Mystic Dreams – Twenty Years After Seeing His First Drag and Drive Event, Jeremy McMillian Battles the Odds to Participate at the 2026 Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive!
All it takes is one experience to set a chain of events in motion for a new enthusiast to make an event or the car community a part of their life going forward.
In the case of Jeremy McMillian, the 2026 edition of Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive would be his third Sick Week appearance, but his first behind the wheel as a competitor, marking the next step in the drag and drive path he started down two decades earlier.
The newest print issue of Sick The Magazine is out, with over 200 pages of features, photos and coverage of multiple events. What are you waiting for? CLICK HERE to subscribe to Sick The Magazine!
The site was World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois where Jeremy was a spectator for just the second Hot Rod Drag Week. “I was hooked,” said Jeremy. “At the time other things took priority over me competing, but when I had the opportunity to compete, I jumped at it.”
With significantly more choices for drag and drive events in 2024, Jeremy opted for a day on Sick Week in 2024 at Orlando Speed World Dragway. It made an impression, but Jeremy got the extra ‘push’ to be a competitor from his friend Paul Ashe.
“He came along with me for Sick Ward in 2025,” Jeremy said. “He assumed the racing was all 6 and 7 second cars. When you realize that there are cars of all times competing and that every car, no matter what times they ran, they were still competing against themselves, and he talked me into doing the early expression of interest (for a competitor spot in 2026).”
Jeremy secured one of the valued spots and readied himself for a trip to Gainesville Raceway to start his journey. Oh, have we mentioned that he had attended the pair of Sick Week events, and was now prepping to compete, in a rare Mystic 1996 Mustang Cobra?
The 1996 models had a few ‘firsts’ for the model year, including the debut of the 4.6-liter modular DOHC (Dual Over Head Cam) engine, rated at 305 horsepower and backed by a manual transmission.
Of the 28,705 models produced, a mere 1,999 got the Mystic color option. An eye-catching first from BASF, the color-shifting paint could be green, blue, burgundy, amber, purple and even dark brown.
The car coming into the McMillian household was no accident. “It's actually my wife Leanna's car,” said Jeremy. “She wanted an SN95 (body style), and I remember seeing the Mystic Cobras. When they came out, and I knew that was the car I wanted us to have.”
Despite some thinking a car like this shouldn’t be thrashed on a drag strip, Jeremy made the commitment to ‘exercise’ the Mustang Cobra on Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, marking his first time on a drag strip in two decades,
But Jeremy’s week was almost cut short early, when the Cobra decided to spit out an axle. “We broke Day Zero 0 and thrashed to get the car back together,” said Jeremy. Because of the broken axle, Jeremy admits he held back a little on race track abuse, carding a best pass of 13.28 at 111 mph at Orlando Speed World Dragway, and an average of 13.806 to complete the week.
“I never got to run the car to its potential, and that is my goal,” said Jeremy. “I really want to come back and do Sick Week in 2027. It's like being in high school again any time I am behind the wheel.”
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Jeremy McMillian and ‘Revan’ Evan Smith.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com