Day 4 of Sick Week – Determination Shines, Big Names Drop Out, and Close Competition Leads Us To a Friday Not To Be Missed!

Thursday at Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive meant we’re past the halfway point, but the competition wasn’t cooling off at all. The competitors rolled into Gainesville Raceway for Day 4, yearning for one more time slip and the hall pass to roll south to Orlando Speed World Dragway to try and complete Sick Week.

A whopping 78 cars and trucks were officially out of competition as the track got busy at 9 am, but the two quickest cars were still geared up and ready for battle. Michael Westberg and Stefan Gustafsson came into Thursday’s racing separated by less than four hundredths of-a-second based on their 6.477 and 6.514 averages respectively.

Westberg fired a big first shot, rocketing off the starting line to a 1.03 60 foot time and lighting the scoreboards with a 6.45 at 216 mph, giving him the desirable ‘one and done’ to pack up and head for Orlando.

His fellow Swede didn’t have it as easy, as Gustafsson’s first lap was a tire shake-filled mess, and he coasted to the finish line. Run two was a little better, but he was all over the right lane like a salsa dancer, just missing the center line and claiming a 7-second time slip. Now into the afternoon and running out of chances, Gustafsson came up for a third shot, and this time drove through the shake and pulled the rabbit out of the hat at 6.56 at 223 mph, his best mile-per-hour ever and keeping him solidly in second place with a shot at repeating in the Unlimited category.

In the Unlimited Iron category, the same trouble befell on Alex Taylor. After ‘one and done’ passes at Bradenton and Cecil, Alex had trouble on her first run, but mustered a 7.43 at 177 mph. Knowing there was still plenty of meat left on the bone, Taylor came back for another shot, but the car barely left the line before falling silent.

Now, Taylor was starting to sweat, as her goals of a 6-second pass at each track was in jeopardy. But motivated by her father Dennis, Taylor returned for a third shot, and finding the right mixture of laptop manipulation and pure grit, Taylor delivered a 6.96 at 208 mph to climb to the top spot after Bryant Goldstone had driveline failure and dropped out. That moved Tina Pierce to second, who clocked a very respectable 7.38 at 188 mph in her twin-turbocharged Nova.

The big news out of Georgia was Cleetus McFarland losing an engine and bowing out of the Modified class, leaving Brett LaSala the top spot after a 6.92 at 212 was delivered by the Snot Rocket 2.0. Mikael Borggren’s 7.66 at 179.95 mph would slide him to second.  

A pair of Chevrolet Camaro models would take the headlines in Pro Street, as veteran drag-and-drive participant Clark Rosenstengel would urge his 2010 Camaro to a 7.72 at 190 mph to keep his average ahead of Clint Sodowsky, despite the ’68 Camaro delivering a better 7.68 at 184 mph pass.

Eric Yost delivered his fourth-straight 7.4-second pass from the ‘rust-wrapped’ ’68 Camaro to sit atop the new Super Street class, but Bradley Arnold’s clean ’87 Buick Regal T-Type belted out its fourth-straight 7.5-second pass, a 7.502 at 182.95 mph, to stay close to Yost in the second spot, and Andrew Dopita in the third slot just two hundredths of-a-second behind Arnold in averages.

Richard Guido produced an 8.87 at 160 mph to continue leading the Stick Shift class with his ’65 GTO, James ‘Doc’ McEntire clocked a personal-best 7.71 at 173 mph to keep his stranglehold in the Naturally Aspirated class over Matt Sweet’s ‘sweet’ Nova and Jason Tabscott’s ‘brutal’ small block Camaro in third.

Two cars continued to set the pace in Rowdy Radial, with Jordan Tuck once again defying logic, wheeling Devin Vanderhoof’s Mustang to a 4.595 at 167 mph blast for the lead, while the Pontiac Acadian of Sheldon Root tried to keep him in check with a 4.94 at 150 mph.

The closest battles are shaping up in Street Race 275 and Sick Street Race classes.

Defending Street Race 275 class champ William Lujan has a battle on his hands, as Jordan Boudreaux completes a 1-2 Mustang punch at the top of the chart. Lujan turned in an 8.527 pass, but Boudreaux produced a near-perfect 8.501 to put their averages a mere one thousandth of-a-second apart as they enter the final round at Orlando.

An equally tough duo is squaring off in Sick Street Race category, with Aaron Shaffer and Dustin Trance, both former Hot Rod Drag Week winners, looking for the perfect 8.50 time slip in Gainesville.

After both drivers had a couple shots at the track, Shaffer found the magic tune up needed and produced a perfect 8.500 at 163 mph to grab the top spot. Trance followed one pair later, and got a heartbreaking 8.499 pass, one thousandth of-a-second too fast and unable to turn in. He started looping the LS-urged Mustang like a bracket car, making pass after pass to get as close to Shaffer as possible. Trance finally got an 8.510 at 159 mph, bringing their averages to 8.510 for Shaffer and 8.520 for Trance.

Excited for Friday’s action yet??

The final day – day 5 – finds the tour returning to Orlando ‘Sick’ World Dragway. Come see all the great action live starting at 11 am, or tune in for the Motion Raceworks live stream on YouTube.

Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick The Magazine.