After Mother Nature once again showed she was in control of outdoor activities, Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks rolled into Tri State Raceway for Day Four.

We were greeted with sunny skies and a full day of racing activities, but for some competitors, it was a struggle. For some competitors, it took until their last opportunity of the day to get the run they needed for a shot at the coveted Sick The Mag orange helmet.

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.

But Wednesday would bring a shortened track day, some carnage, and some surprises on competitors that would bow out earlier than expected.

Day Two of Sick Summer Presented By Motion Raceworks would prove to be just as hot as the first, in both temperature in the air and action on the race track.

The crowds have always been massive at Great Lakes Dragaway, and the drag and drive faithful would once again flock to Wisconsin for all the action on track, along the drive, and at the checkpoints.

Following a busy day of tech and testing, 342 rides returned to the staging lanes for Day One activities at Sick Summer Presented By Motion Raceworks.

The crowd was once again massive for a summer Monday, and they were treated to some stellar runs and close competition, as the classes got assembled on standings for the first time this week.

With lanes full of street and strip ready rides, Byron Dragway got Day Zero underway early on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 15th for the third annual Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks.

Tech inspection was followed by a test and tune in the afternoon, and the crowds came to see how well cars and drivers were sorted for the week of driving and racing through Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa over the next five days.

Bryant Goldstone, Steve Morris, David Diehl, Nick Cryer, Josh Davis, and the return of the ‘Cheap Car Challenge’ were among the big talking points of the day.

Heralded as the ‘official’ start to summer by many in the drag and drive community, Sick Summer Presented By Motion Raceworks will celebrate our third year in the Midwest starting tomorrow, June 15th, 2025 at Byron Dragway in Byron, Illinois.

One of two tracks we will visit in Illinois, Byron Dragway will be hosting Sick Summer for a total of three days, with a lot on tap for activities, including Mr. Sam’s 80th birthday party and the Delta PAG pizza party on Sunday, June 15th, as well as our awards ceremony on Friday, June 20th!

There’s something to be said about striving to do your best, and coming up just a little shy of the top spot. It can make you dig deeper, work harder, and strive for the top spot a little bit more.

Most competitors would likely be happy with a pair of top three finishes at Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks, but Jeremy Ortiz plans to roll in prepared better than ever this year.

Since his first Sick Summer, Ortiz has captured multiple wins at various events and tracks. His most recent victories came in Extreme Radials at Muncie Dragway, then Ortiz followed it up at Street Car Braggin Rights (SCBR), where he scored the SCBR Shootout Wild class accolades.

Now, with his Nissan 240 sporting a single turbo LS swap seemingly on rails, Ortiz turns his focus to this week’s Sick On The Green event at Beech Bend Raceway Park. Then two weeks later, he will return to Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks in hopes of securing a Street Race 275 class victory.

Steve Rzewnicki joined a group of enthusiasts from Streetcar Shenanigans Performance for his first drag and drive event, the Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks.

He not only completed his first event, but did so in a car that carries a family history.

“We had so much fun,” said Rzewnicki. “We had a whole team of cars from Streetcar Shenanigans Performance, and I can't wait to do it again.”

Although it wasn’t his first drag and drive, the Sick Death Week event in October of 2023 ratcheted the legacy of Rajveer Ahuja to the next level. Making thousands of road miles to be a part of most events he participates in, Ahuja will return to the states for a double dose of drag and drive action when he hits Sick On The Green, followed two weeks later with Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks.

“Being able to enjoy the car, and the best part (of a drag and drive event) is meeting like-minded crazy people and getting to hang out with them,” Rajveer Ahuja admitted. “It is like a big family reunion. I mostly enjoy catching up and hanging out with new and old friends, besides the mandatory tacos and burnouts. That’s what drag and drive is really all about.”

Although the chances of seeing superchargers and turbochargers versus nitrous on drag and drive rides, there are still some bottle-fed rides that are holding their own.

One happens to be the 1972 Camaro of Lamar Swindoll Jr., and after completing four Sick drag and drive events in just over a year, Lamar is setting his sights on Sick At The Rock Presented by Motion Raceworks.

“After years of drag racing, I was ready for something different,” said Lamar. Drag and drive allows my wife and I to enjoy driving our hot rod on the open roads with our family members who join with their cars, hang out with other racers and their families, do a little site seeing and I still get to race my car down track. It's just a whole lot of fun!”

