HOT ROD Drag Week 2021

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JRS

JRS

JRS

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HOT ROD Drag Week is the competition where street-legal drag-race cars run quarter-mile time trials every day for five days, driving on public roads between four different drag strips for a road trip of 1,000-plus miles unassisted by support vehicles. It's the ultimate test of a street/strip car, with trophies awarded in multiple classes for vehicles with various levels of modifications. The one car with the lowest average elapsed time over the week of racing is named HOT ROD's Fastest Street Car in America.
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It's baaaaaaaaaack :D:D:D

The schedule:

Sept 12th, 2021: U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, Martin MI (Tech and Registration day)
Sept 13th, 2021: U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, Martin MI (Race Day 1)
Sept 14th, 2021: Summit Motorsports Park Norwalk, OH (Race Day 2)
Sept 15th, 2021: Lucas Oil Raceway, Indianapolis, IN (Race Day 3)
Sept 16th, 2021: Byron Dragway, Byron, IL (Race Day 4)
Sept 17th, 2021: U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, Martin MI (Race Day 5, Finals Day)

2019 full results.

It's become a thing for me every year (leaving aside the Covid-enforced gap) where I look at the previous year results and marvel at just how many street driveable cars are averaging insane ETs. Take Street Race Small Block PA - the top six cars all averaged 8s. Doc McEntire's Pro Street NA car almost averaging 7s. And that 6.299 average ET from Tom Bailey with his 5.998 @ 250.46 on Day 5.

Speaking of Tom...the car ended up suffering a bit of an incident a while back. He's rebuilding and hoping to make the show - a little over a month ago he got the engine back (all ~4000hp worth) from a rework and stated an intention to run fives every day :cool: He's also working on something new for the future...

Going to be interesting to see who's made it on Sunday. As of three weeks ago Mike Finnegan's Blasphemi ('55 Chevy gasser with a supercharged Chrysler Gen II Hemi) was still waiting for parts that had been on back order for months and he's hardly alone in that regard. Still, he could always bring this ;)

I'll keep the thread updated with links to the livestreams each day along with start times, daily results, etc. as soon as they're up.
 
Sick Seconds 2.0 will not make it this year. Everyone - almost literally everyone involved in that program! - had Covid which delayed things to a huge extent and there's just too much left to do :( 4 minutes into the vid for where the update on the car starts.


Dave Schroeder (Canadian owner-driver of that gorgeous blue nitrous-huffing Corvette and all-around bloody decent chap) has a new car - a Pro Mod C7 'vette I believe - that should make it to the show, we'll have to see how fast the new ride is. And then as Tom says in the above video, hopefully next year see a competition potentially between two 5sec-capable cars, maybe even a third if Jeff Lutz can find time in his schedule to come play again.

***edit***

Finnegan and Blasphemi have got to be a doubt as well. He's currently getting Rubber Duck (the yellow Pontiac Firebird) ready for Rocky Mountain Race Week 2.0, I suspect because that's mainly a wiring deal at this point whereas Blasphemi needs actual Hemi engine parts to run.
 
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Getting this up in case I get blasted on Sunday and forget :o:cool:

Day 1 - US 131 Motorsports Park, Martin MI


***edit***

Some seriously impressive metal has made it to the show. All the standby entries are in, so a lot haven't made it (not unusual, even pre-covid).

8:30am ET, so 13:30 UK for the start of the stream tomorrow I believe. I'll check that once I'm sober.
 
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While we wait for today to get going - Tom Bailey is at Drag Week to support the event even though he's not running, he shot some footage of Test n' Tune Day yesterday:


Dave Schroeder's new car makes an appearance around the 2:30 mark. Alex Taylor's new ride at 23:35.
 
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Day 1 stream is live, just a shot of folks in the stands right now. Commentary box isn't live yet.

Drivers Meeting should be first up for the day.

***edit***

*excitement intensifies*

Looks like Freiburger's on his lonesome for this year rather than co-commentating with Brian Lohnes - Brian needs to be COVID-free for his Fox Sports NHRA job and Drag Week was a risk that he and his employers didn't want.

