Day Seven of Sick 66 is Complete – Over One Thousand Miles Traveled, Five Race Tracks Visited – Can Jason Rousseau Hang on to Claim a Second Sick Drag-and-Drive Victory?
It’s officially been a week since we rolled 177 competitors through tech inspection, as well as a couple hours of testing and tuning, to start Edelbrock Sick 66.
We’re down to one day left, today, Friday, October 18th. 150 competitors rolled into Albuquerque Dragway as we prepared to witness racing action in the fourth state of the event, and visit the fifth state in the tour.
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Jason Rousseau and Rick Steinke opened on day one with a four hundredths of-a-second margin between the two, with Rousseau leading via a 5.36 to 5.40 count. Steinke has closed the margin a little, but after a 5.43 to 5.53 difference in favor of Rousseau in Texas, the New Yorker is still on top.
The friendly competition staged up for the fifth time in New Mexico, and despite Density Altitude numbers reaching above 7000 feet, Rousseau left with a 5.58 at 132 mph to stay ahead of Steinke’s 5.60 at 130 mph pass from the crew cab ‘67 Chevelle.
Lamar Swindoll continues to keep his nitrous fed ’72 Camaro in the number three spot, and the Texas-based hot rod delivered a 5.86 at 125 mph in Albuquerque with a slightly soft 60 foot as Lamar has been battling traction woes at a few drag strips with more power and weight on the nose in the classic Chevrolet.
We got the bad news that Brooks Fleharty was out on the drive day heading to Texas, as the lone pass at Amarillo Dragway was the last straw after changing head gaskets the day before. “We have a dead hole, and at this point it’s not worth risking ruing the entire engine to continue,” said Fleharty. “It’s been a hell of an adventure, and if there was any way we could make it work, we certainly would! Drive fast and take chances!”
The Isuzu Faster pick-up is probably one of the coolest names for a pick-up we’ve heard of, but Dustyn Caudle isn’t relying on good names alone to get him through Sick 66. The pick-up, which has been a staple in the drag-and-drive community, has been knocking down 5-second runs since we started in Missouri, and a 5.82 keeps Caudle in the top five heading for the last day in Roswell.
There are two pick-up trucks in the top five, and one spot ahead of Caudle is the Chevrolet Colorado of Josh Reich. The turbocharged ride secured the Rowdy Radial title at Rocky Mountain Race Week 2.0 in September, but Reich has been making the trek on Sick 66 with the larger 275 Mickey Thompson ET Street for traction.
Reich has run a best of 5.65 on day three at Tulsa, and lit the scoreboards at Albuquerque with a trio of 5.8-second runs, the best being a 5.81 at 122 mph, to average 5.72 for the event with one track left.
The Mackey family are no strangers to racing, let alone a drag-and-drive. Normally we hear the tales of father Bryon or son Austin, but mom Jamie is wheeling her 1959 Ford Ranch wagon on Sick 66.
The inline 6-cylinder has been good for a best run of 8.16 at Tulsa, but trouble has been visiting the Mackeys at Amarillo, as well as yesterday at Albuquerque. They broke the timing cover in Texas, and New Mexico offered up a cracked timing gear. Bryon and Jamie are hoping to keep it together into Roswell and at least break the beams to finish Sick 66.
An all-female pairing staged up at Albuquerque Dragway yesterday, when Holly Rops faced Audrea Beeler. Neither are a stranger to racing or drag-and-drive events, and Holly’s ‘Artemis’ Chevrolet SS got the nod over the ‘Zel Camino’ of Audrea by a 6.82 at 6.98 count.
Holly returned for two more runs, and improved her time to a 6.77 at 106 mph, putting her in the seventeen spot overall.
Tom Bailey and Steve Morris came into round five of their friendly grudge match with just .0013 of-a-second separating them. After two passes each in Albuquerque, Tom rolled the Mopar Hurricrate-swapped Ramcharger up for pass number three. With a 7.58 best in his pocket so far, Tom needed a good run to stay ahead, and the scoreboards flashed a 7.3663, only .0063 away from the quickest run Tom could turn in per NHRA safety rules.
Steve staged up right behind Tom in the next pair, and the unbelievable happened as Steve nearly matched Tom with a 7.3669 pass! Their averages now stand at 7.3916 for Tom, and 7.3928 for Steve. It’ll be a battle to the last lap in Roswell, who do you think will win this match-up?
The Sick the Mag merchandise trailer proved to be a popular spot, as folks lined up to not only grab limited edition Sick 66 items, including the track shirt of the day, but get their entries to win our ’52 Nash race car. CLICK HERE to find out more about it!
The final drive from Albuquerque Dragway to Alien City Dragway is 219 miles. That, and at least one pass, is all that stands between competitors and the right to say “I finished Sick 66!”
You can join us for the final day at Alien City Dragway in Roswell, TODAY, as racing action will go from 12 noon to 6 pm. You can also find a full list of the checkpoints we’ve hit, as well as the route, by CLICKING HERE for the Edelbrock Sick 66 information page.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com