The 72nd annual Detroit Autorama in Michigan showcased hundreds of rides, including the ‘Great 8’ finalists for the coveted Ridler award. And although a lot of focus was on those beautiful rides, as well as the Ridler award winning ‘55 Chevrolet Nomad of Tom and Christy Bresnahan, there were a lot more awards given out, including the popular Drag and Drive category.

Drag and drive rides have to prove themselves on the track and the street, but the Detroit Autorama gave them a chance to do it under the lights at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan for a chance to claim an award. The familiar ’63 DIVCO Milk Truck of Nick Cryer, which was part of the Sick The Magazine display, scored the third-place finish in the category.

The recently completed Oldsmobile Cutlass of Steven Haefner would take a display spot in the Summit Racing Equipment booth, and by the end of the three-day show, Haefner collected a pair of awards, taking home first place in the Drag and Drive category, as well as Street Best Engine.

Several drag and drive events each year following the week-long format that Hot Rod Drag Week initiated in 2005. But we’ve seen a few events start to use the 2-3 day format, and Sick The Magazine’s will take that to the next level with our new Sick Street Car Challenge class at the Sick At The Rock event, April 10th - 12th, 2025 at Rockingham Dragway in North Carolina.

“We have been trying to incorporate this into an event for a few years now,” Tom Bailey said of the new class. “Everyone we have mentioned it to has been all about it. Well, here it is - the Sick Street Car Challenge class!”

Registration to this two-day drag and drive format is now open to 200 lucky competitors, for a chance to collect their share of $32,000 in payouts. You don’t necessarily need to be the quickest overall either, as we have 32 different categories to award $1,000 in, and we’ve come up with some good ones to give every competitor a shot at some money.

The Sick Street Car Challenge, based on a two-day drag and drive format (Friday April 11th and Saturday April 12th), will compete on an eighth-mile distance. Street legal machines will battle for $32,000 in prize money across over two-dozen categories, with the ability to stack more than one category for huge payouts!

The 72nd Annual Detroit AutoRama in Michigan has showcased everything from race cars to street bikes, and for the 2025 edition of this massive indoor show, Sick The Magazine is displaying twelve of some cool and quick rides proven in drag and drive events.

But one of the main attractions at the Detroit AutoRama is the dozens of rides hoping for a ‘Great 8’ selection, and ultimately, the Ridler Award.

Since it was first presented at the Detroit AutoRama in 1964, the Ridler Award is one of the highest awards to be captured in the custom and hot rod car community. It is awarded annually from a group of vehicles selected as the ‘Great 8’ and these vehicles must fall under under strict “never been shown before” guidelines.

With Sick The Magazine getting our area set-up on Thursday, we had a chance to walk the show and check out some of the amazing rides. Below are some of the ones that caught our eye as possible ‘Great 8’ selection and could be the next Ridler Award winner.

As Georgia starts to thaw out from the freezing temperatures and snow they experienced last week, the action also heated up in more ways than one during the second day of testing at South Georgia Motorsports Park for Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.

Several rides made some hot licks on the track, while others overheated their parts where the carnage has us wondering who can be ready for Day One on Tuesday, January 28th.

With snow on the ground surrounding the all-concrete racing surface at South Georgia Motorsports Park, the track known for setting records on small tire radial rides hosted their first of two testing days on Saturday, January 25th, leading to the fourth annual Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive. Both big and small-tire cars took to the track to shake off their winter blues, test out new combinations, and take advantage of the mineshaft air conditions.

Several drivers made some solid check out runs, but we also have a few falling by the wayside early.

The drag-and-drive that started it all, Hot Rod Drag Week, released their dates and tracks for the 2025 event about a month ago, December 17th, 2024. Today, the details on registration, as well as the anticipated rule set, were released for the 21st running of the event, which will visit the Northeast region for two new race tracks, as well as two track Hot Rod Drag Week has visited before.

 Hot Rod Drag Week, which will be contested from September 14th through the 19th, will start and end at Maryland International Raceway, located in Budds Creek, Maryland. Following day one activities, the event will visit Numidia Dragway in Pennsylvania for day two and stay in Pennsylvania to race at Maple Grove Raceway on day three. Day four will return to Maryland to battle on Cecil County Dragway’s surface, before arrival back at Maryland International Raceway for day five to wrap up the event and crown winners.

In addition to announcing the registration date, which will open on Saturday, February 22nd at 9 am EST, Hot Rod Drag Week released their newest rule set.

Although not as heavily produced as its Chevrolet counterpart the Camaro in the early years, the Pontiac Firebird had some intriguing options, including the 250 cubic inch 6 cylinder engine with a 4 barrel carburetor in 1967 through 1969. And although this Firebird didn’t come into Derrick Sanders life as a 6-cylinder version, he will enter his first drag-and-drive event with it carrying the same numbers of cylinders.

After building the Firebird into a clean cruiser over a couple decades, Derrick’s dad passed in 2016, leaving the Firebird to him. “I let the car sit basically the entire time since he passed, until this past summer. I told my wife I wanted to do something with the car so we could enjoy it as a family, and not just let it sit in the corner of the shop.”

