HIGH 5.998 FIVES

HOT ROD DRAG WEEK 2019 PRESENTED BY GEAR VENDORS

- Michael Galimi

“BUILD IT FAST, MAKE IT LAST” is the mantra of HOT ROD Drag Week presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive and this year’s weeklong torture test authenticated it. The field of 355 entries saw unprecedented tales of mechanical survival and the first official 5-second run in the competition’s 15-year history.

HOT ROD officials selected the Mid-Atlantic region as its base of operations for the 2019 running of Drag Week. Virginia Motorsports Park served as the host track where the tour began and finished. Day two brought the streetcar mob to Cecil County Dragway (Rising Sun, Maryland) before shooting north to Atco Raceway (Atco, New Jersey) and then back down to Maryland International Raceway (Budds Creek, Maryland) for the fourth round. The final day at Virginia Motorsports Park sealed the fate for category winners and record runs. At just shy of 800 miles, this year’s drive was less distance than usual, but don’t confuse that to mean that it was easier than years past. This year’s route took us through some dense metropolitan areas surrounding the Chesapeake Bay and included several tollbooths and slow-moving traffic over bridges.

The attrition rate was also less than recent years, with more cars finishing the event than usual, a statistic we will chalk up to racers being more savvy in building combinations that can survive the drive, which is really what Drag Week is about: a torture test of street driving for your race car. In the end, Tom Bailey and his “Sick Seconds 2.0” became the first official 5-second Unlimited class entry and secured a fourth title as America’s Fastest Street Car, a historic achievement in this, the 15th running of Drag Week.