It’s September boys and girls and that means the baddest street cars on the planet are about to embark on the most bitchin road trip in history; Hot Rod Magazine’s Drag Week, presented by Gear Vendors. And while the rest of the world is glued to their televisions watching 10th Anniversary shows about the fall of the World Trade Center on 9/11, all of us Drag Weekers will be celebrating America’s passion for high octane, high compression, and tire smoke and the freedom to enjoy them. This IS the greatest road trip and racing event of the year, it ISN’T to be taken lightly. This year’s event includes current and past NHRA National Event tracks, including the site of the very first NHRA Nationals, Great Bend Kansas.

With that said, the big boys that come out and get all the spotlight are only a small percentage of the gang that hangs out on Drag Week. Come out in our street car or hot rod and have a great week. BangShift.com and 1320Video will be bringing you all the coverage you can stand from Drag Week 2011, so start looking for updates here at BangShift.com starting Sunday the 11th.

We’re going to address some of the rumors, update you on cars, and give you a bit of info on some of the racetracks we are going to attend this year. We’ll start with rumors and the status of cars since that’s what you are here for.

Larry Larson, the winningest driver in Drag Week history, will be back with his now famous Pink errr Silver Chevy Nova. Larson had some minor engine issues several weeks ago that required sleeving the block and replacing the camshaft in his 565 inch Moran powerplant. Minor changes to the exhaust, injectors, and a general freshening are all the Larson is admitting to, and if Larry’s past is any indication, we believe him.  The engine just went back into the car on Monday, and as of Wednesday evening Larry still needed to add hoses, hook up the trans, driveshaft, exhaust and a few odds and ends before making noise again. He plans to test on Friday, Saturday at the latest. Rest assured he’ll be playing his normal conservative game, as he knows that living all week is the key to winning.

Todd Maschmeier, owner of the 2010 Modified Class winning ’68 Camaro is also coming back for more in 2011. After listening to Freiburger whine about the questionable Modified Class fit, he and Larry Larson decided to take all the contraversy out of the picture. Apparently the questioning was about it’s floor and cage structure, so now the car has stock floors, rear framerails, and more. With a killer torque arm suspension and drag radials this thing should fly. The fact that the car still has a laundry list of items to be finished before testing on Saturday at KCIR is beside the point. Larson and Todd laughed when we talked to them and said, yeah it’s a bunch of work, but we’ll get it done. First drive and testing is schedule for Saturday. We’ll let you know how it works out. 

Denny Terzich, owner of the Sick Second 1969 Camaro has had a turbulent year with the car after breaking just days before Drag Week 2010. We spoke to Denny in Columbus a couple months ago when Jeff Lutz was getting ready to do some testing behind the wheel, and he was telling us that a Pro Mod driver was on the schedule to drive the car during Drag Week 2011. We have heard multiple reports on the car’s performance, and know that after each round of testing it was back with Kurt Ukasik and the gang from RPM for tweaks and adjustments. As of a week ago the car was in the RPM shop getting some minor tweaks done in preparation for the trip. East coasters have never been afraid to talk smack, and rumors have been flying for weeks about mid 6 second laps in Terzich’s Camaro. We’re not buying it at this point, but would love to be proven wrong. The ProCharged Big Block under the hood makes big power, so we’ll see what happens next week. 

The Kurt Urban Nova, as it will always be known, was sold to the new owner earlier this year and lives in the upper midwest. After a new chassis cert, some road time, and a quick cleanup, that bad boy is coming back to Drag Week. As a Drag Week winner, in Small Block Power Adder, the car has great heritage and was also a player at Hot Rod Magazine’s Pump Gas Drags. We’ve had the pleasure of beating on this thing in Vegas several years ago and can tell you it is a riot. And fabricated to the Nth degree. We dig it, and love that it is coming back to Drag Week in 2011.

Joe Barry, a newcomer to Drag Week, has had one hot summer with his beautiful ’56 Chevy. Running twin 91mm turbos into a 598inch Dart big block, Barry has the power to play. With hundreds, if not thousands, of street miles on the thing this year, Barry is looking forward to the road trip. Unfortunately for Barry, a recent test session revealed some electrical gremlins that kept the car from making big boost. Unfortunately for Barry, while chasing big numbers, the car caught fire and burned the carbon floors out of it in grand fashion. Not one to give up, Joe and the crew have been thrashing to make the car right for Drag Week and hope to be out testing this weekend as well prior to showing up in Topeka on Sunday.

Dave Ahokas has long been known for his big inch Pro Mod style Willys on Drag Week. This year Dave decided to go with turbo power rather than his normal naturally aspirated big inch power plant and this year his 414 inch twin turbo Duttweiler motor promises to have enough power to bring it on. The little motor is installed in Dave’s new ’68 Camaro which also has the Pro Mod look. With a ride height of 4 inches, Freiburger and Kinnan thought it wouldn’t make it out the first driveway. If they had every owned an actual low car, they would know that while interesting, 4 inches ain’t low. Luckily Finnegan is there at Hot Rod now so he can educate them. 

Other notables include Doug Cline who won’t be making drag week this year thanks to Larry Larson. Doug says that Larry did such a great job on the chassis, it forced him to do the rest of the car nicer than originally planned so it is costing him more time and money. Damn Larson. Jeff Lutz Sr. and Jr. are both rumored to be coming on Drag Week but we are not sure whether they will be in the familiar ’57 or the newly built Civic or both. We’ll see on Sunday. Darryl Johnson is expected to show up in his twin Pro Charged ’71 Duster, and recent reports show it has lost it’s multi-color paint job and now is all evil flat black. We dig it. Ev Bernardo is also coming back in his Camaro, with a little more power and a little more cubes, and we hope he’ll have a passenger with him this year rather than making the whole drive on his own. 

Arguably one of the most unique looking vehicles on Drag Week this year will be Chris Watkins’ killer rat rod. I’m not sure what class it will run in, but if it goes anything like it looks it should be a riot. Chris will be on his first Drag Week and will be joining the BangShift family on the trip as he’ll be traveling all by his lonesome. Check it out below.

Track Info for Drag Week

 Heartland Park Topeka  785 862 4781

Race Fuel: Fuel pumps by tech center card pay. Sunoco
Autoparts: Oreilly's about a mile away.
SpeedShop: Absolute Automotive about 1/2 mile north of the track.

 SRCA Dragstrip Great Bend KS  620 792 5079

 Race Fuel: Yes, VP will have fuel trailer on site. Cash only.
Speed Shop: Rich's Automotive Bumper to Bumper Autoparts in Great Bend.
Whole pit area is concrete. Power in the pits, dump stations, water stations and all are free.

Amarillo Dragway

Unfortunately no info is available from Amarillo as they wouldn’t return our calls. VP Race fuels is supposed to be hitting the track at Amarillo hot and heavy with the super sauce track prep before we get there, but they only have about 100feet of concrete on the starting line so the big boys may have some trouble there.

Tulsa Raceway Park

Sunoco Race Fuel will be available on site. We’ll have more info on Tulsa coming shortly.

Stay tuned to BangShift.com for more information in the coming days leading up to the start of Drag Week on MSD Test and Tune day Sunday September 11th. We’ve got a lot more to tell you about including all these guys doing last minute testing, and some other cool stuff that we are going to be bringing you this year on Drag Week.