Drag-and-Drive Competitors Stefanski, Schweizer and Manuel Pick Up Victories as the 2024 Racing Season Starts to Wind Down
As an epic 2024 season of racing winds down, so does the drag-and-drive calendar. Only six events remain on the 2024 event listings, with Australia hosting a trio of them, and Southeast Street N Yeet headlining the three remaining in the United States.
But that isn’t stopping some familiar names from getting out to other drag racing events and putting in work before much of North America gets too cold to continue racing, and we count the days until Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive starts on January 27th, 2025.
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Michael Manuel showed up to Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks last year with his wild twin-turbo 1989 Chevrolet Camaro, and missed out on winning the Modified class by less than six thousandths of-a-second to veteran Clark Rosenstengel.
But Manuel got to work lowering his elapsed times, and at this year’s Sick Summer, Manuel not only dropped into the 6-second range for the first time, but scored a 6.999 average for the week. That earned him not only the coveted Sick the Mag orange class winner helmet, but a coveted top three guitar from Gear Vendors Overdrive.
Manuel recently made some noise at US41 Dragstrip in Indiana last weekend for the final River Redemption small tire race of the 2024 season. Although the majority of their classes are run on the quarter-mile, Manuel jumped into the Small Tire class, run on the eighth-mile distance.
Based around a max-sized 29.5-inch tall x 10.5-inch wide slick or 315 radial, and mandated steel quarter panels, Manuel took the Camaro in drag-and-drive quarter-mile trim to the class win.
Several drag-and-drive runners, including a trio of Hot Rod Drag Week class winners, were among the competitors at the Big 3 Racing Dig-A-Palooza at Dragway 42 in West Salem, Ohio. Chuck Stefanski of Big 3 Racing brought out his ProCharger and zoomie-header equipped Pontiac wagon, and was joined by David and Nick Diehl with their turbocharged Mustang, and Jim Trettel’s clean ’67 Firebird.
We also saw some familiar names from the National Muscle Car Association (NMCA) / National Mustang Racers Association (NMRA) series, including Shawn McAless, Mike Neihaus and NMCA Norwalk winner Mike Long.
In the final of the True Street class, Stefanski would stage opposite David Diehl, and with both machines capable of mid to low 4-second eighth-mile times and scoring multiple victories between the two this season, it was anybody’s race to win. But it was over quickly when David Diehl spun the tires, handing the win to Stefanski.
We’ve reported on Kevin Schweizer as he joined us for his first drag-and-drive at this year’s Sick Week. But Schweizer would also make appearances in the NMRA True Street and 8.60-index Street Race class, as well as the True Street class on the NMCA side.
At what would become the final event of the now-defunct NMCA series, the 23rd annual World Finals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Schweizer averaged an 8.98 in his ’80 Mercury Zephyr station wagon to earn the True Street crown.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Street2Strip Photography and Chris Simmons Photography.
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