Smaller Drag-and-Drives: Serving the Community with More Options, or Just a Stepping Stone to Major Event Miles?
The drag-and-drive calendar has certainly expanded since the original drag-and-drive, Hot Rod Drag Week, first made an appearance in 2005.
The Hot Rod Pump Gas Drags in 2007 at Comp Cams in Memphis, TN. Notice the ‘68 Mustang of Scott Miller on the right side, which should be back on the drag-and-drive playground soon.
Born to prove a street car should be able handle more than 30 miles, David Freiburger of Hot Rod Magazine created the idea that a lot of us get to enjoy in a multitude of ways.
The Sick Powerfest Presented by Dodge & M1 Concourse is coming to Pontiac, Michigan on Friday, August 9th, 2024. The WORLD BURNOUT CHAMPIONSHIP take center stage for a $25,000 purse, plus tons of cool rides will fill M1 Concourse in the Sick Spit Show and Shine, a Manufacturers Midway and a ton more! CLICK HERE for information and tickets!
Lately, some have suggested that certain drag-and-drive events hold more value / clout of testing cars and their true street ability.
Reading this more than just a few times on social media made me reflect on a lot of new events that have popped up in the last few years, and how several of them are not major (or national) drag-and-drive events.
To quote Michael Narx from Drag Drive Repeat, a major drag-and-drive event is one that has the following minimums: four days of scheduled competition, 500 miles on public roads during the event, and one time slip per day of racing required.
Out of the current list of 40 events on the drag-and-drive event calendar, fifteen events qualify for those minimum standards. So what about the other 25 events? Do they ‘not count’ as a drag-and-drive event?
The large (major/national) versus smaller events can be a touchy subject that I have thought about a lot. And to draw from my own experience, I think that the smaller events are just as important as some of the bigger events.
For many years, I have thought about participating in Hot Rod Drag Week. I watched the live streams. But when breaking down the amount of time and money that I would need to do them, I kept coming up with ‘maybe next year’ excuses of why I couldn’t do it that year.
After my ‘in person’ introduction to an event by Tom Bailey at the 2022 edition of Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, my viewpoint was changed on the drag-and-drive event. But not in the way that you might think.
There are likely thousands of people like me that can’t just take an entire week or more of time off to be able to do a full major drag-and-drive event. But looking at the smaller events that are one to three days, they might be able to make that work with their schedule and/or their finances.
To draw a comparison: there are hundreds of thousands of racers in the sportsman ranks of drag racing that will likely never get to compete at a national event. It doesn’t mean their triumphs and struggles, memories and possible wins, should be frowned upon by others because they didn’t do a major event.
Hell, these enthusiasts could do a smaller drag-and-drive event, and it might just fuel their passion to do a major event even more!
So my overall impression is this: we need every enthusiast, no matter their dedication or participation level, to be a part of the drag-and-drive community.
And in direct line with that, we should try to respect promoters / organizers time and dedication to create events that help us push this community forward, whether we 100-percent agree with their vision and execution or not.
See you on the road or at the track. I’ll be the guy ready to tell everyone about your journey!!
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine and Derek Putnam.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com