Photos: Hot Rod

For the past six years, Hot Rod magazine has run Drag Week, an event where racers vie for the title of “Fastest Street Car in America.” Competitors are required to race at different race tracks and the one with the fastest ET wins their class.

If you’ve never been to one of these events, you could easily conjure up visions of the transporters, toy haulers and toterhomes rolling up en masse and filling the track’s parking areas. Well, there’s one little rule on the Hot Rod web site that makes sure this isn’t the case. That rule says: No support vehicles.

Nothing. Not even a pit bike. You run what you brung and whatever you need for the week had better fit in your racer. Each day, you’ll be packing up and heading to another track, so your street car has to be genuine. Tags, insurance and street legal all the way are defining requirements.

An old hand in the competition, Larry Larson, has taken home the top title in Unlimited Class for the past couple of years. His 1965 Chevy II sports a twin-turbo GM big block, estimated to be putting out north of 2300 flywheel hp. That has been good enough for consistent 7-second runs in the past, but Larry had his eyes on a higher goal for this year’s event: a 6-second pass.

Running in September in the northeast was a good start for everyone, as the days are still pleasant but often feel the effects of the approaching fall season. The first day of competition, held at National Trail Raceway in Ohio, saw Larson post a best result of 7.122 @ 189.39 mph. When everyone was done, they packed up their gear and made the 200-mile trip to Indianapolis, where the following day’s trials would be held at O’Reilly Raceway Park.

Larson improved to a 7.015 @ 205.51 at O’Reilly, then drove almost 250 miles to Milan, MI. There, he continued to lead the field with a 7.1581 @ 204.590 result. A five hour trip put the group at Pittsburgh Raceway Park, in New Alexandria, PA for the following day. It seemed as though Larson’s goal of a 6-second pass was going to be elusive, as he ripped off another alpha-male result of 7.1016 @ 195.942 mph.

That night, they would make the 190-mile trip back to National Trail Raceway for the finals. As racing ran into the evening, temperatures began to drop and the cars were hooking righteously. It was just the advantage Larson was looking for. He had already dominated the Unlimited class, so his battle was just with the timing system. When the lights went on at the big end, it was a done deal for Larson. His first 6-second run was in the books, officially recorded as 6.9560 @ 209.1000.

Now, that’s a street car. With an average ET of 7.0725-seconds on four different tracks, driving almost a thousand miles during the week, the little Chevy II bested all comers and then drove home again, successfully defending its title as the Fastest Street Car in America.