The Road Less Traveled in Michigan - an Inside Look on Aydan Bailey Forging a New Path to Successfully Defend His Title at the 2026 Sick Michigan Miles Presented by Driven Racing Oil!
One year ago, the usually quiet and reserved Aydan Bailey had a smile on his face during the award ceremony of the first Sick Michigan Miles presented by Driven Racing Oil. After a solid week of battling with Evan Uerkwitz, Aydan emerged with his first class title, as well as his first overall win, in five years of drag and drive competition.
But when the ’57 Chevy wagon known as ‘The Deuce Box’ returned to home base after that event, Aydan knew the engine was the limiting factor to pursuing the goals of a 4-second eighth-mile pass, and 7-second performances on the full quarter-mile distance. One year later, and several nights with not much sleep, Aydan emerged with his second-straight victory from the Driven Racing Oil Sick Michigan Miles event.
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After pushing a head gasket on his final pass of the 2025 edition of Sick Michigan Miles, Aydan and Tom knew that the wagon needed some changes in hopes of getting to the goals they set.
That, plus Aydan had started thinking about the Deuce Box’s wiring job, done under the extreme deadline of getting the car ready for the 2023 edition of Motion Raceworks Sick Summer with Joey Barry. So, a complete re-wire of the car was added to the ‘to-do’ list, along with the engine swap.
Some would be forgiven for thinking that a simple ‘LS engine out, different LS engine in’ wouldn’t take much time. But Aydan and Tom, along with Andy McConnell, were faced with some differences between the two modern small blocks.
Purchasing the engine as a complete unit from Chris Rankin, the Dart Machinery LS block, combined with better cylinder heads, on paper would have better power potential than his previous LS combination. That, plus it would have the foundation for better cylinder head retention.
However, the ‘new-to-Aydan’ engine was set-up for a dry sump oiling system versus a standard oiling system. That meant more work for Aydan, Tom, and Andy to figure out not only the dry sump tank, but also the lines and routing.
The same Precision Turbo & Engine turbochargers would remain, and the Deuce Box was started for the first time on Friday, August 14th, just a couple days before Day Zero of Sick Michigan Miles presented by Driven Racing Oil. “It has no street tune,” said Tom. “It runs and idles.” When the car rolled into the staging lanes for Day Zero, it came with a minimum of run time, and ZERO runs down a track.
Day Zero started with a test pass to about the 330 mark, where a coasting 5.53 at 102 mph was the result. The next run, the car came out of the water box, shut off, and didn’t have any information on the Holley screen. After double checking a few things, as well as conversing with tuner Greg Powrie, they thought they had it figured out.
How did Day One, as well as the rest of the week shake out?
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos / media courtesy of Sick the Magazine.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com