Testing Notes, Carnage and Last Minute Thrashes – Sunday Sick Week Update!
It’s official Check-in and Tech day of Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive! Several competitors have been testing their combinations at Bradenton Motorsports Park, and while some are finding the track rewarding, others are experiencing breakage and heartache.
Starting out positive, James McEntire, defending Naturally Aspirated class champion and multi-time Hot Rod Drag Week champ, brought his ‘SEE RED’ ’68 Camaro to BMP.
At the end of testing on Thursday, McEntire was rewarded with a 7.72 at 173.81 mph, plus a 1.11 60 foot time, all new personal bests!
In the unfortunate carnage notes:
Matt Donovan was in route from Indiana on Friday when a big pothole bent both his trailer axles and nearly put him into the guardrail. Luckily, the Pontiac gasser known as ‘Garbage that Barfed’ survived, and Donovan recruited an open trailer to transfer his car and tag-a-long trailer on, so he could make it to the BMP testing.
Meanwhile, fellow racer Greg Lubben at L & S Trailers will be fixing Donovan’s trailer for his return to Indiana after Sick Week is complete.
But the carnage continued for Donovan after testing, when a bent center link was discovered. Fellow Sick Week competitors Mark Mannor and Ed Schwartz whipped up a new one, and Donovan will roll into tech this morning.
Sick Week 2023 Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive will feature hundreds of America’s fastest street cars, racing and cruising through Florida and southern Georgia.
Individual day spectator tickets are available here.
Eric Yost revived his ’68 Camaro for its first track visit in nearly five years, then made it to Bradenton for testing on Friday. His reward? A toasted Turbo 400 transmission. Word is the transmission was fixed late Saturday, and installed just after midnight.
While we’re discussing transmission issues, both Mikael Borggren and Michael Westberg had transmission troubles during Friday testing (Borggren’s Volvo wagon is in the background of Eric Yost’s photo above).
When asked if things were fixed to both his and Westberg’s rides, Borggren replied “fixed is a wide term. Bandaided maybe.”
At press time, not everyone has made it to Orlando yet, as last minute thrashes have put them behind schedule.
Brian Havlik, who finished second in the Naturally Aspirated class in 2022, left Iowa Saturday afternoon bound for Florida. What kept him? A change in valvesprings meant the inner diameter wouldn’t work with his existing retainers.
Sperry Engines came in clutch with the fix It will be a no-sleep trip for them to make it in time for the 1 pm tech line cutoff, but the Havliks are determined to push through the night to make it.
Kevin Smith and the KSR crew were into the middle of last week, and still waiting on their new engine. But Thursday, February 9th brought good news in the form of a crate from Texas Speed containing a 388 cubic inch LS engine.
They got the new bullet installed, even some chassis dyno time, and loaded up Saturday night.
After experiencing some issues with his engine, including 40 pounds of coolant pressure, Matt Moore embarked on a wide-scale search for head gaskets. The fix was found, Matt Moore has his turbo’d LS Mustang back together, and in route to Orlando.
Robbie Dowdy decided to change cars with less than a month before Sick Week, then upped the ante a bit more by upgrading his 2008 Chevrolet Trailblazer with a roll cage and installing a different engine, finishing up just over 24 hours ago. A 650 mile drive separates him from Orlando.
- Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of the author, Brian Havlik, Eric Yost, Kevin Smith, Matt Donovan, Matt Moore, Rich Pedraza, Robbie Dowdy.