Sunday Funday – Barona Drag Strip Hosts Day Two of Death Week

With day one in the books at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, Death Week participants hit the road to California for day two at Barona Drag Strip. In route to do so, the tour visited a few choice locations for checkpoints, including the border wall into Mexico.

We’re not sure if any ‘spirited activities’ took place, but some stickers definitely changed hands and excellent photo opportunities seized upon.

David Williams ‘checks in’ with border security on Saturday evening.

After stopping for the night in El Centro, California, the tour motored towards Lakeside and Barona Drag Strip.

But first, the final checkpoint for the first stage would need to be achieved, and that was handled at Gear Vendors Overdrive, where Rick and crew rolled out the red carpet with breakfast, ample parking and even guided tours through the facility.

After competitors had successfully navigated a combination of highway miles and mountain climbs with some pretty wicked grades, a short 17-mile drive from Gear Vendors Overdrive would deliver them to the destination for day two: Barona Drag Strip. How would everyone perform after a 340-mile drive from Arizona to California?

The two quickest competitors, Jason Rousseau and Tom Bailey, would stage up and see who could duplicate their efforts from day one. At the drop of the tree, Rousseau lit the tires afire, and Bailey rolled to a 5.41 at 136 mph, signaling his ‘one-and-done’ was achieved.

The stick shift contingent was once again led by Chris Hein, who wheeled and dealed his ’33 coupe to a 5.75 at 132 mph for a 5.67 average and the third place slot.

Ken Riddle’s big-tired Dodge Dart backed up its 5.83 from day one with a 5.96 at 118 mph at Barona, giving him the fourth spot courtesy of a 5.89 average.

Dustyn Caudle clicked off a 6.06 at 118 mph in his Isuzu mini truck, calculating a 5.98 average and keeping him in the fifth slot.

The biggest mover at Barona was Don McKinley, who wheelied his way to the fourth-quickest pass of the day with a 5.78 at 120 mph, moving the nitrous-fed Camaro to the sixth slot with a 6.06 average. He also produced a wicked trailer burnout at Gear Vendors Overdrive to start his day!

Jeffrey Moll’s Nova stayed in the low 6-second range, complementing his 6.09 from Arizona with a 6.13 at Barona for the seventh spot at 6.11 average.

Carl Bright navigated the eighth-mile track in 6.41-seconds with his El Camino, retaining his top ten standing.

Joey Marshall and Richard Guido both slowed from their initial runs of 6.37 and 6.28 to drop out of the top ten, and the number nine slot were secured by Rajveer Ahuja’s Oldsmobile Cutlass with a 6.40 pass on day two, and a 6.40 average for ninth, followed by David Christianson’s ’70 Camaro in tenth with a 6.42 average.

With most competitors packed and, on the road, one of the stories we were watching was the Falcon gasser of Joe Leone.

Discovering a shattered pushrod, Leone made the trip to the tower for a parts call, and thanks to the efforts of track manager RJ, the call was answered, and Leone was able to produce an 8.94 pass, keeping him in the mix.

Another competitor able to overcome breakage was AJ Sims, who had a late night’s drive after replacing a broken gear box on day one at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. But the VW made it to Barona, and was able to clock an 11.08 to stay in competition.

Now it was down to nearly the final bell, and Rousseau had continued to make runs throughout the day, pulling the power back in his small-tire Malibu to gain the traction he needed to hopefully return to the 5.4-second performance of day one.

After laying down nine total runs, his best of the bunch would be a 5.67 at 127 mph on lap number eight, moving his average to a 5.54, about a tenth behind Bailey’s 5.43 average, but good enough for second place.

Of interesting note: Sick the Magazine’s own Luke Nieuwhof jumped into one of the Radford Racing School rides, a Charger Hellcat Redeye, for a couple time shots.

After negotiating some tricky traction from the 797-ish horsepower under the hood, Nieuwhof was able to garner a 7.88 at 96 mph time slip on his third and final run.

Now the tour starts the first of two drive days up the California coast, with 700-ish miles separating us from our next track destination: Famoso Drag Strip in Bakersfield, California.

Want to follow the route? Check out the big map for the entire 2,000-mile trip, including the route and checkpoints we’ll employ HERE!

You can also view individual stage maps on the Death Week main info page HERE!

Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine and Robert Williams.

If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com