***Edit 2: The Wrath of Roller Lifters***

And we're off!

***Edit 3: The Search for Alternator Belts***

Lots of 7s and 8s so far.

***Edit 4: The Voyage to the Fuel Station***

Schroeder's up for a first competition hit in the new C7. And he's waaaaaaaaay out of the groove! Just kept it off the wall, that was a bit scary :eek: He'll be back for another attempt later I would think.

Alex Taylor up next in her new '55 Chevy, just got to do a bit of track cleanup at the start line first. And it's not a clean run either, she'll have to come back for another go as well.
 
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Alibaba99 said:
How does this Drag Week compare with the many others that run through out the year. Is it just more professional with commentary and the like?
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I don't know about "more professional". But it gets more coverage because they put the full livestreams on. Plus Freiburger, Keith & Tonya Turk et al. have ironed out a lot of the kinks in it.
 
Not a bad day of competition at all. Dave Schroeder's Pro Mod C7 'vette got FTD with a 6.52 @ 202, and there's certainly more there.

Weirdest car so far? That Beetle body on a Gasser chassis has to rank up there. So does the milk truck that picked up its front wheels and went.

***edit***

It's about a 246 mile drive to the next track on the route set out. Fingers crossed for as little mechanical carnage as possible. I'll link the day 1 results as soon as they're up.
 
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Catching up the last bit of the stream that I missed earlier, watching that chap's General Lee run a comfortable low 13sec pass after spending some time yesterday running on not quite 8 cylinders.

Now watching Bryant Goldstone try to send the AMX...and not really go anywhere. Hmm.

***edit***

The General is back for another go. Decent enough launch and another low 13.
 
Day 3 - Lucas Oil Raceway, Indianapolis, IN


Dave Armentrout's '67 Nova had issues yesterday. And by issues I mean a turbo basically exploded. Hopefully they can get the thing sorted. Also hopefully the 289.2 mile drive to LOR didn't kill too many other cars!

***edit***

Day 2 results. Schroeder is Mr Consistency. So is Armentrout, at least before the drama, turning in the exact same ET for both days! Joe Barry had a lousy second day by his standards, running 7 flat on day 1 and then a high 8 yesterday.

28 cars confirmed out at the minute.

***edit 2***

Should be live shortly.
 
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Day 4 - Byron Dragway, Byron IL


Another big drive last night (298.2 miles).

***edit***

Dave Schroeder continued his consistent mid-6s yesterday (*edit* actually a 6.7, thought he was slightly quicker than that) and leads Unlimited and overall. Bryant Goldstone's AMX struggled for traction on the first hit but he ended up sending a 6.78 pass to stay second.

Joe Barry minced the centre section of the 9" diff under his Ultimate Iron Chevy - luckily someone was carrying a spare that matched the spec and he remains in competition AFAIK. Mikael Borggren's ovloV continues to rip. So does the Milk Truck. Alex Taylor had a disappointing Day 3, finally getting back to the 7s towards the very end, but she's building for the future with that car (and also doesn't want to kill it before RMRW2.0).

***edit 2***

We're live...ish. Lots of buffering right now. Hopefully it's sortable and not just the track having bloody awful internet access.

***edit 3***

Bit better now. And Hot Rod have fixed the link to the current results. 41 cars now confirmed out.
 
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Day 5 - US 131 Motorsports Park, Martin MI


291.7 miles back to US 131 and another pass. That's 'all' these guys need to finish Drag Week 2021. I make the drive between tracks 1125 miles and change...and these cars are running 8s, 7s, even 6s. Crazy.

And the thing is, there's some quick cars not even at the event this year with all the disruption to schedules from Covid. Bodes well for the future :)
 
Going live. With Schroeder making a slow (if you can call any kind of 7sec pass slow!) run yesterday the overall win is still genuinely up for grabs.
 
Weird old fifth day. Cars in the wall far too often for my tastes, including Bryant Goldstone putting the Unlimited AMX on its lid :(
 
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