No-prep racers and fans once again took over Wisconsin’s historic Great Lakes Dragaway September 15th and 16th for the 18th  Chi-Towns King of the Streets event, a.k.a. KOTS, the original no-prep race. The track was scraped, scoreboards were kept dark and heads-up races were run first round straight off the trailer using an autostart, instant green light. Friday night’s schedule was packed with a mix of events: the two KOTS Street Life car classes: Hard Tire and 275 Drag Radial, testing time for cars entered in the main KOTS event the next day, and the monthly Real Street Drags event.

The event saw perfect weather all weekend with sunshine, warm temperatures and no threat of rain in sight.

 KOTS Street Life racers were required to take their tagged and insured cars on a 30-mile cruise to prove street-ability before going down the track. Gates opened on Friday afternoon and a line of racers racers and spectators waiting to get in backed up down the main road quickly grew, with wait time close to an hour for some. The classes on Saturday consisted of three 1/4-mile classes: Junior cars, Banger cars, and Senior Bikes, and five 1/8-mile classes: Gangster, Unlimited, Seniors, Extreme Bikes and Junior Bikes.

On Saturday morning the track crew was out scraping the racing surface to 100-feet past the starting line to remove any residual rubber from racing the night before. The first round drivers meeting got started after high-noon, after the Junior Bike class’ required nine lap cruise up and down the track to prove their street-ability.

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 The KOTS Street Life event held on Friday night had a solid turnout, with 15 entries in the Hard Tire class and 14 entries in 275 Drag Radial. The final round of the 275 class saw Matt Strange in his LSX powered turbo RX-7 take the win over Tom Javan’s dark green ’72 Nova. Strange took home the $1,000 payout and Javan received $600 as the runner up. The Hard Tire class final came down to Jonny Mazur’s black Camaro against Nick Sadlon’s blue fourth-gem Camaro; there, Mazur beat Sadlon to the stripe, winning the $1,000 payout and bragging rights. Sadlon didn’t go home empty-handed either though, as he too received $600 for finishing runner-up.

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 Racers from either Street Life class were then allowed to enter into an Exhibition 275 Drag Radial Class that was added during the main KOTS event on Saturday, with a payout of $500 to the winner. It was a great addition to the show, as it filled in down-time between rounds while cars cooled off and pairings were decided. The final round of the exhibition 275 class on Saturday came down to Andres Rodis versus Matt Strange, with both drivers putting on quite a show as their cars launched into wheelstands coming off the line. Rodins’ Camaro hiked the tires right at the hit, and before his car was back on the ground, Strange’s LSX-powered RX-7 went into a wheelstand as he was passing the tree. Rodis’  Camaro gained ground on Strange’s RX-7 while he was in the air and beat him to the stripe, allowing him to collect the cash and the bragging rights.

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Wheelstands were aplenty in the final round of the Chi-Town's King of the Streets Exhibition 275 Drag Radial class on Saturday. Andres Rodis (left lane) hikes the tires right off the line and Matt Strange (right lane) followed suit as Rodis' car landed back on the ground.

The run order for Saturday included round one of each class: Junior Bike, Senior Bike, Extreme Bike, Banger, Junior Car, Gangster, Unlimited, Senior and Street Life 275 Exhibition group. Junior Bikes had the most entries out of the three bike classes with 20 riders during first round. The field size was unlimited and payout went back four spots. Jim Duck Lauer and Phil Stoll faced off in the final where Laurer snagged the win.

The Senior Bikes class had 10 riders show up to compete; after three rounds, it was Shawn Books and Mike Studebaker in the final round, with Books claiming the win after beating Studebaker to the stripe.

In the 1/8-mile Extreme Bike class, the only rule is no wheelie bar. Eight riders entered for a chance at the crown,  and after three rounds of competition, Frankie Stotz earned the title for the second time this season after beating Craig Hanson in the final.

Back in June at KOTS XVII, the 1/4-mile Banger class was newly introduced for cars with an H-pattern manual transmission on a 26-inch tire. There were nine entries this time, including previous class winner, Sean Williams, along with past KOTS racers Mirjan with his black Boosted Performance Evo 8 and Boostin Performance’s Red Demon, which holds the record for the quickest and fastest 4-cylinder AWD H-pattern manual transmission car. Mirjan and Williams didn’t make it out of first round, but Red Demon was able to move on to the fourth round for the final against Ohio’s Ray Bulach and his blue Camaro, which holds the record as the quickest 6-speed GM car.

The final was a sight to see with fans packed behind the starting line and along the wall, flames popping out of both cars’ front exit exhaust pipes as they staged, waiting for the green light to flash on. Bulach chopped the tree down and the Red Demon was unable to close the gap, allowing Bulach to storm to victory.

 The Junior class brought in 20 racers, including Tim Leach, who had crashed during the final round of the class last June, previous class winner Al Gonzalez, NMCA racer Anthony Manna, and Lukas Weldon of Boosted Solutions, who is usually seen racing in the Seniors class. This time, Weldon brought out his newly-acquired white E-85 4-eyed T-top coupe Mustang. Weldon ended up getting taken out during the first round against Max Pizzi’s black El Camino. Pizzi made it to the third round where he was defeated by Eric Larue, the last person to lock in for the Juniors class. Larue went on to win the class with his Ford-powered, Hatchback Fox-body Mustang after beating Cranky Franky, Tim Leach, and then Peter Riccio in the final.

