(Photos by Brad Klaassen) – Few things often live up to the advanced hype before an event but the first day of Hot Rod Drag Week 2014 sure as heck did! Tom Bailey left Tulsa with the lead on day one after punching his Camaro down the quarter mile strip with a time of 6.542/203mph on a run that saw him use the entire left lane and never take his foot off the throttle for an instant. Jeff Lutz drove his “Evil Twin” lightweight 1957 Chevy to the most titanic speed of the day and the second quickest elapsed time going down into the low 6.60s at 225mph! That speed indicated that there’s a bunch more elapsed time in that car assuming he gets his launch handled. Jeff is losing ground on all the guys in the first sixty feet, so if he can fix that the ’57 should pick up some et. Doug Cline, driving the Camaro that Larry Larson built him and the same car that touched the wall at this track in 2012. No such issues for Cline on day one as he shot to a 6.84/211 hit that stands as his best run ever. Currently he is in the number four slot. Cline made the one lap and then drove on down the road. He did not stick around!
Lastly, Larry Larson went 6.99 with the parachutes out and lifting at a spot just after the eighth mile. The S10 truck was going 181mph at half track before he lifted! That 181mph number is indicative of a 240 mph + terminal speed on a full pull run. If the car can go 240mph it will be running very low 6s or potentially. That was Larson’s best run. The other attempts that he made did not results in anything worth reporting on other than bog, spin, choke. It was an amazing day in all the glasses with some real standout performances. On the road? Well, nearly 30 competitors have already fallen by the wayside. That means we are back down into the 200s as far as cars still involved with the race. Dropout whittle down to a trickle by the end of the week.
Brad Klaassen was at the track blasting photos for us at the event so hit the link below to see the diverse, weird, and awesome cars of Drag Week.
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Thanks for finally posting the correct term for a trip down the dragstrip. RUNS never laps.