With a solid first outing at Sick Week in 2025, Lamar will make his next appearance with the Camaro in the new Sick Street Car Challenge class at the upcoming Sick At The Rock event. “I think it’s a great idea to have an event like this at least once a year for the guy that can’t attend a week long event,” said Lamar. “I think the shorter drive will be a great time for first timers to try out a drag and drive event.”

Some cars will come and go, but the ones that make for some of the best stories are the ones that have history with their owners. Colin Nowak has owned this 1995 Ford Mustang since high school, and after a dozen years cruising and racing it, he’s ready to roll into Rockingham Dragway for next month’s Sick At The Rock and tackle the Sick Street Car Challenge class.

If this supercharged Mustang looks familiar, it’s because Colin made a presence at the 2024 edition of Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks, finishing second in the Modified class with a 9.18 average.

“Car did great,” said Colin. “We didn't have to mess with anything other than swapping tires, shock settings and fuel. Was pretty wild to see after day one I was in third.” He eventually moved to second on day three, where he would stay until the event was completed.

Now, he’s prepping for Sick Summer, Sick Smokies, and Sick At The Rock in 2025.

“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.

Although some may recognize this 1972 Chevrolet Nova as a regular participant on Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, its performance still catches a lot of people off guard. The ‘plain brown wrapper’ appearance, complete with hub caps instead of flashy wheels, doesn’t give the appearance of 8-second potential. And for 2025, the Boosted By Rhino and Jimmy Rinehart-tuned Nova will kick the performance up another level in time for Sick Week 2025.

After three successful drag-and-drive events and pushing the single turbo set-up to its max, Jimmy and Drew discussed the next step for this year’s Sick Week. “The goal was to get that 8 second pass. I think we're about at the limit of the (single) turbo.”

For 2025, a new pair of turbochargers will feed the Texas Speed 5.3-liter short block, going through an air-to-water intercooler.

Although the number of companies with an on-site appearance at some events is dwindling, the drag-and-drive community is experiencing growth. Sick the Magazine’s events are a great example of this, with both established companies and newcomers display products, and providing options for competitors to finish their events.

One of the newest to the fray is Redhorse Performance, and they marked their arrival in an unusual way. The second day of Sick Summer 2023 fell victim to Mother Nature for the day, with action at Byron Dragway canceled. Redhorse arrived at the Historic Auto Attraction checkpoint, and proceeded to break in their new truck and trailer correctly with a tire-smoking burnout.

“We’ve heard about the trailer burnouts, but they didn’t tell us how much fun it is,” said Kevin Fitzgerald of Redhorse Performance.

He may have gotten his start in drag-and-drive with a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle, but the black and red AMC Javelin of Bryant Goldstone has become a well known ride. Based on its percentage of events completed, class wins, and records broken and set, Goldstone has set the bar for the Unlimited Iron class.

But this week will bring the reveal of a new ride for Goldstone in 2025, as he takes aim on quicker times, and the Unlimited class.

What could Goldstone’s new ride be? The Performance & Racing Industry show in Indy will give us the first look at the new ride in the XS Power booth.

Auto enthusiasts can be drawn to a particular vehicle for several reasons. It could be the styling, the power, the handling, or even the chance to fulfill a dream of owning one when you couldn’t earlier in life. But then there’s cars and trucks with history, or a family connection, and the bonds and memories created with these rides can be some powerful ones.

The 1968 Mercury Cougar of Josh Dowies has a sixteen-year history in his family starting when his father bought the car for his mother to drive. “She always wanted to have a little hot rod to cruise around,” said Josh. She passed away back in 2017, and the car sat until 2022, when Josh bought it. “Getting to build this car has been as much for me, as it has been for my mom and in memory of my mom."

There are some cars that stand out in the crowd just a little more. Whether it’s because of performance, appearance or the story behind it all, some rides are just more prevalent in our minds. From the first time we saw Robbie Price’s Mercury station wagon known as ‘Shelia’s Dream’, we knew it would be one of those cars, and now the Price family is working on more reasons to make us remember the wagon.

After the wagon completed its second Sick Summer in 2024, owner Robbie wanted more. For 2025, the Price wagon is making the change to turbocharged motivation, as a pair of units will replace the nitrous on the wagon.

Getting Driven Racing Oil to join Sick the Mag for our 2024 event season was more than just a sponsorship; it was a chance for Driven to get feedback and possibly develop new oils.

“When we got together with Tom Bailey, it was because we saw the drag-and-drive segment exploding,” said Bill Alexander of Driven Racing Oil. “The demands of these rides can be different than any other market we’ve seen, and we wanted to get first-hand data and feedback from competitors to use in our analysis.”