Following a couple seasons in the National Mustang Racers Association (NMRA) 8.60 Street Race class, Leticia Hughes made the jump to her first drag and drive event at the 2024 edition of Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive. Doing the event with husband Rick riding as the co-pilot, Leticia completed the week in her 2018 Ford Mustang GT with an 8.57 average and third place in the Sick Street Race Category.

“It was an amazing event,” said Leticia. “I didn’t think we would place top three; we just planned to have a decent tune up in the car, make a single pass each day, and hit the road.” After competing primarily in the NMRA series, Leticia decided to branch out and do a few new events in 2024. Leticia and daughter Abbey even wheeled the Sick BBQ-Ice Cream-Hot Dog truck on Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks.

“Doing the drag and drive style of event was so much rewarding,” Leticia said. After completing her season at No Mercy at South Georgia Motorsports Park, Leticia and Rick decided the Mustang needed some upgrades. Those changes included a switch in power adders on the Stage 2 TKM Performance Gen 3 Coyote, as Leticia and Rick have installed a pair of HPT Turbochargers in the 68/70-millimeter size, as well as a custom air to water intercooler.

Leticia will have the latest round of upgrades done in time to enter our Sick At The Rock event in April, where she hopes to claim her share of the $32,000 up for grabs in our Sick Street Car Challenge class.

Although not the first time drag racing has seen a ‘cost-limited’ or ‘budget-build’ style of car / class, Cleetus McFarland brought the latest round of his popular ‘Cheap Car Challenge’ to the 2025 edition of Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.

Although we’ve seen Cleetus, James Taal and Tye Braun compete in quicker and nicer rides in drag and drive events, this idea was met with enthusiasm from not only Cleetus and crew, but also the fans and FRDM+ stream viewers.

By the final day of Sick Week, all four cars survived the week, and Cleetus started that the cars will be back for our Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks event, held June 15th through June 20th, 2025.

The question is: could this style of build / class be the next big thing for a drag and drive event, or in general for drag racing?

When mentioning power adders, there are a ton of choices in today’s market. But when it comes to superchargers, one made quite the impression with turn-key systems for Ford engines back in the 1990s, and that was Vortech Engineering. Since that start of the business, they’ve added more power to a lot of rides, and now it’s becoming just as common to see Vortech units on 7-second and 8-second rides as the thousands of fun street cars and daily drivers on the road today.

After being in business for about a decade, Vortech purchased the owner’s former employer’s business, Paxton Superchargers, and added it to the Vortech portfolio. Today, Vortech’s expanded offerings with Paxton onboard means well over 100 different kits are available.