Rained On Our Parade – Mother Nature Spoils the Fun at Cordova Dragway on Day 3, So We Hit the Road for Dry Ground and Day 4 Prep at Tri-State Raceway for Sick Summer Presented By Motion Raceworks
After dodging what looked to be a tricky afternoon forecast on Day Two to complete a full day of racing at Great Lakes Dragaway, over 300 competitors jumped on the road for a trio of checkpoints and crossing three states to Cordova Dragway for Day Three of Sick Summer Presented By Motion Raceworks.
But Wednesday would bring a shortened track day, some carnage, and some surprises on competitors that would bow out earlier than expected.
Starting with the D Group gave a lot of the Dial Your Own (DYO) class a shot at the track first, and traditionally, that class is brutal on consistency.
Dan Balk is the only winner the class has seen since we started it, and although the ’78 Chevrolet El Camino driver has just 21 thousandths of-a-second separating his first and second day time slips, he might have his work cut out for a third title.
The reason we say Balk might have a tough time in DYO is there are ten competitors that have less than one hundredth of-a-second between their time slips from Byron Dragway and Great Lakes Dragaway! The top five are three thousandths or less apart on their times!
We reported yesterday that Tim Grabiak is leading the way in DYO with his ’68 Chevy Camaro, but that’s only half true, because we didn’t look down the list far enough. Robert Hill’s 2020 Ford F-150 pick-up has clocked a pair of 14.14 runs only one thousandth of-a-second apart, tying him with Grabiak for the early lead.
The Pro DYO is for cars between 8.50-9.99 seconds, and the competition for the single digit rides is fierce as well. Erik Wiegand is at the helm of the class with just four thousandths of-a-second between his 8.8-second runs at Byron and Great Lakes, and Dan Dinan is just a single thousandth back in second with his ‘Betty White’ Chevy Malibu.
After the D Group was complete, we moved to the quick side of competition and staged up Nick Cryer and Alex Taylor for the first pair.
What we were hoping would be a wicked quick pair to start the A/B Group Slick session, would instead be the last pair of racing we saw, as Cryer put out a LOT of smoke, and Taylor would be left pushing her ’55 Chevy off the track.
After some time to diagnose things, turns out both competitors could make the needed repairs to continue on. Taylor rattled the shaft in the fuel pump and stripped the drive out, leaving her short on fuel pressure, but got it patched up.
Cryer looked like his repairs would be more serious, but a broken transmission line was the cause of all the smoke.
The Bulls Eye Challenge is a unique one where each day competitors get a chance to win against a two-digit number picked at random. The premise is to get as close to the number without going under (for example, if the Bulls Eye number is 50, running an 11.52 is better than an “under the Bulls Eye” 11.48-second pass).
Day One had two people matching the Bulls Eye ‘23’ target, and Steve Monte’s 1990 Ford Mustang hatch would do the best with a 12.232 pass for the accolades.
Day Two had a ‘52’ Bulls Eye target, and Jim Shipley’s wheelstanding ’88 LTD Country Squire station wagon would do the best with a .027 of-a-second over 11.547 pass.
Rolling through mostly solid rain from Cordova Dragway to Tri-State Raceway does provide for some interesting shots of the competitors making their way from track to track.
Today, we hit Tri-State Raceway for Day Four on Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks back in Illinois at Cordova Dragway. The FRDM+ team will once again stream the day’s action.
For more details, a schedule and our routes each day, visit https://www.sickthemagazine.com/sick-summer.
For a complete PDF of all competitors and current standings, visit our Rules / Results page by CLICKING HERE!
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com