McConchie, Price and Larsen Lead the Winners List from the Fourth Annual Carolina Drag Cruise
After getting the drag and drive season started with Sick Week, it takes over a month before the next event is held.
Carolina Drag Cruise has been a staple in April, the month things start to ramp back up on the drag and drive calendar, and the North Carolina-based event would visit Shadyside Dragway and Union County Dragway over a four-day period.
Sick The Magazine’s second smaller event - Sick On The Green - blasts into Beech Bend Raceway Park in Kentucky on May 29th-31st. We’re now bringing nine classes to the party, including the popular Lil Gangsta’s class with two separate chances to win, the recently announced Stick Shift class, and our new Sick Street Car Challenge class with $32,000 up for grabs!! It all takes place on the last week in May in Bowling Green, Kentucky! For more details on Sick On The Green, including discounted advance tickets, and over $60K in payouts, CLICK HERE!
As tradition, the event would get started at Shadyside Dragway in Shelby, North Carolina, with a tech-in and BBQ on Wednesday April 23rd. The next day was due to be day one of competition at Shadyside, but the weather would put a stop to that.
The crew at Carolina Drag Cruise came up with a Plan B for April 24th, meeting at a restaurant in Gaffney and hosting a Practice Tree Race, where Mel White came out on top after five rounds of action, grabbing a big check for his victory!
The action would get back underway at Union County Dragway on April 25th, with the event now switching to a two-day racing format, and a cruise day on April 26th between the two track days. After racing action concluded at Shadyside Dragway, winners in the seven classes, as well as the ‘Spirit of Drag Cruise’ were awarded.
The class with the quickest potential to rule set is Unlimited Street, where only basic street legal requirements, plus tag and insurance, are the requirements. Kameron McConchie, who clocked mid 9-second times in route to completing Sick Summer last year, put his 2000 Ford Ranger through its paces a bit quicker here, tallying a 5.79 average for the class win, and holding off former winners Scott Green and Mike Ford.
Limited Street ups the rules a bit more than Unlimited Street, focusing on more small tire cars, with a 275 drag radial / 28-inch-tall x 10.5-inch wide drag slick maximum tire, and all-steel panels as a requirement (except hood and bumpers). Despite those restrictions, Steven Price and his ‘69 Chevrolet Chevelle produced the quickest average of the event, a 5.27, to go with the quickest run of the event, a 5.04, for the class win.
Stick Shift classes can be unpredictable, with the manual transmission and a H-pattern shifter requirement, all it takes is one missed shift to shuffle the results. Benjamin VanMastrigt was not the quickest car in the class, but his Corvette was the most consistent, using a pair of 6.62 runs to tally a 6.623 average and secure the win.
Getting its rule set from the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) Street Legal class, the Modern Muscle is based around 2008 or newer vehicles that perform at a 6.00 or slower performance in the eighth-mile. Eddy Larson clocked the two quickest runs of the class, netting a 6.322 average and the top spot in the class.
To participate in the True Street class, vehicles must check off the longest list of rules. Requirements include factory style panels, stock style suspension, bolt on upgrades, and a full interior. DOT tires at all four corner is also a requirement, and no time slips quicker than a 7.35 would be allowed. Chris Tran would put down the best average in the history of the class with a 7.36 average earning the title.
A new class to the docket in 2024, the Dial Your Own (DYO) class would once again top the list for largest turnout. With a goal of consistency of drag strip runs between the event days, just thousandths of-a-second separated the top three. Justin Lipscomb would do the best, clocking a pair of 6.45 passes just .001 of-a-second apart on the average. Former Spirit of Drag Cruise winner Cole Galloway was right behind at .002 of-a-second, and Dawn Flanders rounded out the top three with a .005 of-a-second tally.
Lowell Rust was almost wired to the Christmas Tree with an amazing .007 average reaction time, using a .003 best result, to collect the Reaction Time award.
Stacy Galloway picked up the coveted ‘Spirit of Drag Cruise’ win, the third time Stacy earned that title.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Carolina Drag Cruise, Kameron McConchie, Steven Price, Benjamin VanMastrigt and Zachary Wilson.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com