The Late Night Thrash at Great Lakes – Engine Woes Nearly Prevented David Schroeder, Alex Taylor, and Steve Morris from Getting Back to Byron Dragway To Finish, and Win, Motion Raceworks Sick Summer!
Pushing cars and trucks, even motorcycles to their limits on the track and the street is nothing new to the drag and drive community. And talk to most competitors, and they will tell you the street can be far less forgiving than the track.
For the quicker rides of drag and drive, finding the balance between a quick time slip and being able to drive to the next track is a tough task. For three of the top five runners at the recent Motion Raceworks Sick Summer event, that was the case at Great Lakes Dragaway on Day Four.
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Three 6-second runs on the Wisconsin drag strip resulted in three broken cars. For those drivers and co-pilots, that meant a lot of work, plus the ability to fix things correctly, stood between them and the chance to motor down the road for Day Five, and a possible class win.
It started with Unlimited Iron class leader Alex Taylor, who clocked a 6.70 at 212 mph, her second-quickest run of the event. But when the ’55 Chevrolet was towed back on the return road by fellow competitor Tom Bailey’s Durango, fans knew something had gone wrong.
Upon inspection, Alex and father Dennis discovered the ’55 Chevy had torched the right-hand side cylinder head, and nipped a piston. They got the engine torn apart, the cylinder head got welded back up at a local shop, and the duo worked into the night to get things patched back together.
Alex Taylor documented the damage, and what her and Dennis went through to fix it, in her video below:
Not far behind Alex Taylor was Unlimited class, and overall leader, David Schroder and the nitrous-fed Schroeder-Ens Corvette. The C7 Corvette had the fans on the edge of their seats after the news of their record-breaking 6.097 pass on Day One, and the Schroeder-Ens team would deliver another solid run at Great Lakes Dragaway with a 6.21 at 200 mph lap.
But that 200-mph speed, coupled with some top end flames, signaled there might be trouble ahead. Tom Bailey and his Durango once again was summoned to the top end to tow Schroeder back to the pit area.
Their damage was a little more severe, as one cylinder head and a couple pistons got some extra heat. But with spares on hand, Schroeder and John Ens thrashed to get it all back together before riding off in the nighttime air, just ahead of Alex Taylor.
The third, and possibly most interesting breakage, came from Steve Morris and his ‘Boostmaster’ Chevrolet station wagon. After clocking a run of 6.79 at 199 mph, Morris would remark on his onboard camera that something wasn’t right.
Upon driving the wagon back to the pits, Morris discovered a broken rocker arm, which led to also finding damage on the camshaft. In order to complete the fixes, the camshaft was removed from the engine, and welded!
Steve Morris documented the damage and fixes in his video below:
But when morning dawned the following day at Byron Dragway, all three competitors were in the pit area and preparing for the final day’s run. Less than twelve hours later, all three were holding their Sick The Magazine orange helmets as class winners.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Megan Taylor - Isky Racing Cams.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com