Graham Hayes Leads Sick Week Testing on Day One With a 6.64 Blast from South Georgia Motorsports Park
With snow on the ground surrounding the all-concrete racing surface at South Georgia Motorsports Park (SGMP), the track known for setting records on small tire radial rides hosted their first of two testing days on Saturday, January 25th, leading to the fourth annual Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.
Both big and small-tire cars took to the track to shake off their winter blues, test out new combinations, and take advantage of the mineshaft air conditions.
THE SUPER BOWL of drag-and-drive events - Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive - starts in one day! It combines winter temps with great tracks (and traction), to deliver some amazing performances and an exciting experience! Four tracks, two states, over 800 miles, and five days of beautiful views and quick runs! For more details and how to purchase advance spectator tickets or a Sick Ward entry, CLICK HERE!
Leading the charge for all runners at SGMP was Graham Hayes, who made the switch from nitrous to a twin-turbo big block in his ’66 Chevrolet Nova in the off-season. After a couple shots at the track, Hayes let it eat on the third pass, and produced a 6.64 at 209 mph blast with high fives on the starting line afterwards.
Will Fair, a new competitor to the drag-and-drive world, brought our his ’56 Chevrolet build to get ready for his first event. The twin-turbo big block ride, which we recently featured in Sick the Magazine – CLICK HERE FOR THAT STORY, made a handful of laps trying to negotiate the balance of traction and power. He finally got a 7.30 at 193 mph pass from the Bel Air on his fifth attempt.
Brett LaSala put down a trio of laps in ‘Snot Rocket 3.0’ with his best run being a 1.14 60 foot and a 4.17 at 184 mph eighth-mile time, with LaSala off the loud pedal before the eighth-mile mark. These numbers are close to what LaSala ran on his record-setting 6.26 last year, so it appears the twin-turbo green Mustang is primed for at least low 6-second blasts again at Sick Week.
Greg Ward’s Tesla is a recent feature to the magazine CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE and joined us for Sick Week in 2024 as part of Sick Ward. This year, the ‘itsnoev’ is jumping into a competitor slot, and the big block twin-turbo swapped Tesla clocked an 8.65 best quarter-mile run.
Lamar Swindoll is keeping the nitrous faithful smiling, as his small tire ’72 Camaro is on the property ready for Super Street class action. After producing the quickest time at the Edelbrock Sick 66 event last October, Swindoll is here with a slightly milder big block with two stages of hot sauce. On the single kit, he clocked a 7.88 at 173 mph, but decided he wanted a little more. He came back for a second hit, and this time with 550 horsepower of nitrous between two stages, Swindoll’s Camaro returned a 7.58 at 183 mph blast.
Tom Bailey and Stefan Gustafsson made shake down runs in their Pro Mod-style Camaros, with Gustafsson getting the best 60 foot of the day at 1.03, as he continues to sort out his new car.
Matt Blasco is making his first appearance in his ’71 Plymouth Cuda, packing a twin turbo 652 cubic inch mammoth of an engine combo. Making north of 3000 horsepower on the dyno, Blasco shook then car down yesterday on just wastegate pressure, clocking a 7.41 at 176 mph.
Nick and David Diehl rolled the 2001 Mustang known as ‘Last Penny’ out of the trailer with the paint still looking wet. The recent Hot Rod Drag Week Super Street class winner got a complete refresh in the off-season, and they battled hard to find the balance on the radial tires at SGMP. Their best run was a 1.17 60 foot-initiated 4.80 at 147 mph eighth-mile, with plenty more on tap.
Mike Ward, the defending Super Street champion, showed up with the tiny 26-inch-tall x 8.5-inch-wide tires on his potent ’63 Nova, giving us the indication he’s moving to Rowdy Radial this year. After several failed laps due to tire spin, Ward put together a pair of 5.0-second runs to the eighth-mile, followed by a best of 4.95.
While some struggled with the track prep at SGMP, others were finding traction in abundance. Two drivers joined the sky miles club in testing, Matt Donovan and Matt Frederick. For Donovan, ‘Garbage that Barfed’ came down from the wheelie to bend the front straight axle. Donovan found a local shop to make the fix happen, and he’s ready for Day Zero.
For Frederick, his moon shot was way worse on the ’73 Camaro. Upon return to all four wheels, the Sick Street Race ride bent the front frame, cracked the windshield, and moved the front motorplate enough to where water was seeping between the plate and the block. Sadly, Frederick is out of competition.
Another driver on the ropes early is Matt Moore. The defending Rowdy Radial champion had an engine mishap in testing before making the trek to Georgia, but got things fixed in time, along with giving everything a once-over in hopes they found the culprit. Unfortunately, their lone pass in testing yesterday showed the head man from Moore Race Chassis the problem was not fixed, but they think they may have found the solution, and are thrashing on the engine now.
Bradley Arnold made a solid 7.44 at 172 mph blast in his Buick yesterday, but after his second run, discovered an issue that required the engine to come apart. “We got a gasket, and it started pushing a freeze plug out of the head, which was leaking water,” said Bradley. All the surfaces checked out okay, but upon further inspection this morning, discovered a cracked cylinder head. the freeze plug and head gasket this morning to be ready for Day Zero.
We’re getting underway with testing today, and spectators are welcome! $20 per person, kids 12 and under are free!
The 2025 drag-and-drive season starts at Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive!! See drag-and-drive personalities including Jeff Lutz, PFI Speed, Steve Morris, Alex Taylor, Doug Cook, Brett LaSala, BoostedBoiz, Kevin Smith of KSR, and over 300 more drag-and-drive competitors looking to enjoy a week in Florida. Also, we’ll have a large group of people in the Sick Ward portion of Sick Week, literally a rolling car show! For more details, a schedule and our routes each day, visit https://www.sickthemagazine.com/sick-week
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com