Restorations, Repairs and Reboots for Sick Summer’s Leading Contenders

Bryant Goldstone, Devin Vanderhoof and Garrett Mitchell are all vastly experienced in drag and drive, but each will be bringing something a little unknown into Motion Raceworks Sick Summer, which begins this Sunday at Byron Dragway.

America’s quickest and fastest real street cars are descending on the Midwest for a week of drag and drive competition. Many of the 300+ racers work on their cars right up until their first pass, and the same is true of the leaders, but each for different reasons.

For three-times Sick Summer winner Bryant Goldstone and his Corvette, he needed to make repairs to the front end of his car after a crash at Sick Week. The five-second capable, street legal Pro Mod also received some small upgrades while the team had everything apart, aiming to make the car easier to work on.

“We got her back together, there’s just a couple of little things to do,” he said. I’ve got to thank Norm for the excellent repair work and modifications to the front end, and the great Joe Schott for a little bit of chassis work and upgrading a bunch of stuff.

“It’s all back together, it just needs a little bit more polishing. She’s about ready. I may take it for a street drive in the next couple of days.”

Devin Vanderhoof has also been busy since Sick Week, where his stunning Ford Mustang experienced a fire while leading the event. Together with driver Josh Davis, Vanderhoof returned the car to show quality, and the pair recently tested with new personal bests on the eighth-mile.

“Our current plan is to be in Byron Thursday night and do some testing ahead of Sunday,” he said. “Sick Summer is probably my favorite drag and drive. I love the whole area of people up that way and how enthusiastic they all are.

“The only goal I have for this event is to survive it. I don’t have any hopes of winning anything, besides driving back in on Friday with a car that’s still running.”

And that brings us to a true dark horse, Garrett Mitchell — better known as Cleetus McFarland. Mitchell originally intended on bringing his YouTube channel’s infamous Cheap Car Challenge to Motion Raceworks Sick Summer, but switched plans last minute to debut his totally rebuilt El Camino known as Mullet. The car now sits on slicks as opposed to radial tires, putting Mitchell into totally unknown territory. Almost every car he has ever raced has been on radial tires, though he did make some laps in Tom Bailey’s Sick Seconds 1.0 Camaro back in 2021.

“We have no idea what to do with these ‘big tars’ but we’re gonna get it together and head to Sick Summer,” he said.

Whatever the result, it’s going to be a thrilling week of street car action! Motion Raceworks Sick Summer will be at Byron Dragway on June 14 & 15, Cordova Dragway on June 16, Tri-State Raceway in June 17, Great Lakes Dragaway on June 18 and back to Byron Dragway on June 19. Tickets and event info are available at https://www.sickthemagazine.com/sick-summer.