The People’s Champion of Sick Summer – Completing the Week in an Ford F350 Pick-Up
It was the movie Dead Poets Society that gave us the quote “Carpe diem. Seize the day boys. Make your lives extraordinary.”
For some, seizing the day has come in the form of participation in a drag-and-drive event, and it’s not just the quickest rides that gets all the attention.
For Sick Week and Sick Summer, it’s not all single-digit cars and trucks participating in the week-long test of man/woman and machine.
Robert Hill was one of many that brought out more of a daily driver vehicle, and the 2021 F350 Dually Pick-Up wasn’t a back-up plan.
“It gets me to work, pulls the camper, works as a bracket car,” said Robert of the 100-percent stock diesel truck. “It makes for fun date nights (4wd 2nd gear launches at 21 psi of boost pisses off Mustang and Corvette guys and puts a smile on my lady’s face). It just does everything.”
After getting into bracket racing when he was younger in California (and picking up a pair of track championships), Robert moved on to a different life when he relocated to the Midwest, and racing wasn’t part of the plan.
But after several years, he found he way back to racing just a few years ago. “Got back into drag racing in October of 2021 by entering a diesel race at Byron Dragway, and won the gamblers bracket,” said Robert. “The bug bit me again and I don’t ever see myself leaving the sport.”
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Granted it might not be the way some would participate on a drag-and-drive, but Robert enjoyed his first event at Sick Summer Presented by TBM Brakes.
“There is a lot of camaraderie in the sport, more so than in other forms of drag racing,” he said. “I grew up racing at a small track where if you broke others rushed to give you a hand. It’s still alive in drag-and-drive, and on a big scale.”
After collecting several 15-second time slips at the first three stops, Robert would become a regular fixture on the live stream on day four at Tri-State Raceway.
After a 15.05, 15.02 and 15.00, the live chat turned to encouragement on seeing Robert snag a 14-second pass from the big pick-up. It happened on run fourteen, as if by coincidence, as Robert clicked off a 14.98, and the internet erupted.
Day five found the dually back in the lanes at Cordova Dragway, and the internet lit up once again.
The first pass netted a 15.59 at 90 mph, so the ‘round-robin’ play was dialed up once again, and the pick-up returned to the lanes a few more times.
With fifteen minutes remaining before the day’s racing was concluded, Robert ended his week on a high note, wheeling the pick-up across the finish line at 14.89 seconds at 91.59 mph.
As cool as his first drag-and-drive was, Robert admits there was one thing that could’ve made it better. “My nephew was supposed to go but had to back out due to school,” Robert said.
“He's a good kid; 16 years old and goes with me to the local races and helps out a lot. Neither one of us can wait for him to get his own car so I can teach him how to race.”
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Robert Hill.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com