The five-day road show and drag race that’s called Hot Rod Magazine Drag Week 2009, presented by Gear Vendors, had more drama than the Wendy Williams show today as transmissions got changed, valvetrain parts broke, and records got broken.
Speed ahead here to the BangShift.com Day 3 photo gallery to see the action and read the stories.
While it’s usually the carnage and a triumphant save that garner the most attention on Drag Week, today there is no beating the performance of Larry Larson’s ’67 Nova in the Unlimited class. As predicted yesterday, the track at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, was amazing. Larry pulled to the line with every intention of running 200 mph. And he almost did, running 7.25 at 199.49 mph for the quickest and fastest pass in the 5-year history of Drag Week. is an awfully close almost, and unfortunately most people don’t think the tracks at Columbus or Muncie will be tight enough to take the kind of run needed to break 200 or run in the 6s. But, we’ll see tomorrow as Drag Week heads to National Trail Raceway.
Larry’s competition, and yesterday’s leader in the Unlimited Class, was Jeff Lutz, who spent the morning replacing lifters just like Larry did on Tuesday morning. After making the change, he was poised for a big run that was aimed squarely at Larry’s 7.25 pass. Jeff never made it past the burnout. While backing up, the car died and would not refire. A tow back to the pits, along with a long thrash, discovered a broken cam and wiped out cam bearings. With 7 minutes left to make a run, they called it quits. Even Larry Larson was dissappointed. He had helped Lutz thrash on the car.
Eric Yost, Drag Week’s first Pro Street Competitor in the 7s, decided 7.90s wasn’t good enough and stepped it up by running a 7.83 late in the day, and everyone is talking about the possibility of 7.70s or even 7.60s out of the car before Friday is over. Eric changed multiple roller rocker arms today, and is hoping they rest last the week, or that he has enough spares. We hope so too, because we can’t wait to see how quick and fast this turbo ’82 Firebird really is.
In Modified Naturally Aspirated, Red Johnson’s Fox Mustang and Jay Brown’s SOHC Galaxie are embroiled in a killer battle that separates them by only .06 seconds. A battle that is so tight, and so serious, Red blew up a transmission and then changed it before making some more passes this afternoon.
Other highlights include Doc Fox’s Corvette dipping back into the 8s, Michael Roy’s Monte Carlo running another string of 8.55 second passes, and Jon Huber dragging the bumper 100 feet down the track. Check out our photo gallery of 138 photos for all the action and pit thrash highlights.
For daily results, live streaming video, and today’s video update from Hot Rod Editor Rob Kinnan, see the Hot Rod magazine site here.
