than one during the second day of testing at South Georgia Motorsports Park for Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.

Several rides made some hot licks on the track, while others overheated their parts where the carnage has us wondering who can be ready for Day One on Tuesday, January 28th.

With snow on the ground surrounding the all-concrete racing surface at South Georgia Motorsports Park, the track known for setting records on small tire radial rides hosted their first of two testing days on Saturday, January 25th, leading to the fourth annual Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive. Both big and small-tire cars took to the track to shake off their winter blues, test out new combinations, and take advantage of the mineshaft air conditions.

Several drivers made some solid check out runs, but we also have a few falling by the wayside early.

After a 2024 season with a record number of drag-and-drive events, the 2025 season is just a couple weeks away from rumbling to life. Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive is the first of thirty drag-and-drive events we currently know of for 2024, and there is no doubt more will be added as the year progresses.

With long-standing events like Hot Rod Drag Week back for the 20th anniversary, and Rocky Mountain Race Week celebrating its tenth year, several events returned for another year, including Redwood Rally, Miles of Mayhem, One Guy’s Garage Drag Weekend, and Southeast Street N’ Yeet.

We also saw some new events on the extensive list in 2024, as Drop the Hammer, Olympic Drag-and-Drive, and Big Sky Race Week were just a couple that pushed the number of drag-and-drive events scheduled in 2024 to 40 total. A couple did get canceled or postponed due to weather or poor registration numbers.

Christmas traditions might include egg nog, listening to your favorite songs around a fire, and exchanging presents with family and friends. But instead of trimming the tree with ornaments, 32 racers trimmed their tree to fit on cars and trucks at the fifth annual Christmas Tree Drag Racing World Championship at Bradenton Motorsports Park.

The brainchild of Cleetus McFarland and good friend Victor Alvarez, owner of Bradenton Motorsports Park, the annual event draws some solid racing action, as well as thousands of spectators. The premise to be one of the accepted 32 competitors is simple: a traditional Christmas Tree is required on each vehicle, minimum six-foot tall, and can be real or fake. The tree must be attached to each vehicle, it must be lit, and it must remain attached the entire length of the run, or the competitor risks disqualification.

The product of drag-and-drive enthusiasts Devin and Laura Vanderhoof, the Southeast Street-N-Yeet is normally the final major event on the calendar each year.

Starting at Shadyside on November 6th with day zero parking and testing, the 7th brought tech inspection and the official start to keeping track of performances. Friday November 8th brought the unique ‘double-up’ of Southeast Street-N-Yeet by visiting South Carolina Motorplex in Neeses, South Carolina for morning / early afternoon action. That would be followed by the drive to the ‘House of Hook’, Carolina Dragway in Aiken, South Carolina for the second-half of racing into the evening.

Saturday would steer the tour back into North Carolina and Mooresville Dragway on November 9th, before returning to Shadyside Dragway to close out the event on Sunday with class winners, as well as a Heads-Up and Dial-Your-Own (DYO) Shootout.

While a lot of North America is done racing for the 2024 season, Florida is one of a couple states that can boast racing year round. One of the big events that has a lot of history is the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals at Bradenton Motorsports Park, and for the 53rd edition of the event, there were some shocking results this past weekend.

For the first time in 2024, the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals would signal the first event of a three race Drag Illustrated Winter Series Points Championship series. Of the twelve classes contested at the Snowbirds, Pro Mod caught the majority of the attention both leading up the event, as well as during. 64 drivers got invitations to participate, but just 32 would play for $50,000 to win in Sunday eliminations.

The World Cup Finals Import vs. Domestic event at Maryland International Raceway is a highly anticipated event each year. Maryland in November normally means cooler temperatures, and combined with Jason Miller’s track prep, normally results in personal bests and racing in front of packed grandstands.

After three days of intense qualifying in eleven class, round one of eliminations got underway on Saturday afternoon for the classes that featured 32-car qualified fields, and by Sunday night, all eleven champions were crowned.

Day five of Edelbrock Sick 66 meant we had officially crossed the halfway point of the eight day trip spanning five states and six tracks. After covering Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma, Sick 66 had made its way into Texas after a drive day on the fourth day. Amarillo Dragway hosted racing on day five, and then the tour would roll into New Mexico for street miles on day five and six.

After three days in Missouri, Edelbrock Sick 66 hit the road on day two to Oklahoma for day three and racing at Tulsa Raceway Park, then a nearly 300 mile drive day to Texas for day five action. Route 66 provided some amazing sights, as well as some good memories to reflect back on.

With so many options for doing a drag-and-drive event in 2024, Edelbrock Sick 66 brought one major player to the table that no one else had done – run the majority of our street miles along Route 66.

The ‘mother road’ that first saw use in 1926 was the clinching factory that several competitors noted in determining what event to embark on for 2024.

When Sick the Magazine conducted their first one off drag-and-drive at last year’s Death Week, comments such as “the cars will get impounded on the West Coast, no one will survive 2000 miles,” and even “the times won’t be impressive” were made.

Jason Rousseau put his New York-based 1980 Chevrolet Malibu on top last year; could he do it again at Sick 66?

It’s officially been a week since we rolled 177 competitors through tech inspection, as well as a couple hours of testing and tuning, to start Edelbrock Sick 66.

We’re down to one day left, today, Friday, October 18th. But before that, 150 competitors rolled into Albuquerque Dragway as we prepared to witness racing action in the fourth state of the event, and visit the fifth state in the tour, in yesterday's racing action.

We officially past the halfway point of Edelbrock Sick 66 as the tour rolled into Amarillo Dragway in Texas on Tuesday. A trio of track dates was joined by a near 300-mile drive day on day four (Monday, October 14th), and with just over 700 miles traveled by almost all the competitors, it was time to see who could continue to attack the track for some good numbers and a chance at the overall top spot.

We hit the halfway point on racing activities when Robert Voss made the final pass down Tulsa Raceway Park’s surface during day three of Edelbrock Sick 66. Racers had now traveled over 250 miles between three race tracks, and we set our course for Texas and Amarillo Dragway on the first of two drive days. Could everyone survive the first extended travel day and the original Route 66 for nearly 300 miles?

We’re nearing the halfway point of Edelbrock Sick 66, a drag-and-drive based around using as much of Route 66, a road that’s been use for nearly a hundred years. Some amazing checkpoints, as well as some tight racing in the three track visits, have marked this ‘one-time-only’ event. As we concluded day three’s racing activities and drive to Edmond, Oklahoma, some changes are afoot in the top ten, as well as facing the first serious driving day on Monday, October 14th.