The Attrition List – Who Is Sidelined at Hot Rod Drag Week
A drag-and-drive event can have the highest of highest of highs, and unfortunately the lowest of lows. It all part of the adventure, because adventures can have ups and downs, and sometimes we don’t know what’s around the next corner.
In the case of drag-and-drive, there’s always the dreaded Did Not Finish list, and with three days completed, the list has swelled to 35 competitors either watching from the sidelines, or have packed up and returned back to Darlington Dragway to start their journey home.
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The first, and honestly a surprising DNF to start the week, was Kevin McKenna and his 2014 Ford Mustang.
McKenna is normally a force in the Street Machine Eliminator class, but he guided his Mustang closer to Darlington Dragway, it developed an increasing loud rear end noise. “Think Robert Plant Immigrant song,” he said. “After 6 years and more than 350 runs, fate finally bit the guy who doesn’t own a trailer and boasts about how reliable his street car is.”
The damage report was the whole carrier and gear set was scrap metal, and although McKenna found the parts and a local racer Kenny Mclellan to fix the car, it would be mid-Tuesday before he was able to get back on the road to Indiana.
The next car to be sidelined was Brian Havlik, who wheels a clean ’55 Chevy. Havlik hasn’t had the best of luck in 2023, but he hoped for a change after thrashing to get everything together in time to make the 1,000 mile trip to South Carolina in time for tech day.
Monday gave him one pass before disater struck. “Initially we discovered that a stand bolt had pulled from the cylinder head, and a valve stuck in a rocker arm of the same cylinder,” said Havlik.
After tearing it apart, they discovered the pin for the roller tip rocker worked its way out of the rocker arm, causing a chain reaction of destruction. “The sad part is everything was finally right in the engine,” said Havlik. “It felt real good right up until it didn't.”
After switching gears from participant to promoter, Matthew Frost was one to watch early on at Hot Rod Drag Week. The man behind Rocky Mountain Race Week brought his 1967 Nova known as the ‘Hulk’ to play in Ultimate Iron, and laid down a 7.03 at 203 mph to be in contention for the class.
But on the second pass, the F3-140 ProCharger came apart in a firey blast. The motor appeared to be okay, so Frost rolled from Darlington Dragway to Rockingham, installed a borrowed F3X-140 blower (the bigger frame blower required some chassis work to fit it in place), and welded up a split charge pipe to get on track for day two.
An initial run of 8.07 at just 123 mph on day two led Frost to look at this, and he decided it was hurt enough to not continue. “After having time to process all that was going on and (co-pilot) Brent Coddington looking at the data, the transmission or converter has issues,” said Frost. “I appreciate all who helped us this week to keep going; thank you. Time to regroup and try again in the future.”
Phil Gulledge brought a new entry a lot of people were keeping eyes on. Of course, it’s hard to miss an 8.71 supercharger atop a 388 cubic inch powerplant, plus the Lenco transmission all wrapped up in a clean 1994 Chevrolet S-10.
But it only took one pass before Gulledge was done for the week. “Unfortunately we seem to have burnt a piston or a valve,” he said. Gulledge plans to tear the engine down tonight to find the culprit, but is keeping a positive outlook.
“That’s the risk bringing something completely untuned and untested,” he said. “There’s no new dents in the oil pan, and it seems to have 7 cylinders that like to run, so it could definitely be worse.” Gulledge hopes to get everything fixed in time to get on a dyno, and test before a possible appearance at Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive in 2024.
Making a lot of noise at Drag Week was Jerry and Matt Sweet, who infused their ‘disco’ 1976 Chevy Nova with a large 800 cubic inch engine since their last drag-and-drive. The 1200-plus naturally-aspirated horsepower laid down the law right away, as the Sweets opened with a 7.91 at Darlington Dragway on day one, then improving with a 7.84 on day two at Rockingham to lead the Naturally-Aspirated Pro Street class.
But as the tale has been told dozens of times, the driver can be the hardest part of a drag-and-drive, and for the Sweets, a bad transmission allowed the transmission to get too warm, and after staging for a 20-second pass, they pulled out of competition soon after.
A longtime runner and multi-time class champion, Glenn Hunter brought his classic ’56 Chevy to play in the Pro Street this week. The twin-turbo big block was making the power to be in the mid to low 7-second range as before, but traction troubles limited him to a 9.09 at 121 mph on day one.
Unfortunately, the first day’s drive took Hunter’s week from bad to worse, as the timing belt broke about 40 miles into his drive to Rockingham Dragway, causing an impromptu meeting of the pistons and valves, and sidelining Hunter’s chances for a fourth Hot Rod Drag Week title.
One of the competitors waving the flag for imports at Drag Week was Scott Glassbrook. Wheeling a 1991 Eagle Talon, Glassbrook completed Drag Week last year with an 8.79 average, earning the fourth spot in the Modified Power-Adder class.
This year, the 4G63 engine made enough beans to run a 9.17 at 142 mph on day one, which had him fifth in the Modified Power-Adder class. But before he was able to get on the road to Rockingham, he had some issues to attend to. “In Darlington we had electrical issues,” said Glassbrook. “But we worked through them in the pits, and made the drive.”
His reward? A destroyed rear end on the starting line at Rockingham on day two, cutting his week short.
Robert Lowe’s unique 1939 Ford truck normally makes the rounds in the small tire no prep world, but he decided to try his hand at drag-and-drive for the second time.
Competing in the Unlimited class and completing day one with a coasting 13.99 pass, Lowe hit trouble on the drive when an axle bearing failed. “A couple hours later and a very nice guy at the fire station who took us to a remote farm barn with a press,” said Lowe. “We are back on the road.”
But after the fix was done, Lowe rethought his position, and decided to play it safe. “I didn’t want to chance being out in the middle of nowhere, possibly multiple times, trying to replace more bearings.”
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine.
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