In a season when most places are too cold to enjoy drag racing, Sick Week presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive has provided a place for competitors and enthusiasts to participate in the first drag and drive event of the year since 2022.

For the fifth edition of Sick Week, the weather would dip into near or below freezing temperatures for the majority of the week. And although the cold temperatures would require adjustments to track times and waredrobes, the resulting air qualify would bring out some amazing performances, some new records, and the first Sick Bounty claimed.

Following an eventful Day One of Sick Week presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive at host track Gainesville Raceway, more than 300 competitors, and hundreds of Sick Ward enthusiasts, rolled northward to South Georgia Motorsports Park for Day Two action.

We were once again greeted with cool temps, and for the first time in three days, the temperatures started to warm up a bit into the afternoon, but nowhere near as hot as the race track.

We can smell the burnt rubber and race fuel, visualize staging lanes full of cars, the grandstands packed with people, and the social media posts of people thrashing and making final preparations; it’s just about time for Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive!

For the fifth edition of Sick Week, we’ll start the festivities at a new host track: Gainesville Raceway. And thanks to the efforts of the Sick The Mag staff, the NHRA and the Gainesville Raceway staff, we will host two days of advance testing, as well as VIP Tech.

The first drag and drive event, Hot Rod Drag Week, was held in 2005. Although nearly 50 competitors embarked on this historic journey, only 32 survived, with Carl Scott’s 8.58 average capturing the overall title.

The top three finishers of the first Hot Rod Drag Week, Carl Scott, Phil Cooper and Larry Larson, completed the event with 8-second averages.

Since then, over three hundred more competitors have completed a major drag and drive event with an 8-second average, and we’re celebrating them in our third segment of recognizing drag and drive performances.

At Sick The Magazine, we’re all about reporting the latest happenings, giving you detailed event coverage, and celebrating the people and their accomplishments in drag and drive.

But with drag and drive history crossing the two-decade mark since it officially started in 2005, we’re also about recognizing the performances that have gotten us to this point. Last week, we celebrated the twenty-two drivers that have achieved a 6-second average. Now we’re jumping into the 7-second range for averages.

As the drag and drive community continues to expand and evolve, we can’t help but look at the results and wonder just how far we’ve come since the first Hot Rod Drag Week in 2005. It took ten years before there were two drag and drive events, and in 2025, over fifty events were scheduled!

At Sick The Magazine, we’re all about celebrating the people and their accomplishments in drag and drive, and we felt it was time to go to the next step in recognizing performances over the two-plus decades of drag and drive history. We'll recognize one of the 5 / 6 / 7 / 8-second sections each week leading up to Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, and we're starting with the quickest group: 6-second averages!

There lots of traditional things to do around Christmas time, but until recently, most wouldn’t say “drag racing, jets cars or big burnouts” as something associated with Christmas. But, the crews at Bradenton Motorsports Park and the Freedom Factory are working to change that, with the increasing popular Christmas Tree Drag Racing World Championship.

Originally the brainchild of Cleetus McFarland and good friend Victor Alvarez, partners in Bradenton Motorsports Park, the Christmas Tree Drag Racing World Championship has grown from a small gathering of friends, to a full-tilt sold-out show in 2025. The sixth edition of the show would include two new classes to the original Christmas Tree Challenge class, as well as a pair of jet-powered dragsters, and a twin-engine jet truck.

It was a little over four years ago that Sick The Magazine was introduced in print, and in December 2021, the Performance and Racing Industry (PRI) Show was not only exposed to Sick The Magazine for the first time, but also the hype of the first Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.

Since then, the drag and drive community, and the event calendar, has exploded. For the 2025 season, Sick The Magazine also expanded to host more events than ever before, and at the recent PRI Show, Sick The Mag has ramped things up for the 2026 season.

Not long after Sick The Magazine started with our print edition magazine, the first Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive event was held in early 2022. Designed around the popular week-long, five-day format with four race tracks, it was an immediate hit.

But in the last couple years, the drag and drive community has seen an increase in the two-to-four day event format. This has spurred numerous conversations about Sick The Mag doing a weekend-style drag and drive event, as well as an event in combination with other organizations.

