Tales From Death Week – Combining an Internet Car Purchase and a Trip from United Kingdom Gets Thomas Bagguley a Completed Rocky Mountain Race Week and Death Week Result
It’s understandable how some potential competitors might not choose to participate on Death Week or even Rocky Mountain Race Week (RMRW), as they are two events on the drag-and-drive roster with more miles and air / altitude changes then most others.
Then there’s Thomas Bagguley, who would throw caution to the wind and not only decide to participate in both events, but do so in a new-to-him car, bought sight-unseen over the internet, AND arrive to take delivery of said car just one day before Rocky Mountain Race Week 2.0 started!
Don’t miss our next one-off drag-and-drive: Sick 66 - October 2024!
Event information and expression of interest forms can be FOUND HERE!
The car is question, a single turbo LS-swapped 1985 Ford Mustang, would catch Thomas’ eye in late July of 2023. “Decisions have been made; I'm going racing in America! LS turbo fox body. Plan is RMRW 2.0 & Death Week. Cannot wait,” Thomas wrote on his Facebook page.
The Mustang would get Thomas a completed RMRW, earning the sixth spot in the Rowdy Radial category. But he wasn’t done yet.
Fast forward two weeks to Arizona, where Thomas and Graham Smith would roll into tech line for Death Week, a 2000-mile test of man and machine across three states and three different race tracks.
But in route to the track, they were almost sidelined by a c-clip eliminator on the rear end, but managed to find parts to fix it on day one.
With the rear end fix behind them and the drive part of Death Week going well, Thomas focused on improving the performance of the Mustang on the drag strip.
He started with a 9.43 one day one at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, then followed with a best of 8.67 the next day at Barona Drag Strip.
After two days of navigating to Bakersfield, California and Famoso Drag Strip, Thomas unleashed his best pass of the week, a 7.85 at 97 mph! But in the process, he hurt the turbocharger. With a parts call for a turbocharger coming up empty, the duo decided to go naturally-aspirated for the remainder of the trip.
After a day in Vegas and multiple days of driving back to Arizona, Thomas clicked off his final run, completing his second drag-and-drive event in less than a month with a 9.24 average on the eighth-mile standard.
“Over 2000 miles and personal-bests all over the place,” Thomas said. “An incredible adventure with some battles along the way, and some incredible scenery that we will never forget. With no turbo (for the final stretch), we just rattled through the beams to an 11-second pass, but what an achievement.”
Did you miss the chance to participate in Death Week? Check out the details on our next one-off event, Sick 66, scheduled for October 2024. More details and ‘expression of interest’ forms available HERE!
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Tom Bagguley and Graham Smith.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com