The “Finish the Week” Approach – How Two Competitors Never Quit in Their Attempt to Finish Sick Summer
There’s almost always a feel-good story, a thrash story that comes out right, and how someone manages to beat the odds and complete a drag-and-drive event.
Leading up to Sick Summer Presented by TBM Brakes, the main thrash stories we talked about were EJ Naegeli and Aydan Bailey, and their attempts to get a pair of 1957 Chevrolet wagons to Sick Summer.
There were a couple competitors that would face tall tasks while on Sick Summer; moments where you ask if you want to spend the money and time, sacrifice the sleep and sanity, to continue on and complete the week.
At Sick Summer, those two competitors were Bill Schwarz and CJ Durbin.
Sick The Mag keeps its web articles ad-free thanks to merch sales and magazine subscriptions. Thank you to all of you who wear our stuff and read our books!
Bill Schwarz got his ‘69 Chevelle through tech inspection on Sunday, the day before the event officially started, and then proceeded to make a test pass.
“The car spun at the hit, I pedaled it, then it shook the tires,” Bill said. “I got back to the pits and the belly pan had oil in it. Oil flung about the front of the motor. I fired it up to see what's leaking, and the harmonic balancer was wobbling some. Oil was coming from the front crank seal.”
The solution was to pull out the existing 427 cubic inch LS engine, and replace it with a 5.3-liter version, not a common occurrence on a drag-and-drive event.
The engine swap was completed in time to make it to the staging lanes on Monday afternoon, make a 10.42 at 134 mph pass, and stay in competition.
By day three at Great Lakes Dragaway, Bill was determined to get more performance out of the replacement engine.
“Wednesday morning started normally getting the car ready for a pass,” said Bill. “I was working on the computer, trying to get the turbos to spool harder and make more power off the starting line.”
The tune up worked to get the Chevelle its best pass of the week at 9.81, but at just 117 mph, it pointed to possible problems.
“The car was making a good rip for about 800 feet when the motor sounded bad,” said Bill. “Then I saw flames, then it was quiet. My immediate thought was ‘well, that's not optimal’. I knew the cylinder head was going to be all torched.”
A parts call to the tower by Justin Schwarz for a replacement cylinder head was answered, and the mission was on to replace the wounded cylinder head. “We kept plugging away, and were on the road at 6:19 pm,” said Bill.
A couple of 10-second pass on day four and five meant a completed week for Bill and Justin Schwarz!
CJ Durbin was the second Sick Summer competitor to face engine woes.
He started the week with a 5.47 at 127 mph lap on Monday at Cordova Dragway, good enough for second in the Rowdy Radial class. CJ made it to Byron Dragway for day two, and after the rain out, got on the road to Great Lakes Dragaway and day three.
During the drive, CJ noticed his oil pressure was a little low, and decided to pull over into a lot, pull the filter and see how the oil looked. The result was a lot of glitter, and now CJ was faced with same issue Bill was: find a replacement engine and carry on, or throw in the towel and head for home.
CJ found a 4.8-liter LS with 240,000 miles, and decided to swap out his existing 408 cubic inch bullet for the replacement. “It was fun having all of my buddies wrenching on the truck and working together to knock it out,” CJ said of the rain-soaked swap.
They got it done, back on the road, and nailed back-to-back 6.7-second passes at Great Lakes Dragaway and Tri-State Raceway. “Each day with the little peanut motor we were chipping away at and almost getting it into the 5s,” said CJ.
The final day got the twin-turbocharged S10 its best pass with the replacement engine, a 6.14 at 113 mph, enough to secure a second-place finish for CJ.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, CJ Durbin and Bill Schwarz.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com