In the drag and drive world, the only easy day was yesterday, and Day Two was pretty brutal. About 35 cars didn’t make it to Day Three at US 131 Motorsports Park, and the standings in every class were impacted. The halfway point of Drag Week is critical, the cream rises to the top and dig deep to finish the event strong.
Mother Nature has been known to throw a wrench into an event's start time. The action at US 131 was delayed due to heavy fog that blanketed the track. When the fog lifted, the US 131 team had the surface on kill and racers were able to lay down some stout times.
The battle to win the Unlimited Iron class has turned into a battle to win the overall quickest title at Drag Week 2024. Ned Dunphy's Viper fell victim to catastrophic engine failure on the way to US 131. That means whoever wins the Unlimited Iron class will by default, be the quickest car at Drag Week. The top three in Unlimited Iron currently are Bryant Goldstone, Alex Taylor, and Steven Spiess. Taylor was the only one of the three to leave US 131 with a solid performance with a booming 6.83 run.
It was a tough day at the office for Bryant Goldstone on Day Three of Drag Week. Goldstone's Javelin had been leaking water from an unknown location and started to have performance issues on Day Two at Indy. Well, during each of Goldstone's passes on Day Three the Javelin's big-block Chevy was struggling and spewing lots of black smoke. After sone diagnosis, Goldstone discovered a cracked cylinder head that was leaking water and causing performance issues. So, Goldstone ripped the engine out of the Javelin so he could swap heads before he continued. It will be interesting to see if he makes it to Milan Dragway for Day Four.
Drag Week brings out such a cool variety of vehicles. Of course you'll have the standard muscle cars making the trip, but you never know what else will be lurking in the pits. It just goes to show that anything can be a drag and drive car if you're brave enough.
Are gas-burning hot rods just too boring for you? Well, Drag Week has you covered with a Chevette that's powered by a Mercedes-Benz diesel engine. There's also a nasty Cummins-powered Dodge truck participating in Drag Week that caught our attention. At first glance, Jeff Watt’s 2008 Chrysler 300c looks like your average daily driver. Well, under the hood Watt has added a single turbocharger to the party and dialed up some serious horsepower for his Gen III HEMI. This 300c has laid down a string of 10.90 passes this week and made it look easy.
There's a good amount of strategy that goes into how you approach and win a class at Drag Week. Jim Trettel and his LS-powered 1967 Pontiac Firebird were locked in a tight battle with Rick Trunkett for the Super Street Big Block Power Adder class title. After Trunkett's engine expired on the drive to US 131, Trettel had a clear path for victory laid out, so he just has survive the week. While that seems easy, Trettel has to actually tone his Firebird down to make that happen, even though he wants to really push the car.
