Hi Ho Silver – This ’69 Nova Goes Wheels Up on Sick Summer in Search of Single-Digit Passes
With a lot of LS-swaps, modern fuel injection, turbochargers and such becoming the norm, some of the street car shootout history and drag-and-drive legacy may seem to be fading away.
Not to worry though, as Sick Summer showed out with lots of classic sheetmetal, some even sporting old school engines, carburetors and nitrous systems.
One of the classic rides getting attention during Sick Summer Presented by TBM Brakes was Keith Lancour’s 1969 Chevrolet Nova. The silver hue with black stripes is always an attention getter, even though the car’s ‘Mary Kay’ name hints at the colors beneath the surface.
“The car either used to be pink or has pink primer,” said Keith. “If there's a scratch in the paint it shows the pink, so my buddies always joked that it was an old Mary Kay car.”
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To motivate ‘Mary Kay’, Keith enlisted a 540 cubic inch big block Chevrolet engine set up to run on pump gas. Sandwiched between the single plane intake and AED 1050 cfm Dominator carburetor is an Induction Solutions Saturday Night Special nitrous plate, giving Keith the opportunity to add some laughing gas to the mix.
Automatic Transmission Design built the 3-speed Turbo 400 transmission, which sends the power to a Ford 9-inch rear end sporting 3.70 gears, and a set of Weld Racing Pro Stars with a 275/60/15 drag radial on the back.
Keith participated in Hot Rod Drag Week with the Nova in 2021, running the Street Race Big Block Power Adder class. He averaged out a 9.41 for the week, good enough for second in his class.
“I did the event with three of the same buddies that were planning to run Sick Summer with me,” said Keith. “It was a great experience, we all finished with minor issues.
We made a bunch of new friends, and we inspired some fellow racers to finish their cars, get out racing and try a drag and drive event.”
Fast forward to Sick Summer, and Keith had done some upgrades to the Nova, including a stand-alone fuel tank for the fuel enrichment side of the nitrous, double adjustable shocks at all four corners, a nitrous system progressive nitrous controller, and a lot of rewiring.
But one thing that didn’t change, was the same friends that joined him on Drag Week returned to be a part of his journey on Sick Summer.
“Going on a drag racing adventure with four really great friends is why I decided to run Sick Summer,” said Keith. “Nonstop laughs and good times, plus it is also stopping at my hometown track, Great Lakes Dragaway, only 10 minutes from my house.”
Although nearly two years had passed since his last drag-and-drive event, Keith looked very consistent to his last performance based on his Sick Summer result.
Day one would be his slowest of the week with a 9.55, but Keith rebounded with a 9.39 on day three at Great Lakes Dragaway.
The Nova produced a 9.44 at Tri-State Raceway, and finally a best-of-the-week 9.31 back at Cordova to calculate a 9.42 average, just a single hundredth of his previous Drag Week address.
This would also be good enough to capture third best average in class, marking Keith’s second event in-a-row with a top three class finish.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Keith Lancour and Sick the Magazine.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com