Searching for a High-Five in Unlimited; Will It Happen in Drag-and-Drive Competition in 2023?
Just 18 years ago, an 8.55 average was good enough to win the overall title at the first Hot Rod Drag Week. That 8.55 average in today’s drag-and-drive world, while good for an 8.50-second capped class like Street Race or Limited Street, would still fall short of the top two spots in both the Sick Street Race or Street Race 275 categories at the 2023 Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive event.
Despite cars continuing to get quicker, and the number of cars in the single-digits increasing every year, has the drag-and-drive community hit a glass ceiling on performance?
Danny Terzich and Steve Roth would be the first to crack the 7-sercond barrier in 2007, using a supercharged 1967 Chevrolet Camaro to average a 7.80 on the strength of 7-second passes at each and every stop.
Larry Larsen became the first drag-and-drive racer to post a 6-second run three years later, a 6.95 at 209 mph, as his final lap in winning his third Hot Rod Drag Week Unlimited class title.
Three years after Larry cracked the 6-second door open, Tom Bailey busted it down, becoming the first racer to collect a 6-second time slip at every stop on Hot Rod Drag Week, averaging a 6.83 at the end of the week in the original Sick Seconds 1969 Camaro.
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Fast forward to 2015, and Tom debuted Sick Seconds 2.0, a Pro Mod-style ’69 Camaro, and proceeded to clock the quickest time in drag-and-drive history at 6.35 in route to winning his second Hot Rod Drag Week Unlimited title.
2016 found fellow Pro Mod Camaro owner Jeff Lutz taking over the top spot at Hot Rod Drag Week, his 6.10 at 243 mph becoming the quickest and fastest lap ever, and the resulting 6.19 average standing as the quickest ever recorded.
It wasn’t seriously challenged until 2019, when Tom produced the first and only 5-second run in route to a winning 6.29 average and the Hot Rod Drag Week Unlimited class for the fourth time.
But since 2019, no one has produced a 5-second run, nor gotten seriously close to the 6.19 average that Jeff was able to put together. Tom did run a 6.03 on opening day of the 2022 Hot Rod Drag Week, but finished with a 6.58 average.
Michael Westberg’s best of 6.40 at 210 mph and a resulting 6.46 average at the end of Sick Week this season is respectable, but over a quarter-second off the best-ever average, and a hair over four-tenths of-a-second away from a five-second pass.
Is it unrealistic to think more drivers won’t be able to produce a 5-second pass in drag-and-drive competition? Tom weighed in on the subject. “If I loaded my car in a trailer, and trailered it to each track (on a drag-and-drive), could I run a 5-second at each track? I think so,” Tom admits. “I’ve run a 5-second pass at two of the four tracks on Sick Week, and it could do that at the other two as well.”
But Tom addressed the elephant in the room, which is pushing a car to run that quick and then survive the street miles for five days. “Can it be done? Yes,” he stated. “Will it be done? I’m not sure, because when the road comes into play, it’s the equalizer.”
Personally, as much as I’d like to see it happen, I think another driver getting into the five-second range could be at least a few years away.
But with 27 drag-and-drive events on the 2023 calendar, and more cars being built and/or converted for street and strip use, I could be wrong.
For the fans, the competition, and the excitement of it all, I hope I’m wrong. Because as a fan of the drag-and-drive community, I’d love to see a five-second pass happen again soon.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine and 1320 Video.