After successfully hosting ‘The Circuit – A Charity With Horsepower’ drag and drive events, Michael Narx and Eric White decided to up the ante for 2025 and add a second event to the brand, ‘Short Circuit.’

Based on a two-day format, Short Circuit would employ Tulsa Raceway Park for the drag racing element, incorporating racing on Friday night and Saturday afternoon / evening. A Saturday morning cruise with a goal of 100 miles would provide the ‘drive’ portion of the event, and awards would take place Saturday night.

After six days, traveling over 900 street miles, and racing at five different drag strips, the Edelbrock Sick Smokies drag and drive event returned to Rocket City for one final day of racing, and to crown champions in a multitude of categories, as well as award five Sick The Mag helmets.

After Mother Nature delayed the start of the final day with overnight showers, followed up with a late morning spritz, we finally witnessed cars hit the Rocket City Dragway surface a little after 1:30 p.m. for an afternoon of racing, capped off by the awards ceremony and a Mexican dinner.

With five days of racing and driving in the books for Edelbrock Sick Smokies, most drag and drive events would be wrapped up and complete.

But for Sick Smokies, the schedule calls for two more days of fun, drag strip action and street miles cruising. So, Saturday, October 18th found us dipping a toe into Georgia territory, and racing at Brainerd Motorsports Park.

After four straight days of racing and driving in Tennessee and Alabama, competitors and Sick Ward enthusiasts would be treated to some amazing falls vibes and great roads, as Friday, October 17th would be a drive day for Edelbrock Sick Smokies.

Some drivers would choose the famous ‘Tail of the Dragon’ as part of their travels, but Sick The Mag editor Luke Nieuwhof offered up a couple alternatives to give Sick Smokies participants a way to get from Cosby, Tennessee to the northern area of Georgia and the city of Ringgold.

Rolling into Knoxville Dragway for Day Four of Edelbrock Sick Smokies meant the mid-point of the event had been reached, with three days in the books and our fourth track of the week ready for action.

The Thursday racing didn’t disappoint, as some category battles heat up. And although a few competitors are once again burning the midnight oil to repair their rides for a Friday drive day, a few others found that the end of the road for their adventure came earlier than expected.

With over 300 miles on the odometer after the first two days of driving, Edelbrock Sick Smokies started Day Three at Fitzgerald Motorsports Park. The revamped track alongside I-40 highway had just changed owners for 2025, with Blake Fitzgerald at the helm for his first full year of operation in 2025.  

With a new game plan and renewed sense of energy, Blake and team welcomed the Edelbrock Sick Smokies competitors, Sick Ward and Sick Spit Show & Shine to Crossville, Tennessee, and a steady stream of spectators made the trip to check out the action.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all in racing, a situation occurs that leaves everyone in attendance talking, and in some cases, scratching their heads on how to move forward.

That very thing happened on Day Two of Edelbrock Sick Smokies, where a huge wheelstand would lead to a pause in the action that could’ve been permanent. But instead, an alternative was initiated, and the day ended with positive success in Tennessee.

The concept of a drag and drive is an easy one – to survive the tracks AND the street drives, in order to successfully complete the event. But the competition side has been heating up over the last few years as well, as more new cars are being built to quicken the pace in certain classes and/or events.

The Edelbrock Sick Smokies marks the first time a drag and drive event has made a serious push for a large contingent of Gassers, and that call to action was answered by more than 40 entries. Combined with nearly 200 additional entries teched outside the Gassers, Edelbrock Sick Smokies marks the largest ‘one off’ Sick The Magazine drag and drive event in our three-year history.

A sunny and warm day at Rocket City Dragway provided the basis for Day Zero of Edelbrock Sick Smokies, as over 200 cars and trucks were teched in and given some testing time on the drag strip.

A diverse field of entries from across the US and Canada came together in the staging lanes, and we got to witness some stellar runs, and some familiar faces dropped some solid elapsed times during the test and tune on Day Zero.

History was made on day five of Hot Rod Drag Week 2025 as Ned Dunphy claimed the world record for the quickest overall drag-and-drive average.

Cecil County Dragway brought the heat for day four of Hot Rod Drag Week, the penultimate stage of the OG drag and drive event.