Testing and Racing Results from Orlando, Who Is Out Before Sick Week Starts, and Last-Minute Thrashes – It’s Time for Sick Week!
For the second-straight year, Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive gets underway today at Orlando ‘Sick’ World Dragway in Florida.
Sunday is the mandatory tech and registration day, and for many a competitor, they try to recreate ‘Cannonball Run’ in pushing the limits to make in into tech line by the mandatory 1 p.m. cut off time.
Sick the Mag is giving away this ‘71 Chevy dually pick-up, plus a Harley bike AND $5000 CASH! It’ll be on Sick Week this week, and we’re giving it to a lucky new owner next week! Click here for details on how you can enter to win!
Although Sunday also marks the last chance for Sick Week competitors to get some testing time on the track before the event officially gets underway on Monday January 29th, there have been several cars testing during the week in Orlando, as well as Bradenton Motorsports Park a few hours south.
Some are shaking down all-new combinations or builds, while others are tweaking their existing drivelines with some new parts.
The 2024 edition of Sick Week starts just one day after the popular Cadillac Attack event, and to encourage more Sick Week rides to come out and participate in Cadillac Attack, Tom Bailey got together with event promoter Jim Harvest to create a Sick Shootout class paying $2,000 to win and $500 runner-up.
Qualifying found four drivers getting into the 6-second zone, including Jeff Lutz, who eclipsed 227 mph on one pass, and put down a 6.39 to lead qualifying for the Sick Shootout.
Round one would be done by pulling chips for random pairings, and the first pair out had Magnus Frost dispatching Matt Moore with an early-shut off 7.06 at just 140 mph.
A few pairs later, Jeff Lutz also dispatched his first-round opponent with a 7.13 at only 137 mph. John Dodson got the better of Alan Whitaker, who earlier produced his personal best pass of 7.36 in his Monte Carlo.
One of the best first round match-ups was Doc McEntire versus Stefan Gustafsson, and the flash of green on the Christmas Tree, the naturally-aspirated Camaro of McEntire was off the line first and pulling away. Gustafsson experienced some issues off the line, but managed to recover and just clip McEntire at the finish line via a 7.45 to 7.78 count.
On the sidelines earlier than expected at the conclusion of Saturday’s activities are Tom McGilton and Steve Morris. We reported on McGilton’s fire during a Friday test session, doing extensive damage to the wiring harness and a bit of blistering to the body panels on the Camaro.
Morris discovered lack of oil pressure as his big hurdle to overcome the middle of last week, but with the help of Advanced Cylinder Heads, Morris would rebuild everything in time to be the latest to suffer problems that put him out of competition.
After rebuilding the engine in time to make it to the track and participate in the Sick Shootout, Morris got a single pass for round one, where he shook the tires, causing a transmission line to separate from its fitting, getting fluid on the rear tires.
This sent Steve on a wild ride, unfortunately ending with the front and rear of the right side of the car getting into the wall. Steve emerged from the incident with no injuries, and will join his wife Valerie and son Kyle in her Malibu for Sick Week.
The latest video from Morris details all the work to fix the engine, as well as in-car views from the round one crash:
Some competitors have yet to get to Sick Week, but one of them is once again going the extra mile to make it.
Danny Grubaugh, who finished as one of our top five ‘Top Tourist’ nominees at Death Week 2023, is driving his 1973 AMC ‘Gucci’ station wagon from California to Florida to participate in Sick Week.
But 120 miles into Louisiana, the AMC chucked a rod out of the engine. However, fellow AMC enthusiast and friend Luis, who bought Grubaugh’s 1977 AMC a few ago, immediately came to his aid.
The wounded engine was plucked out, the functioning engine swap was complete on Saturday afternoon and purring like a kitten. Grubaugh passed the Florida state line at just before 4 a.m.
Sheldon Root, who finished second in the Rowdy Radial class at Sick Week one year ago, has been struggling a little with his new engine combination going together with no leaks.
After finally getting it right, the newly-converted big block combination put down just shy of 1900 rear-wheel-horse-power on a chassis dyno before loading up to head to Florida from Winnipeg, Canada. Will he make it on time?
The 2024 drag-and-drive season starts at Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive!! See drag-and-drive personalities including PFI Speed, Steve Morris, Derek from Vice Grip Garage, Alex Taylor, BoostedBoiz, Kevin Smith of KSR, and over 300 more drag-and-drive competitors looking to enjoy a week in Florida. Also, we’ll have a large group of people in the Sick Ward portion of Sick Week, literally a rolling car show! For more details, a schedule and our routes each day, visit https://www.sickthemagazine.com/sick-week
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Danny Grubaugh and Sheldon Root.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com