Hot Rod Magazine’s highly-anticipated Drag Week officially kicked off this morning at the Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park in Oklahoma with an all-time record turnout of some 300 entrants in everything from six-second Unlimited class machines to the daily-est of daily drivers. And while there’s plenty of interest in every category that Drag Week boasts, all eyes usually are — and certainly will be this year — on the overall-winning challengers in Unlimited, where perhaps the most intense battle in the now 10-year history of Drag week is expected to go down.

Last year, five-time winner Larry Larson, by far the most dominant racer to ever hop in a Drag Week convoy, opted to sit out, leaving the door open for a new champion of the headline category. The team of Tom Bailey and Steve Morris rose to the occasion, not only winning, but making the quickest pass in Drag Week history at 6.70-seconds, and parlayed that, along with a number of other sub-seven scone runs, into a record-setting average elapsed time for the week of 6.83.

This year, Larry Larson has returned to reclaim his title with a stunning new Chevrolet S-10 pickup packing a twin-turbocharged big block from Proline Racing Engines that he plans to put into the low six-second zone. Bailey and his “Sick Seconds” Camaro are back (and already clicked off a record pass of 6.54 this morning), while many-time runner-up Jeff Lutz has gone all-in with a new, lightweight twin to his familiar 1957 Chevy.

If these racers an all keep their race cars healthy after the hits on the track and the hundreds of miles of highway driving that follows, the average elapsed time record is sure to take a beating.

So what do you think will win Drag Week this year, and what will their average winning elapsed time will be? Will we see anyone in the 6.30’s or 40’s, in your opinion?