Defining Moment: Goldstone’s No-Quit Drag Week Highlights 20th Running of Hot Rod Drag Week
(L to R): Steven Spiess, Bryant Goldstone and Alex Taylor post with their Gear Vendors Overdrive guitars as Hot Rod Drag Week Top Three Quickest Averages.
Bryant Goldstone has won his first overall title in Hot Rod Drag Week history after a gritty week in his AMC Javelin.
Goldstone’s Drag Week victory capped off what has been a tremendous year for the drag-and-drive veteran, one that has also included an Unlimited Iron win at Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, an overall win at Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks, and another overall win at Rocky Mountain Race Week Presented by Sick the Magazine.
Final days for the Gasser Giveaway!
After an opening 7.88 at 124 mph pass, Goldstone had to make a transmission change before his second pass on track, which netted the winning 6.59 at 216 mph blast to end his week with the overall Hot Rod Drag Week win, Goldstone's first.
But the final day was far from easy, with Goldstone and co-pilot Brian Robbins having to replace a transmission by themselves in the afternoon heat. The pressure was on for their final shot at the track, with a 6.59 pass securing the number one position in what may be the last Drag Week for the Javelin, as Goldstone is planning on moving to a Pro Mod-style car next year.
Alex Taylor finished second overall with her ‘55 Chevy, as a 6.82 capped off an all six-second week, his first ever. It was also Taylor’s best ever Drag Week finish, and her best drag-and-drive weekly average.
Third overall was another racer enjoying their best ever result, as Steven Spiess’ Ford Boss-powered Nova finished with a 6.94 average for the week. That performance makes Spiess just the 13th driver in drag-and-drive history to earn a six-second average.
Normally the class that produces the overall champ, Unlimited, lost a little luster when past champ David Schroeder dropped out on day two, followed by Ned Dunphy exiting in his Viper before day three dawned. Les Smith didn’t back into the title though, dropping a best pass of 6.83 at 210 mph in route to ringing up a 7.23 average in his 2011 Chevy Camaro.
After scoring a 6-second pass and a class win on Sick Summer, eyes were on Alan Whitaker to mix it up with past Pro Street Power-Adder champ Glenn Hunter for the title.
But that fight was over on day two, when severe cramps took down Whitaker before he could even make it to the Lucas Oil Raceway in Indy. Hunter clocked some impressive passes with his ’56 Chevy, including a drag-and-drive PB of 7.004 at 200.98 mph on day three in route to the class title.
Pro Street Naturally-Aspirated had all the makings of a record-breaking battle, with the 7-second rides of father-son teams Jerry and Matt Sweet, and Jack and Scott Miller, ready to go toe-to-toe. After a marvelous first day when both machines cracked off 7.8-second runs just a hundredth apart, the Miller ’68 Mustang was sidelined.
The Sweet family ’76 Nova survived two more days, before hanging a connecting rod out of it after an off-pace 9.34 at Milan Dragway. Jeremiah Kirby’s 1972 Chevelle, sporting the cool old school stack injection, stepped into the leader’s role, and completed the week with a mid 8-second clinic that got him the class win, and an 8.46 average.
After debuting his revamped ’81 Pontiac Lemans wagon at Sick Week, Chuck Stefanski told us he planned to turn the ProCharger-fed ride up more as the year progressed.
We saw shades of that performance during the NMCA All-American Nationals, when Stefanski won the Sick the Mag Shootout. Hot Rod Drag Week saw Stefanski crank out a personal-best 7.16 at 194.28 mph blast, in route to a 7.29 average and the Modified class win.
The Super Street classes would find a Pontiac battle on the Big Block side, and a Ford versus Chevrolet tussle on the other.
Jim Trettel has one of the cleanest Firebirds on the drag-and-drive scene, and that turbocharged ride delivered five time slips in the 7-second zone to get him a completed event, a 7.70 average, and a Super Street Big Block Power-Adder title over fellow Pontiac runner Rob Senkyr.
On the Super Street Small Block Power-Adder side, David and Nick Diehl said they wanted to re-write the record books and post the first 6-second pass in class history.
