Unpacking Day One of Death Week – Hot Times and Some Epic Scenery Highlight Our Opening Day of On-Track Action and the Drive to California

After a day of tech and testing at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, the time to put cars in the lanes and the timeslips start to count had arrived. Day one of the epic trip known as Death Week was upon us, and the lanes were packed and ready to go by 9:30 a.m.

Jeffrey Moll was one of the first cars to hit the track, and the ProCharger-fed 4-door Nova clicked off a 6.09 at 114 miles per hour for a ‘one-and-done’ and the early lead.

Just a couple pairs later, the ’33 Factory Five coupe of Chris Hein rolled to the line. The Canadian has been racked up wins this year north of the border with his twin-turbocharged ride, and at Wild Horse Pass, Hein banged the gears to a 5.60 at 127 mph to take over the top spot, and hit the road early.

Dustyn Caudle rolled his ’78 Isuzu pick-up to a 5.91 at 120 mph to join the 5-second club and land a top five spot just one pair later.

Richard Guido clocked a 6.46 at 117 mph on his initial lap, but the turbocharged Pontiac owner wasn’t satisfied with that run, and worked his way down to a 6.28 at 125 mph before packing up to head to California.

Rajveer Ahuja always makes several runs on a drag-and-drive with his Yukon-based Oldsmobile Cutlass, and the well-traveled muscle car produced an opening lap of 6.37. Because of safety requirements, Ahuja couldn’t hand in that ticket. So, he made five more runs just for good measure, and pulled a 6.41 at 109 mph from the stack before hitting the road.

Carl Bright’s ’72 Chevy El Camino lit the scoreboards with a 6.36 at 114 mph, and that would secure a top ten spot. Just a couple of pairs later, the wicked blow-through turbocharged Dodge Dart of Ken Riddle ripped the track for a 5.83 at 117 mph and a top five spot.

Just a few ticks of the clock later, all eyes turned to Tom Bailey and the 2021 Dodge Durango. How would the new build do on his first lap? The answer came 5.45 seconds at 131 mph after the Whipple-supercharged Gen 3 AJ Berge-powered bullet left the line, giving Tom the top spot.

But Tom didn’t get to enjoy the view for long, as the LS-turbocharged Malibu of Jason Rousseau would steal the number one slot by three hundredths of-a-second, posting a ‘one-and-done’ 5.42 at 131 mph, and that would be the quickest lap of the day.

Don McKinley’s ’67 Camaro struggled with nitrous and rpm limiter issues, but untimely posted a 6.34 at 104 mph for a top ten spot. We wonder if his friends made him ride in the coffin for the trip to California as punishment for not producing a better time slip?

Joey Marshall anchored the top ten roster with his Grabber Blue 2011 Mustang thanks to a 6.37 at 111 mph.

In the ‘interesting runs’ category, Joe Barry made a few laps in a Dodge SRT Durango, and in an effort to get a good elapsed time, he employed a unique ‘weight savings’ strategy:

 

An epic road trip followed, including a visit to the border!! We’re still waiting on confirmation if any racing activities happened in ‘Mexico’ though…..

Day two takes us to Barona Drag Strip, but we’ll make a stop to visit our friends at Gear Vendors Overdrive first. What will happen on the second day of Death Week? Check back here for more coverage from Sick the Magazine!

Written by Derek Putnam.

If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com