BangShift.com is here all week long at Hot Rod Magazine’s Drag Week Event, sponsored by Gear Vendors. This is the race where cars run five drag strips in five days, and all the competitors are required to drive on public roads from track to track. They can’t ever be put on a trailer or they’re out! The car with the lowest average quarter-mile elapsed time over five days wins, and there are a number of different race classes, as well. It’s the fifth year of this event that just keeps getting more hairy.
Keep coming back to BangShift.com every day from September 14 through the 18th as we keep you updated on the action. Click here to see the gallery of 100 phots from today’s Drag Week action.
UPDATE: Monday results posted here, Brian Lohnes
Yesterday, on Sunday, was the test and tune at the track in Muncie, Indiana, where several cars ran in the 7s and even more in the 8s. Today, Monday, was the first day of real competition. Cars had to run for their best e.t. in the quarter-mile, then hit the road to drive to the next track.
The day started out with Larry
Larson, the 2008 Champion, killing a pair of lifters on his way to the
track from the hotel. His breakage was reason for some teams to celebrate, and the a team running a ’41 Willys with a Sonny Leonard big-block didn’t waste any time, running a 7.88 pass to
take the lead. But not be be
beaten in the pits, Larson fixed his ’66 Nova and ran a tire spinning 8.0
at 190 mph before packing up and hitting the road.
The action didn’t stop there, as Jeff Lutz took his 640-inch, turbocharged, ’57 Chevy down the track at 7.63 seconds at the very end of the day. This
was after changing his own set of lifters earlier that morning.
More drama came when the fast Willys left the track ahead of everyone and was poised for an easy
drive, only to break ten miles down the road and call it quits.
Also, just three miles from the track, we came upon the 8-second Mustang of John
Huber to find the crew pulling the transmission out of the car to change
the converter and front pump so it could get back on the trail.
100 miles later, we found Larry Larson on the side of the road again
with broken lifters. Some bailing wire and a hose clamp held the
lifters up off the cam, and Larry was ready to hit the road again. He’s
got a whole new set of lifters coming tonight.
My own dad, Walt Reynolds, is having transmission troubles in his one-owner Z/28, but is
pushing on despite losing third gear already. The carnage has started in
full force, and it’s just getting dark.
As I write this, I’m cruising along with Jim Parish in his recently twin-turboed 2009 G8
that hauls ass on the freeway, I’m told (wink, wink), and runs high 11s at
122. Stay tuned for more killer action and all the dirt from Drag Week
2009. Click the photo below for more Monday action.
