Through Clutch Problems, Late Night Thrashes and No Sleep, This ’67 Chevy Nova Gasser Survived Sick Summer
The Sick the Magazine events bring veterans and first-timers to the drag-and-drive game together to endure a week (sometimes more) of combining racing and street driving to prove your ride is truly street and strip worthy. And maybe even a few trailer burnouts.
It’s easy to stare at a clean 1967 Chevrolet Nova, but Corey Bohl’s Chevy takes that factor up a notch with the cool gasser vibe. Powered by a small block Chevy with a tunnel ram and a pair of Holley carburetors on top, the cool factor increased when Corey slid a manual trans in the transmission tunnel, and a ladder bar rear suspension.
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Already a participant in the Midwest Drags and a co-pilot on Sick Summer Presented by TBM Brakes in 2023, Corey decided to jump into the driver seat for his return to Sick Summer one year later.
And it didn’t take long for Corey to start with wrenching on the Chevy Nova.
“The night before day one, we swapped flywheels in a parking lot,” Corey said. “That right there told us it was going to be a SICK week. I wanted to test out a heavier flywheel, and I regretted it after just some initial street driving.
One quarter-mile mile pass later, I knew it was coming out so my co-pilot Damion and I ripped into the car once we hit the hotel parking lot.”
Making the changes, Corey produced a one-and-done on day one of 10.84. Although slower than he might have liked, they packed up and hit the road. “Rock Hills, Illinois for a real block party where they shut down part of the town,” said Corey. “Seems like every local was involved, and they had a burnout pit.”
But with vibrations in the car they couldn’t diagnose yet, Corey passed up the chance for burnouts and headed for the hotel. They’d make up for it later in the week.
Day two, he improves to a 10.57 at 125 mph at Cordova, and Corey made up for the previous day’s lack of burnouts with a solid effort at the Motion Raceworks checkpoint.
By the final checkpoint of the day, Hotrods by Havlik, Corey was under the car again. “We blew the clutch apart,” said Corey. A fresh one from Ram Clutches slid in place, they slide into their hotel lot just before 2 am.
Day three would be find Corey in scramble mode at the track. “We broke it pretty FKN good this time,” he said. “I powershifted into second, and the clutch disc literally exploded, shrapnel is all that’s left. I tried getting one delivered by Uber. My wife was helping over the phone. We had no luck, and I had just about given up.”
But lucky for Corey, the drag-and-drive community answered the call. “Art Beeler couldn’t take one of my phone calls, so he called this guy’s co-pilot who was at the track watching some racing. He came over, and sure enough they had a clutch it wasn’t rated for the power I was making, but it was a 26 spline so it would get us back on the road.”
An earlier 10.67 kept Corey in the top three in the Gasser/B class, and they were off to the hotel and day four.
“Pat Norcia, the owner of Ram Clutches, overnighted me a clutch to Great Lakes Dragaway,” said Corey. It arrived before 8 am, but Corey decided to try his luck with the replacement from day three.
He was rewarded with a one-and-done pass, this one a 10.73 at 123 mph, allowing Corey and Damion to hit the road early.
Some might think it would be a day to get to the hotel early, get some sleep and prepare for the final day.
But it didn’t take long before the Nova was ramped and ready for more burnouts, bringing smoke multiple times before they parked it for the night, knowing all the hard work was about to end with one day left. Or was it?
Back at Byron Dragway for day five, Corey and Damion found their clutch problems weren’t over yet. Back under the car they went for a fourth time to swap out the abused parts for the new one from Ram Clutches, and Corey managed to lay down a 10.63 at 125 mph pass, earning him a 10.69 average for the completed week and a third-place finish in the Gasser/B class at Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks.
“Shoutout to Pat at Ram Clutches,” said Corey. “Without this company in my corner, this week would not have been possible.”
“I also couldn’t have made the week happen with Damion. Not a lot of friends could have done what I was asking of them. The best part is I didn’t have to ask; he was there waiting wrench in hand!
The first clutch explosion had me about 1-2 percent leaning towards throwing in the towel because I couldn’t locate a clutch .. he said NO … I needed that!”
“Had a great time and met a lot of good people,” Damion St Pierre said. “Definitely going to take and make it to Sick Week in Florida.”
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Corey Bohl.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com