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The race between Cranky Franky and Eric Larue was a controversial one; as the two cars were starting to stage, a crew member from the pair of cars behind them and a GLD track staff member noticed something leaking from Franky’s Camaro. Caught up in the moment and concerned for the driver’s safety, that crew member went to investigate and walked to the front of the Camaro unfortunately tripping the beam. He then walked to the back of the car, noticed more fluid and shut the car off out of instinct. Larue saw his opponent’s staging lights come on so he continued to stage his car, which activated the tree, and made his pass, seemingly not aware the starter had motioned him to stop.

Event organizer Trent Eckardt was in the tower at the time announcing  and didn’t initially realize it was a fluid leak causing the commotion instead of just someone walking into the beams, so he announced a possible re-run. After further inspection, though, Trent ultimately decided to not re-run the race due to Franky’s car leaking fluid. If it was caught before the beams were tripped he would have been disqualified. Larue was able to keep his win from that round.

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 The Grinch was on the property again this past weekend looking to secure a win in the Gangster class after losing the final round at KOTS back in June. The Grinch got the win first round against Dan Straley’s Duster then received a bye in second round. In the third round, The Grinch snagged the win from Chase Brown’s small-block Ford turbo Fox-body Mustang and moved onto the semi-finals to race Aaron Stapleton’s  ’68 Camaro, a repeat of the Gangster semi-final this past June.

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Both cars left strong but The Grinch was able to put a couple car lengths on Stapleton and reach the finish line first, after the Camaro spun. The Grinch received a spot in the final round for a third time in a row, this time facing off against Billy Adams’ black third Gen Pontiac driven by Randy Truhlar. It was a close race but Trevor Peterson  was able to secure the win for his team. This past July, car owner Nick Chapman had posted the Grinch up for sale but after the cars killer performance this past weekend, he publicly posted that the car was no longer for sale, he was keeping it.

Tim Jakus, a past KOTS Unlimited class runner-up and winner, brought his big tire, red ’69 Chevelle SS out again to compete amongst 13 other racers entered into the class. Jakus went out first round after a close race against Steve Roden of Legend Racing, who was piloting their old shop car, a Pro Mod 1957 Chevy. Roden made it to the third round, where he was paired up with Clinton Kilpatrick’s Mopar. It was another close race but Kilpatrick pulled off the win after Roden lost traction. Kilpatrick made it all the way to the final to race against Brian Mitchell, a.k.a. Tuff Enuff with his blown alcohol ’67 Chevy II Nova. This race turned out to be the closest final round in KOTS history. This was the first time Tuff has entered into one of the KOTS classes and he was able to snag the win over Kilpatrick’s Mopar.

The KOTS Senior class had 24 entries including Boost 12, Phil “CornDog” Smith, The Grinch, Keith Szabo, Turbo GT, Mantia, Ryan Hendrickson of Boosted Solutions, Jake Blain of Blain Brothers Racing, and Section 8.

First round saw Szabo paired up with Ted Perry K.’s third Gen. Camaro. Both cars finished their burnouts and headed up to the line. Ted went in, lit both bulbs and got on the two-step before Szabo even pre-staged. Seeing this, Szabo seemingly took his time staging his car and after at least 10 seconds had passed Szabo rolled forward to light both bulbs. Due to sitting on the transbreak for so long, Ted had engine trouble which caused him to pull over on the side of the track while Szabo continued to the finish line.

Fan favorite Boost 12 went out in the second round against CornDog, after CornDog took a huge swing at the instant green, giving him a gap that Boost 12’s big-block, twin-turbo Mustang couldn’t close. Oddly enough, the same situation happened in the semi-final against Ryan Hendrickson’s SVO Mustang, Foodstamps. CornDog chopped the tree down at just the right time again without turning on the red DQ light, securing enough of a headstart to beat Hendrickson to the stripe.

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The Grinch had been double-entered into the Senior class and made it into second round but lost to Jake Blain’s blue twin- turbo ’02 Mustang. Blain continued on to the semi-final against CornDog and won the race, but the ’02 Mustang’s engine blew a couple of injector O-rings, causing the car to go up in flames just after the 1/4-mile with the chutes out.

Blain ended up bailing out of the car due to unbearable heat and smoke, leaving the Mustang  a runaway. The car hit the right retaining wall, went across the track and come to a stop head on against the left retaining wall. Blain was thankfully unhurt and was seen talking with friends and crew members while his damaged car was loaded onto a tow truck.

The final round showdown came down to The Shoot Out King, Keith Szabo, and CornDog. Smith’s black Camaro lost traction early, causing the car to get out of the groove and allowed Szabo to claim the class win for the second time this season.

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Jake Blain's' 02 Mustang went up in flames after engine troubles at the end of the Senior semi-final against Phil "CornDog" Smith. Blain was unhurt after bailing out of the car before it came to a stop due to unbearable heat from the fire. He was seen talking with friends about the frightening experience.

Chi-Town’s King of the Streets’ 18th event proved to be yet another successful one to add to the no-prep history books. Event dates for the 2018 racing season are yet to be determined still so make sure to follow along on the event’s Facebook page for more info: https://www.facebook.com/chitownKOTS