One of the most unique rides to grace the drag-and-drive scene, and later, the small tire and no-prep game, Mikael Borggren and his Volvo station wagon had made their mark. Unfortunately, the storied Volvo was destroyed during a no-prep event in October 2024, leaving many to question how and if Mikael would make a comeback.

Just a week before the calendar turned to 2025, Borggren picked up his replacement ride, a third-generation Chevrolet Camaro in New York. “I’m going to start sorting it out both on a no-prep and a radial first. Then I might come for a guitar on a small tire.”

In a racing event, rarely does everything go 100-precent smoothly. Ask a veteran of the drag-and-drive world, and they will likely tell you the chances of experiencing no hiccups along the way of an event are small. Hundreds of things can happen, and most of the time, it’s not during racing, and in part two of the Drag Week 2024 Movie on the popular YouTube channel Finnegan’s Garage, Mike Finnegan and Tony Angelo attempt to overcome the pitfalls and complete Hot Rod Drag Week.

In part two of Finnegan’s Drag Week coverage, Finnegan and Angelo get to work to fix the damage to Blasphemi from the wheelie at Indianapolis, troubleshoot numerous issues over the next three days, and attempt to salvage their week. Did they make it happen?

As the drag-and-drive community continues to expand, the number of events has also increased. Sick the Magazine takes our events like Sick Week and Sick Summer a step further than others, putting more emphasis on track prep, and having companies like Mickey Thompson on hand. 

“2024 has been an exceptional year for Mickey Thompson,” said Jason Moulton, Director of Motorsports. “The drag-and-drive scene continues to show growth. These events are among our favorites to go to.”

With so many options for doing a drag-and-drive event in 2024, Edelbrock Sick 66 brought one major player to the table that no one else had done – run the majority of our street miles along Route 66.

The ‘mother road’ that first saw use in 1926 was the clinching factory that several competitors noted in determining what event to embark on for 2024.

The drag-and-drive community always shows their true colors. We’re not competitors; we are a family. Granted, some are closer family than others, but we’re here for the adventure. And we want to see EVERY person cross that finish line.

When Sick the Magazine conducted their first one off drag-and-drive at last year’s Death Week, comments such as “the cars will get impounded on the West Coast, no one will survive 2000 miles,” and even “the times won’t be impressive” were made.

Jason Rousseau put his New York-based 1980 Chevrolet Malibu on top last year; could he do it again at Sick 66?

It’s officially been a week since we rolled 177 competitors through tech inspection, as well as a couple hours of testing and tuning, to start Edelbrock Sick 66.

We’re down to one day left, today, Friday, October 18th. But before that, 150 competitors rolled into Albuquerque Dragway as we prepared to witness racing action in the fourth state of the event, and visit the fifth state in the tour, in yesterday's racing action.

We officially past the halfway point of Edelbrock Sick 66 as the tour rolled into Amarillo Dragway in Texas on Tuesday. A trio of track dates was joined by a near 300-mile drive day on day four (Monday, October 14th), and with just over 700 miles traveled by almost all the competitors, it was time to see who could continue to attack the track for some good numbers and a chance at the overall top spot.

We hit the halfway point on racing activities when Robert Voss made the final pass down Tulsa Raceway Park’s surface during day three of Edelbrock Sick 66. Racers had now traveled over 250 miles between three race tracks, and we set our course for Texas and Amarillo Dragway on the first of two drive days. Could everyone survive the first extended travel day and the original Route 66 for nearly 300 miles?

We’re nearing the halfway point of Edelbrock Sick 66, a drag-and-drive based around using as much of Route 66, a road that’s been use for nearly a hundred years. Some amazing checkpoints, as well as some tight racing in the three track visits, have marked this ‘one-time-only’ event. As we concluded day three’s racing activities and drive to Edmond, Oklahoma, some changes are afoot in the top ten, as well as facing the first serious driving day on Monday, October 14th. 

After a day of tech, registration and testing, it was time to get down to business at Ozark Raceway Park on Friday, October 11th for day one of Edelbrock Sick 66.

177 rides completed step one to enter competition at Ozark; who would emerge the leader, who could challenge that leader, and who would face the dreaded Did Not Finish (DNF) list after one day of abuse?

It's tech and testing day at Edelbrock Sick 66 - lot of checkmarks, testing and figuring out last minute details can make or break the last night of normalcy before the time slips count. The Sick 66 event, the first time a drag-and-drive will follow Route 66 as the majority of the drive, got underway yesterday at Ozark Raceway Park in Missouri.

After only a few people have entered the 7-second zone naturally aspirated in drag-and-drive events, ‘Fast Eddie’ Ensor definitely opened up the conversation at Sick Summer Presented by TBM Brakes in 2023.

Completing the week with a 7.53 average, along with a best single pass of 7.46 at 184 mph, Ensor set the record for Naturally Aspirated classes, and 2024 shows he’s coming for more.