A lack of maximum traction and keeping all eight cylinders lit kept them from accomplishing the 6-second lap, but the 7.08 at 195.82 mph blast on day three would reset the single pass record for the class. The Diehl brothers finish the job with a 7.44 average for the class victory over the Monte Carlo of Jason Bergeson.
The All Motor classes would crown a pair of first time champions from the Big Block side and the Small Block side.
Frank Romano, whose ’55 Chevy has been a staple of the drag-and-drive world for thirteen years, shed the nitrous Frank banged the stick shift on time to get a 10.09 average to snag the Big Block class victory.
On the Small Block side, the classic ’62 Corvette of Glen Sheeley nearly strung together an all 8-second week to earn an 8.89 average. That got Sheeley, the only 8-second car in the class, the All Motor Small Block accolades.
There are four Street Race classes held at Hot Rod Drag Week, and the biggest one is the Street Race Small Block Power-Adder version. 43 contestants signed up, including defending and three-time champ Dustin Trance. But after an opening 8.517 pass, Trance believed he had a converter issue, and dropped out.
It would be fellow Mustang driver and this year’s Sick Week Sick Street Race winner, Randy Seward, would take control of the class. Clocking a trio of 8.50 runs at the first three tracks, Seward ended with an 8.509 average, the second driver in drag-and-drive history to average an 8.50X. Brian Acton and Chris Merry, both winners on the drag-and-drive circuit this year, finished second and third behind Seward.
Randy Belehar flew the nitrous flag once again as a viable power-adder in the Street Race Big Block Power-Adder class. The ‘68 Pontiac Firebird would sit atop the field for the third-straight year, this time with an 8.59 average.
The Naturally Aspirated side of Street Race saw a pair of low 9-second rides take control of their classes. Chris McNeeley’s week started with a bang when a small accident dented the trunk of his clean ’64 Chevelle, but it ended with McNeeley winning with Big Block side with a solid 9.13 average.
The Small Block Naturally-Aspirated side had first-timer David Hambree at the front of the pack early on, but before he staged for day three at US 132 Motorsports Park, Hembree had to install fresh camshaft bearings overnight. He continued his low 9-second pace for the rest of the week, carding a 9.16 average to score the Street Race Small Block Naturally-Aspirated class victory.
The A/Gas category has been won the last three years by Wayne Baker and his supercharged ’63 Chevy Nova. The last winner of the class before that? Mike Finnegan, and the duo had an 8-second battle going all week. Finnegan fired the first shot with an 8.70 to 8.82 advantage on day one, but that lead was short lived when a massive wheelie and a second-chance 9.37 on day two knocked Finnegan back to second.
Baker laid down four 8-second runs through day four, keeping the lead over Finnegan by an 8.78 to 8.87 average difference. And when Finnegan dropped out before day five, Baker put an exclamation point on the win with a 9.029 pass and an 8.83 average to win his fourth-straight Hot Rod Drag Week title.
The B/Gas class would be a 9-second affair amongst three combatants, but by day two it was down to a couple of familiar names: Cody Helger and Jaime Jarvis. Both competitors had finished top three in the standings for the last three years, and just like the first time they matched up in 2021, the results would come out the same. That would be Helger at the top of the pack with a 9.55 average, over the 9.75 average of Jarvis.
The Hot Rod class has seen Riely Grabiak participate over several years, but the 1937 Chevy Coupe hasn’t finished higher than third in the standings. 2024 would change that, as the green Coupe put together an 11.07 average that would top the Hot Rod class standings.
Street Machine Eliminator had Azeem Sheikh put together the best average for the week at 10.06. But on Friday, Sheikh would stage up with 31 other competitors from the class to determine the SME champion.
Based on an ‘Open Comp’ format using a participant’s average for the week as an index and a .500 pro street handicap starting system, the final round pitted the Mustang of Ricky Doern opposite Devin Noyes’ 1970 Plymouth Duster, and Noyes would squeak out the win.
The final day also played host to the Stick Shift Shootout, where any manual transmission cars from any class could jump into a heads-up gathering. The final round was an all-black car affair, with Rob Courtney’s Honda Civic versus the ’95 Mustang of Brian Krakowski.
But an all 9-second gear-jamming battle was over early, when Courtney red-lighted away his chances to give Krakowski the win, and a brand new Tremec manual transmission from Tremec Transmissions.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com
