“Bring a friend to the track / car show / event” is a phrase a lot of us have heard to encourage getting others to attend a car enthusiast event. A growing number of people get their first look thanks to the efforts of a friend or co-worker.

Tom Bailey noticed these efforts, and launched the Sick The Magazine Affiliate Program in December, a way to reward Sick The Mag event participants for bringing out fellow enthusiasts. After the first three months of the program, it has paid out over $20,000 in rewards for affiliate commitments.

“We were told not to do this by some promoters,” said Bailey. “Because they don't want to share the gate with the attendees, but we do. So, we are going to do it anyway!

“I have been to events where when I look at the crowd, my shirts outnumber the event shirts, but I didn't get anything for bringing those folks through the gate. And that was okay, but it got me to thinking, so we are going to change that.”

After a 2024 season with a record number of drag-and-drive events, the 2025 season is just a couple weeks away from rumbling to life. Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive is the first of thirty drag-and-drive events we currently know of for 2024, and there is no doubt more will be added as the year progresses.

With long-standing events like Hot Rod Drag Week back for the 20th anniversary, and Rocky Mountain Race Week celebrating its tenth year, several events returned for another year, including Redwood Rally, Miles of Mayhem, One Guy’s Garage Drag Weekend, and Southeast Street N’ Yeet.

We also saw some new events on the extensive list in 2024, as Drop the Hammer, Olympic Drag-and-Drive, and Big Sky Race Week were just a couple that pushed the number of drag-and-drive events scheduled in 2024 to 40 total. A couple did get canceled or postponed due to weather or poor registration numbers.

Since the introduction of Junior Dragsters into the National Hot Rod Association in 1992, thousands of kids have gotten the chance to become competitors in the sport of drag racing. Competition at hundreds of tracks across North America, as well as larger national events just for junior dragsters, have proved a springboard for racing careers, world champions, and a second class, Junior Street, that’s been incorporated into select drag-and-drive events.

Junior Dragsters have been a big force behind not only a new wave of racers competing, but also the second, third and even fourth-generation of a family getting into the sport.

With the success of Junior Dragster, the NHRA introduced the Junior Street class to give thirteen-sixteen year old boys and girls a chance to compete in a street-legal car or truck with an adult co-driver as their teammate.