With a solid resume in bracket racing in multiple cars, Lane Cavar had become a common name in the winners’ circle on the west coast. But he still felt like something was missing, especially with his high school car, a 1979 Chevrolet Malibu.

“I have always attempted to keep my car as multipurpose as possible, but was getting to the point of being a sole race car,” said Lane. “Being this is the car I drove to high school, I wanted to revert the car back to street car form.”

As we roll into the last part of summer, and the last third of the drag-and-drive season, we’re also seeing several competitors seeing success at standalone events.

We have a trio of big drag-and-drive events coming next week, but here's a few stories from the drag-and-drive community last week.

It was less than a month ago that Brett LaSala put ‘Snot Rocket 2.0’, his low 6-second street-legal 2012 Mustang, up for sale. Plans for a new car, ‘Snot Rocket 3.0’, were underway at Moore Race Chassis, and Brett mentioned it would be ready for a Sick Week 2025 debut.

But that timeline might be updated a little bit after a video dropped showing the new Moore Race Chassis .

For many that strive to attend a drag-and-drive event, you can sometimes hit a wall where you realize that attending that year might not be in the card. Some might have a back-up plan, or in rare case, multiple options.

For Jody Ames, the 2024 edition of Hot Rod Drag Week marks the first time he is able to take his original ‘Plan A’ car, a 2016 Ford Mustang.

‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ is a phrase that’s been used to tie together racing and car sales, and the promotion has worked well over several decades. Included in that idea are the big three and the use of drag racing ‘stock-appearing’ rides to sell their showroom counterparts.

That idea has been enjoying its latest wave with National Hot Rod Association Factory Stock Showdown and Factory X class, but recent rules infractions have the rumor mill swirling on future participation in the class.

Backed by a team of enthusiasts, and buoyed by the racing and likable shenanigan content of the late Ken Block, Hoonigan rose to become one of the most popular brands in the last fifteen years. But in the last year, the company has gone through major changes, and yesterday Hoonigan filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing $1.2 billion in debt.

Bob Ruppel's drag-and-drive experience was solidified on his Hot Rod Drag Week. "I'm a competitive person, so even when things are going wrong, I try to push through it all. When my second ever drag-and-drive event required a short block swap in a checkpoint parking lot 800 miles from home, and you're with like minded car people, anything seems possible."
What story will he tell from this year's Hot Rod Drag Week?

After successfully completing his second drag-and-drive event at the Redwood Rally in 2023, Ryan Saiki plans to return in just over a week with some updates and ‘adjustments’ to a storied Chevrolet Corvette. This C3 Corvette embarked on its first drag-and-drive last year, and Ryan plans to make the second one just as memorable.

Tom Kuepper's version of the popular Ford half-ton platform served as a farm truck in its past life, but Tom wasn’t focused on field work when he picked up the truck. Sporting a 438 cubic inch Windsor-based engine with a pair of 78/75-millimeter turbochargers, Tom recently went hunting for a 8-second time slip!

With the 20th running of Hot Rod Drag Week less than three weeks away, Tom Bailey had plans to send the SMX engine from the 'Sick Seconds 2.0' Camaro to Steve Morris Engines to get inspected and freshened up.

The fix for ‘Sick Seconds 2.0’ chassis is a question mark; would the engine get a clean bill of health?

For Alexis Zarate, she’ll embark on her first drag-and-drive, something she’s wanted to do for nearly a decade, at the Edelbrock Sick 66 this October.

The 26 year-old mother of two got her introduction to cars through her father, as well as the ’69 Camaro she currently navigates. “My dad bought the car at age 17, and gave it to me when I was a year old."

Originally opened in 1978, Crossville Dragway has enjoyed some successful seasons in the middle-east area of Tennessee. Hosting everything from Pro Mods to no-prep, Street Outlaws to a street-car series, the track has survived several owners. And although the current lease holder stated the track could be shutting down for 2025 just a few weeks ago, a popular social media figure and business owner has recently stepped up to take the facility to the next level in 2025.

In motorsports, risk is one of the components along for the ride. Whether a driver, crew or family chooses to fully accept it or not, parts failures, crashes, and even fire can strike without warning, and it’s up to you to prepare for it.

After a scare with fire in 2015, Lyle Barnett would make some serious changes in his racing program going forward. What happened when fire returned in a big way one week ago?

After making a solid impression (and several big wheelies) in an 1983 Chevrolet Malibu station wagon during 2022 and 2023, including the 2023 edition of Sick Week, Colin Gee started thinking about a new car build for drag-and-drive duty.

Little did he know that just over a year after he started that build, it would have a blown-up engine, then Colin sold the car, and started on another build just this month!

"Our goals were an 8-second average, and an 8-second pass every day. I ran in the 8-second range for three of the days, despite having just converted it to pump E-85 fuel prior to the event." Heading back to Byron Dragway for the final day, Mike Chenoweth was looking at a possible top five finish in the Sick Street Race class, but faced several challenges on day five of Sick Summer.

I’ve been in mourning this week along with the rest of the drag-and-drive community after the deaths of my friends Harry Haig and Andrew Baumgartner. These two fine Australians lost their lives in a single-vehicle accident in rural Victoria just under a week ago. Another of our drag-and-drive brothers, AJ John, thankfully survived the wreck but is in hospital with extensive injuries. The first thing AJ said to me when we made contact in the days after was: “It still doesn’t feel real.” You took the words right out of my mouth, bud.  

We’ve discussed several tracks closing up shop for alternative uses of the land in the last year, but we’ve also seen tracks come back to life after sitting for several years, including Skyview Drags in New York. But is the future in doubt after the track has been listed for sale?

On a special anniversary, some couples might choose to give each other special gifts, renew their vows, and even take a special trip. For Bridget and Jason Morris, they chose to spend her twentieth anniversary by participating in Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks in Bridget's 2006 Pontiac GTO.

Buying a proven car that is already built the way you want it, or most of the way that you want it, eliminates the money and time factor in a complete build.

But can you shed the 'previous history' that comes with buying someone else's ride? That recently came to light when Brett LaSala's 'Snot Rocket 2.0' was sold...

Participants of a drag-and-drive event (or multiple events) will tell you: there is just something about getting out there and accomplishing a ‘must-do’ or a ‘bucket list’ item. We’ve heard tons of reasons why people decide to make the commitment to do a drag-and-drive, but for Brian Rowlison, it was about making the most of a second chance.