Death Week Brings Extreme Adventure to Street Legal Drag Racing, Set To Party at NHRA Nevada Nationals

There are many ways to go drag racing, but Sick The Magazine’s Death Week event might just be the most unusual.

Following on from the success of drag-and-drive events such as Sick Week, Hot Rod Drag Week and Rocky Mountain Race Week, Sick The Magazine publisher and six-times Drag Week winner Tom Bailey wanted to create a challenge that would reset the boundaries for fast, street legal cars.

“When drag-and-drive events first started, a driving distance of 1000 miles over five days was considered an extreme test of a fast street car,” Bailey said. “As the technology in the industry has improved, we have seen many six-second and seven-second cars do that without so much as a hiccup.

“We started thinking about what the most extreme environment is for a street car in the lower 48 states. Death Valley immediately sprung to mind, and so we created Death Week.”

Ironically, the event will be skirting around Death Valley due to recent road damage from storms, however the itinerary for Death Week is still just as tough. Racers will begin with a race day at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Phoenix, Arizona (Saturday, October 21), before the 1900-mile trek around the southwest of the USA begins. They will cross the desert and mountains to get to San Diego’s Barona Drags (Sunday, October 22) for another day of competition, then navigate the urban jungle of Los Angeles for a beach run past Malibu and Santa Barbara.

From there, the 100 racers of Death Week will turn north for Morro Rock, where sea otters and the James Dean Memorial await, before turning inland to overnight in Fresno before one of the route’s toughest sections. Racers will be required to drive through Sequoia National Park’s twisting roads on their way to Bakersfield’s legendary Famoso Drag Strip (Wednesday, October 25).

More desert driving awaits as racers head to Las Vegas, where there will be a much-deserved break to take in the NHRA Nevada Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. There they will be on display for race fans interested in NHRA Street Legal drag racing, as well as being paraded in front of the crowd.

Bailey said that he hopes to spread the word about drag-and-drive at the NHRA Nevada Nationals, as a great way for drag racing newcomers to become involved in the sport.

“The drag strip can definitely be an intimidating place for rookies but one of the best things about drag-and-drive events is the strong community,” he said. “Because of the nature of the events, you’re not ‘racing’ your competitor as such, you’re really time trialing against yourself. While bracket racing is really popular, it can definitely be hard to keep going to the track if you get bundled out in the first round every time. But with drag-and-drive events, you get the same experience as everyone else, no matter your skill level. You still make the same drives and make the same number of passes.”

While cars such as the Dodge Durango Bailey plans to bring to Death Week are purpose built, classes allow even completely factory vehicles to participate.

“It doesn’t matter what you’re bringing to race. We’ve seen everything from street legal Pro Mods to a 1925 Franklin that had wooden wheels. All of our vehicles abide by NHRA safety rules as well as the basics of being street legal, like a license plate, insurance, working lights and a horn.”

After the break in Las Vegas, teams will continue onwards past the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon to return to Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park on Phoenix (Sunday, October 29).

At the end of the event, teams will be ranked based on their average ET for the eighth-mile across each of the four strips. Part of the adventure of this event is that Bailey has no idea what the winner’s ET will be, he just knows they will be supremely tough.

“Frankly, I think anyone who averages in the five-second zone for the eighth mile is in with a shot. And I would be stunned if anyone can drive a street car for almost 2000 miles and run into the fours. But that’s what’s really awesome about Death Week — it’s unknown territory. That’s an adventure.”

For more information about Death Week, click here.