From the Tower: Top Five Wildest Moments from Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive
I tossed out five moments that topped my list from the 2024 edition of Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.
Now, let’s raise the eyebrows a little and get to the five wildest moments from Sick Week. From crazy-close calls to dedication to completing the week, here’s five examples that kept my eyes open just a little bit more!
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Kevin Smith’s Wild Ride on Day Five
As we covered a little bit earlier this week, Kevin Smith and co-pilot Will Stevenson returned to Sick Week in the ‘Soccer Mom’ 1979 Chevrolet Camaro for their third tour of Florida and Georgia with a slew of 7.5-second time slips in hand.
On day five, Kevin staged up at Orlando ‘Sick’ World Dragway looking for a fifth and final 7.5-second run to close out the week and possibly snag their best Sick Week finish with a second-place result in the Super Street class. Just over three seconds into the run, that all changed.
Coolant pressure spiked, the expansion tank ruptured, and Kevin would saw at the wheel more than a drifter as he looked at the grandstands with the Camaro turned 90 degrees on the track. Thankfully, Kevin and his opponent Chad Fegley avoided each other (and the wall), and damage to Soccer Mom was minimal.
Danny Grubaugh Swapping Engines to Make It to the Start of Sick Week
Danny Grubaugh is no stranger to drag-and-drive action, but he got a little more attention at Death Week last October when he ventured off the intended route to Seattle to work an eight-hour shift. He slapped a ‘Death Week was here’ stick on the space needle to call it good, completed the second half of the 1100 mile ‘off-course excursion’ to rejoin the route, make all the checkpoints and complete Death Week in time to earn the ‘Survivor’ skull and a top five nomination for ‘Top Tourist.’
For Sick Week, Danny would venture from California to Florida with Alex Brody as co-pilot. But less than three hours into Texas, the AMC 258 cubic inch straight six-cylinder engine gave up the ghost.
No problem; Danny called up friend Luis Planas for a replacement 230 cubic inch replacement, made the swap, got back on the road in time to make it to tech day with an hour to spare before the lanes closed, then completed the week (along with several extra stops) to earn the ‘Top Tourist’ award.
In Danny’s words: “6,640 miles, 37 coffees, 26 Mountain Dews, 26 quarts of oil, 37 fuel stops, 6 parking lot repairs, 6 yard sales, 1 engine swap; the Gucci is home. #sickweek was freaking epic this year!”
This is the Real Diehl – The Brothers That Won’t Quit
We’ve also seen Nick and David Diehl on several drag-and-drive adventures, but this year they came with an all-new bullet and hope of getting low 7-second passes, possibly a 6-second blast.
Day three’s night drive to South Georgia Motorsports Park took place after a best-of-the-week 7.58 pass at Gainesville Raceway, but just after 10 pm the Diehl brothers found themselves stranded with a dead lifter in the forest land between Gainesville, Florida and Adel, Georgia.
But they managed to find parts, thrashed to get back on the road, entered SGMP a mere fifteen minutes before the staging lanes closed, and made it to the water box as the last car to go down the track. They could’ve just broken the staging beams and stayed in competition with a 20-second time slip, but Nick doesn’t roll that way.
Instead, Nick made the call to remove the number four cylinder from active duty, and turned David loose on seven cylinders and one shot to stay in the sevens. Mere moments later, the scoreboards flashed out a 7.93 pass, keeping their 7-second average for the week intact.
They completed the 7-second goal with a 7.96 pass at Orlando ‘Sick’ World Dragway. “Sick Week was our seventh drag-and-drive, we ran a seven-second average on seven cylinders, and our average was 7.7699, almost a 7.77,” said Nick.
Sick Week Was the Second Major Drag-and-Drive in Less Than a Year Where the Quickest Average Didn’t Come from the Unlimited Class
When Bryant Goldstone’s 6.81 average in the Unlimited Iron class at Sick Summer 2023 took the quickest average over the 7.17 average of Josh Davis in the Unlimited class, it marked the first time in several years that the best average didn’t come from the top class at a major drag-and-drive event.
We didn’t have to wait long for it to happen again, as Brett LaSala showed he would challenge the big tire car of former Hot Rod Drag Week winner Jeff Lutz for the quickest times and best average of the week.
The 6.35 pass from the radial-tired Mustang would be third behind the 6.15 pass from the ’69 Camaro of Jeff and the 6.28 run of Magnus Frost.
But by the second day, Brett’s 6.29 blast moved him into the leader on the average for the week, and although Jeff kept it close with a 6.28 on day three and a 6.31 on day four, the ‘Snot Rocket’ Mustang carried Brett to a 6.35 average after four days, a good bit ahead of Jeff’s 6.42 average and Bryant’s 6.52 average.
By the completion of the event, Brett’s average had been improved to a 6.34, enough to put him atop the top three average, head of Unlimited Iron class winner Bryant’s 6.51 average and Stefan Gustafsson’s Unlimited class winning 6.74 tally.
Chad Fegley Tops a Huge Stick Shift Class with the First 7-Second Average in a Stick Shift Class
The numbers of participants in stick shift classes are growing at drag-and-drives, and even if there is not a specific Stick Shift class, it’s riveting to watch how drivers are navigating the roads and the tracks to survive.
Sick Week had been commanded the first two years by Richard Guido and his turbocharged ’65 Pontiac GTO, but Chad Fegley showed that he would be someone to be taken seriously in 2023 when he laid down a 7.57 on day one at Sick Week 2023 before dropping out with problems.
The two-time Rocky Mountain Race Week Stick Shift class winner produced an 8.06 average in 2022, and at this year’s Sick Week, Chad showed his seven-second potential from day one where he laid down a 7.93 at 183 mph.
He nearly reached the 190-mph mark on a 7.96 pass during day two at Bradenton Motorsports Park, and a 7.83 at 187 mph blast on day three at Gainesville Raceway gave him a 7.91 average to that point. South Georgia Motorsports Park would be Chad’s lone 8-second pass of the week, with an 8.13 at 173 mph turned in and getting Chad on the road to the final day.
Back at Orlando ‘Sick’ World Dragway, Chad uncorked a 7.64 at 194.94 mph final blast, netting him a 7.90 average, the first time in drag-and-drive history that a stick shift class has been won with a 7-second average. It also marked a second-straight 7-second average for a stick shift car at a major drag-and-drive event, following Jeremy Howell’s 7.85 average at Hot Rod Drag Week in the Modified class.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com