3500hp Dodge Viper, a Blown Buick-Motored Truck, Tom Bailey Makes It - Tech-In Day at Hot Rod Drag Week
Both familiar and new rides headed for Hartsville, South Carolina and the start of Hot Rod Drag Week at Darlington Dragway today.
And while some rolled in to enjoy a good night’s sleep before the start of the original drag-and-drive event, some competitors were visiting the tech line fresh from thrashing, or even still finishing their vehicles in hopes of making a pass on Monday.
While testing was scheduled for Sunday, a rain shower unfortunately ended any chance of laps. But there was still plenty going on in the pits.
As we wrote about a few days ago, Tom Bailey decided to roll the original Sick Seconds 1.0 Chevrolet Camaro out to celebrate his tenth anniversary of his first drag-and-drive win, his first Drag Week win, and the first car to run a 6-second pass at each track.
The legendary ’69 Camaro hasn’t been to a drag-and-drive since 2019, but Tom and crew thrashed to update and fix a list of items in time to go testing on Thursday night at Milan Dragway.
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After some initial 60 foot and 330 foot launches to get the suspension lined out, Tom was completing a burnout for his next pass when a mysterious noise started at the end of the burnout. Back at the shop a few hours later, hurt bearings and a crankshaft that needed help were discovered, so the crew got the engine out on Friday afternoon.
Tom escorted the wounded bullet to Steve Morris’ shop for teardown, the crankshaft had some material removed to clean up the marks from the bearings going south, and the engine was returned home to the Camaro’s frame rails Saturday night. The car and trailer were loaded up, and a weary crew hit the road before midnight for a fourteen-hour road trip to Darlington, South Carolina, where Tom made it into the tech line with an hour to spare.
In the new rides department, a lot of eyes are on Ned Dunphy’s recently completed 2013 Dodge Viper that will enter the Unlimited class. Built by RK Racecraft and the team at Vengeance Racing, the Viper features a Steve Morris Engines 481X bullet with a pair of turbos to push the power output past the 3,500-horsepower mark.
Dunphy patiently saw out the day in the waitlist area before coming into the tech lane with what should be another six-second drag-and-drive ride.
Although not a new ride, this year’s Hot Rod Drag Week marks the first time Phil Gulledge’s ‘Pro Mouse’ S-10 truck has rolled into tech day. An all-aluminum 388 cubic inch Dart/Buick spread port-headed small block Chevrolet rocks an eye-grabbing 8-71 Littlefield supercharger, and a four-speed Lenco transmission in the transmission tunnel.
“We are expecting to see something in the neighborhood of 1700-2000 horsepower around the 9000-9200 rpm range,” Gulledge stated, which should put him into the desired six-second/200mph zone he hopes to reach.
Graham Hayes has the ‘Bad Draw’ Nova ready for its first shot at a drag-and-drive. The car was well into the fours during testing thanks to a big block Chevy with four stages of nitrous. Amazingly, Graham only got the car back from the chassis shop 19 days ago!
Jack Brooks built the ‘Dirtnasty’ Nova purely for drag-and-drive duties, though it has that southeast grudge look to it. It’s a stock block LS deal that he hopes to push into the sevens.
Brian Havlik, who won Naturally-Aspirated Modified class at the inaugural Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive in 2022, is looking to Drag Week to try and turn around a 2023 that has seen the ’55 Chevy suffer a pair of DNF results at Sick Week and Sick Summer Presented by TBM Brakes.
The classic shoebox Chevrolet didn’t have a complete motor under the hood until Saturday morning, but thanks to the hard work of Havlik and Rich Bellmund, the naturally-aspirated ride is at the track.
Jonathan Chmura’s 1996 Chevrolet Beretta is making a return trip to Drag Week despite the engine bay being empty at the end of August. He averaged 12.21 at Drag Week one year ago, and in 2021 Chmura made the rounds on social media for putting a hole in the side of his V-6 engine block, preventing him from finishing the week. This time he has a combination with less compression and some more nitrous to spray.
Steven Lemieux was still thrashing on his 1970 Pontiac GTO a couple days ago, after picking up the engine just a week before Hot Rod Drag Week “Clutch fighting me; Found the hydraulic cylinder mount system was bent up causing linkage to fail,” said Lemieux. “Going to change master cylinder in a hotel parking lot before tech. Good times!”
Naturally-Aspirated class veteran Jason Tabscott found a pan full of metal shavings at the conclusion of this year’s Sick Week, and parts availability put his timeline closer to thrash mode than he would’ve preferred to be ready for Hot Rod Drag Week.
“Train is rolling, and only a few hours sleep... as usual,” Tabscott posted Saturday morning as he started his cruise to South Carolina looking to redeem his no-show due to parts failure from one year ago.
Alan Whitaker will take part in his first drag-and-drive in his 1972 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. The ride was built by Greg Risk Racecraft and a 572 cubic inch Steve Morris powerplant with twin 94mm Precision Pro Mod turbos provides the power.
With all the serious add-ons, the Monte Carlo still sports the factory green hue, all the chrome and aluminum factory trimmings and polished everything make you stop and wonder if it’s a solid show ride. Alan has made some shake down laps at a couple different tracks, including last month’s National Muscle Car Association (NMCA) All-American Nationals, recording a 4.74 at 160 mph on the eighth-mile standard.
Hot Rod Drag Week officially begins tomorrow, September 17. Make sure you keep checking sickthemagazine.com for updates all week!
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Brian Havlik, Steven Lemieux and Jason Tabscott.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com