People always claim to have a street-strip car, but how many miles do you really put on your drag car? That’s a question that Hot Rod Drag Week answers as the ultimate qualifier. For those living underneath a rock, Hot Rod Drag Week is a five-day drag ‘n drive event. Putting the fastest streetcars in America through a nearly one thousand-mile torture test, driving to five different drag strips in five days. Drag Week has many different cars in different classes, from Unlimited – its the wild west of Drag Week, anything goes as long as it passes tech and is registered and insured – to Ultimate Iron – the fastest steel body cars in the world capable of 6.50 second passes, and even Street Machine Eliminator – a massive group of cars that don’t run faster than 10.000, get paired up for a 32-car bracket race at the end of the week.

One Fast Fox

The fastest Ford-powered Ford was the Fox body Mustang of Randy Seward and Bob Alexander. With Randy behind the wheel in the ’91 Fox body Mustang, it ran 8.50s all week long in the Street Race Small-Block Power Adder class. He was dangerously consistent, making that car look like a purpose-built bracket car with a week-long average of 8.50940 at 160.82mph for 5 days. His best run came on day 1 at National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio with a 8.502 at 160.56mph on Monday (day 1). The week for Seward was smooth with the only issue because two spark plug wires that had to be replaced on day 1. The car is powered by a 363 cubic-inch engine with a Dart iron eagle block, TFS 225 CNC high port heads, Comp hydraulic roller cam, and a pair of 64mm turbos from Precision. It gets directed out back by a 2-speed Powerglide to a Ford 9-inch fabricated by TRZ Motorsports.

With sixteen years of racing it is not surprising that he is the fastest and most consistent Ford on Hot Rod Drag Week 2024.

Big-Small-Block ’70

Jason Neshiem and Chad Poncelet brought a 1970 Mustang Mustang to run in the Pro Street Power Adder category. The Mustang sports all its original glass and steel panels, and is powered by a 427 cubic-inch Windsor with a Dart block, Brodix heads, custom ported 2924 intake, and twin-blade 1200 cfm carb with a nitrous oxide fogger system. The car has a 4-link out back with a 4.11 gear to help propel this fine steed to a 8.65560 at 154.94mph average over 5 days with a best pass of 8.607 at 154.91 on Wednesday (day 3) at US131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan.

Other interesting things to note on this build – it sports a stock interior and even has a CD player. Listening to music is nice, but I’d rather hear that Windsor scream!

The Cluster Truck

When it comes to cool factor for drag and drive cars, nobody does it better than gassers. The highly raked rearward stance, the wheelie’s off the line – the header dump exhaust – gassers are just built different. Two different gassers caught my eye at this year’s Hot Rod Drag Week.

The first one would be Mike Wiles and Roger Heston, in a 1961 Ford F100 running in the B Gas category that is aptly named “The Cluster Truck.” This truck, with its teal and white two-tone and patina, caught my eye on day 1 pulling into the checkpoint at Hawkins Speed Shop in Richmond, Indiana. The ’61 F100 gasser is powered by a 347 stroker with a Schneider cam, tunnel ram with 450 Holley carbs, back by a Ford AOD Transmission and a Winter’s Quick Change rearend from a sprint car. They use a 5.13 gear set for the strip and swap to 4.11s for the street. It had a week-long average of 13.69380 at 90.58 with a best pass of a 13.160 at 89.93mph at National Trail Raceway on Monday (day 1). They started battling transmission issues through the week, slowly losing gears and on day 3 they lost Overdrive. On day 4 they would lose Reverse and Neutral while trying to push the truck, which would inadvertently weld the clutches together and by day 5 they would lose Second gear. They would still manage to limp the truck through the day and drive it home – a great example of the fighting spirit of Drag Week!

Running Rust

Another gasser to catch my eye rolling into Hawkins on Monday was the Ford Falcon called “Running Rust,” driven by Josh Jablonski and crewed by Hunter Egbert and Dave Jablonski. The falcon is powered by 347 stroker with a Paxton supercharger and a Holley Sniper EFI 2. Power goes to the back with the help of a 4R70W transmission with a Ford 8.8 out back. It had a week-long average of 12.71790 at 108.56mph, the best pass of 8.607 at 154.91 mph would be on Tuesday (day 2) at Lucas Oil Raceway Park. An oil pan gasket leak, transmission O-ring seal leak, and a broken rear wheel stud were the most of their worries as the car managed to survive Drag Week 2024.

Naturally Aspirated Nemesis

When it comes to Drag Week, there’s a lot of typical builds that run on Drag Week, such as turbo LS Fox body Mustangs, first-gen Camaros, Chevelles, and Novas. But you occasionally see something out of the ordinary.

Steve McNew and his max-effort 2022 Mustang Mach 1 were running in the Street Race Small-Block Naturally Aspirated class. I first spotted this car a couple months ago at Indy Airstrip attack. It’s powered by a stroker version of the Predator engine from a GT500 that is now 5.5L with a Frankenstein intake and ported heads, beehive chromoly valve springs, water/methanol injection, Comp Stage 2 cams among many other modifications. The car ran a best pass on Wednesday (day 3) at US131 Motorsports Park with a 10.847 at 127.55mph. He finished out the week with an average of 10.94470 at 127.33mph – a strong showing for the little Mustang.

The Danger Ranger

I know that truck, it’s a Ford Ranger! But what is a Ranger doing on Drag Week?

Ty Cobb showed up to Drag Week in a teal 1988 Ford Ranger in the Street Machine Eliminator category, powered by a 351 Windsor with a M5odR2 transmission with an 8.8 rearend. They cracked a head on day 1, but managed to limp through at a reduced pace and on day 5 they swapped a carb. The Ranger with a cracked head ran a best pass of a 14.697 at 92.12mph on Friday (day 5) at National Trail Raceway and had an overall average of a 15.37930 at 90.83 mph. Slow and steady, it managed to be faster then 11 other vehicles, including a 2011 WRX and 1975 Duster.