Drag Week officially begins in a couple days and since we’ve got the fever we figured we would share this look back the the humble roots of the event. Oddly Drag Week had a lot to do with BangShift even coming to life. It was some meetings and chance encounters on that trip in 2005 which set the stage for the performances of today and for the fact that Chad and I operate BangShift on a day to day basis. Funny thing though…there’s barely any video from that year!
The world has changed a lot in the 11 times that Drag Week has been contested not the least of which is on the media side. 2005 meant that there was no Facebook, and it wasn’t totally common for people to be running around and filming stuff digitally (with video anyway). I searched YouTube for a while and the best clip I could come up with from 2005 is below. The guys at COMP Cams put it together back then and the footage is grainy and stuff but there’s some neat scenes caught. From Carl Scott’s massive wheelie in Michigan to Steve Atwell’s real Hurst Hemi Dart pulling into the water box, I remember the week like it was yesterday.
Check out the video below and compare it to what you’ll be seeing today. Oh…and the quickest run that week was an 8.38 as laid down by Larry Larson on Friday at Michigan. Carl Scott was the overall champ though, averaging into the 8.50s over the course of the week. That’s a number that some of the small block classes will beat in 2016. Amazing!
PRESS PLAY BELOW FOR A GRAINY AND QUICK LOOK BACK AT DRAG WEEK 2005 FROM COMP CAMS –
IMHO Dragweek has become a benchmark of our sport. Kinda’ (but not yet) like Bonneville.
The ingenuity of guys developing cars is in full view and is pretty darn cool.
mmmm real light weight hemi dart where else could ya see that goin down the road