The most prestigious drag-and-drive event on the planet, Drag Week, headed to Carolina Dragway for day number four of the grueling yet rewarding race. Located in Aiken, South Carolina, “The House of Hook” offered up its famed racing surface and hosted a plethora of certified street-legal performance vehicles ranging from full tube chassis monsters to tame grocery-getters.

With favorable conditions including plenty of cloud cover and moderate temperatures in the high 70s, the stands were packed full of dedicated fans who did what they had to do to attend the Thursday morning spectacle and see some seriously quick cars while the track staff and officials all did their part in keeping the show running smoothly.

Unsurprisingly for cars pushing several thousand horsepower to the limit, there was a bit of drama and disaster for some of the frontrunners and favorites to win, while other competitors lucked out with stress-free blasts down the drag strip.

Five-time event winner and legendary drag-and-drive hero, Tom Bailey, had been busy exorcising demons from his 6.5-second capable and copper-colored 1969 Camaro SS before the event even began. Prior to getting rolling, he had both the crankshaft out of the engine and a cylinder head removed but was able to get everything buttoned up in time to make the start of the main event.

After leaving the final checkpoint on Day 3 of the drive, though, Bailey was dismayed to hear some scary sounds stemming from the engine bay of his Unlimited Class-leading entry. “We had some stuck exhaust valves,” noted Bailey. “They’ve been tight, so when the car cooled down last night, it knocked them off the push rods and we ended up driving it 40 miles with no valvetrain on the driver’s side – but it kept oil pressure and we got to the hotel [in Augusta, Georgia] and pulled it apart.”

Together with his engine builder and co-pilot, Steve Morris of Steve Morris Engines, and thanks to an emergency tool delivery from locally-based two-time NHRA Pro Modified champion Stevie “Fast” Jackson, Bailey and Morris were able to pull the head and get the engine fixed up in time to be in bed by 3:00 a.m.

Bailey certainly can’t let his guard down, though, as Bryant Goldstone in Ultimate Iron is mere fractions of a second off Bailey’s pace (6.786 to Bailey 6.717-second average) and has the potential to spear the overall win with his menacing black and red 1973 AMC Javelin.

Veteran racer Ned Dunphy had a little hiccup with 2013 Dodge Viper in the Unlimited class but Morris was also able to provide an assist in taking care of the billet twin turbo engine. Dunphy’s fith generation Viper, which features an RK Racecraft-built tube chassis beneath a blue and black stock-appearing exterior, has been petulant over the past few days but it was no match for the Vengeance Racing-backed team’s impressive hustle.

“We had the engine built three years ago and it sat for a while, so the valve springs sat un-used and un-heat cycled,” explained Dunphy, who unfortunately isn’t in contention for a podium or even a prize as he’s still working his way towards completing his competition license while running this year’s Drag Week. “We had a fresh box of intake valves FedEx’ed in this morning, replaced five, and had everything lashed and ready to go.”

Unfortunately, Dunphy’s woes continued when the engine’s intake manifold burst while on his pass at Carolina Dragway and tossed the Viper’s hood sky high in protest of the extreme pressures witnessed during the mid-6-second quarter-mile pass.

Back in the official Impound Yard – an honor, actually, as only the quickest and fastest are penned in for closer scrutiny – Dunphy and his co-driver got to work making the necessary repairs. Although the day’s racing wrapped up at 2:00 p.m. and Dunphy was still on the property at 4:30 p.m., he’s close to hitting the road and will be able attend the fifth and final day as planned.

“We won’t be able to make a full pass at Darlington, but we will break the beams to make it official that we were at the fifth location and completed the week,” added Dunphy. “We’ll be dead last in the class because of the licensing, but totally okay with that – we had a blast and we’ll be back at Drag Week next year for sure.”

Meanwhile, in the Modified – Power Adder category, hotshot Devin Vanderhoof and his 1993 Ford Mustang held the lead both in to and out of Carolina Dragway. Early on Thursday and with turbocharged PAR Racing Engines-built big-block Chevy power under his hood, Vanderhoof clicked off an incredibly impressive 6.87-second blast at nearly 200 mph on small radial tires; he’s holding a commanding lead and will undoubtedly take the win for his group as long as there are no major issues or upsets on Friday.

Similarly, Ryan Hargett and his 2011 Ford Mustang are still going strong in Super Street Small Block – Power Adder with a strong advantage over the rest of the field.

Leading the way in All Motor Small Block and doing whatever it takes to continue the drag-and-drive journey with as little devastation as possible, previous winner Jason Tabscott had to MacGuyver a last-minute solution to an unexpected issue in his 1970 Chevrolet Camaro’s engine.

“We switched camshafts this year to get more aggressive and now we’re breaking valve springs about every 60 miles,” lamented the man who is averaging 8.7-second passes at the moment. While stuck in construction traffic on the way to Carolina Dragway, the Camaro dropped a valve and hurt the passenger side valvetrain. A roadside repair utilizing a piece of wire and a bunch of zip ties helped to hold the lifters up so Tabscott could limp his Chevy the rest of the way on only seven of its eight cylinders. “We put the rocker arms back on so it would run, made one pass [today] and now they’re back off and we’re trying to make a better version of the holder.”

With less than 200 miles (and less than 24 hours) left to go in the famed automotive battle of attrition before things wrap up on Friday, September 22 for Day 5 of Drag Week at Darlington Dragway in South Carolina, there’s still plenty of time for the standings to shift before the winners are crowned and history is made.