One of the most underrated stories to come out of Sick Week 2023 was Richard Guido and his 8-second, gear-jamming, stick-shift Pontiac GTO. Guido is the undisputed, back-to-back Stick Shift class winner of the event. What we think is more interesting, though, is just how he has achieved this accomplishment.

There are roughly 350 competitors that are invited to compete in Sick Week, which held its maiden voyage in 2022. The tour travels to three tracks in Florida and one in Georgia, all in a span of five days. Racers record an elapsed time at each dragstrip during the week, which is averaged out to determine their position, and they must drive their cars between each track along a pre-determined route.

At Sick Week, you’ll find builds of all kinds, from mild to wild; some drive to the event, but most are trailered from home to the start and end location. So what if we told you that Rich and his 81-year-old father drove an 8-second Pontiac GTO all the way from Alberta, Canada to Florida and back? That’s as many as 45 hours (roughly 3,000 miles) each way…ands it’s why they call him the “Iron Man.”

The Beginning

 We need to go back to the beginning in order for you to truly understand this story.

“I grew up on a farm and we always fixed everything ourselves. I always enjoyed turning wrenches. I spent my childhood surrounded by motorcycles and building go-carts, and when I was old enough to drive, I restored a Volkswagen Baja Bug and had some fun with that. But I wanted something I could drive on a daily basis. The next car I bought was a 1969 Pontiac Firebird convertible with a 455 cubic-inch big-block and an automatic transmission. It ran 12’s, which was too fast for a convertible without a roll bar. After that, my brother found a couple of GTO’s that needed restoring — one was a 1965 model, black with a red interior, in need a lot of work, but it was a manual and I wanted it!”

Rich always just wanted a street car that he could drive daily and see how fast he could make it go, without compromising street-ability.

“I was never into bracket racing…couldn’t ever hit the brakes! I was always just hunting for faster timeslips. I found Drag Week in 2012 and knew it was my kind of event. I started making plans and told my brother, and he decided to come, as well. Back then the main source of information was on the online forums. So, we (my dad joined us on our first year) went in 2013, and it was total chaos…we didn’t even get out of Alberta before my brother had a camshaft issue that forced us to change his cam on the side of the road. That first year, we drove all the way down to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and it was brutally hot.”

The result that year was very good, though. Rich finished second in Big Block Street Race, with an average elapsed time of 10.60, and his brother earned the “spirit of the event” award after hitting both walls on the third day and still finished the race. “My passenger that year was my engine builder, Todd Blakney, from Muscle Motors. Dad has joined us pretty much every year of Drag Week and a few of the Rocky Mountain Race Weeks — he loves them and is definitely the hit at the coffee shop when he gets home, but he is fully capable and very knowledgeable about cars…he has been a gearhead since he was a teenager.”

The GOAT

If you were to look at Rich’s ’65, you probably wouldn’t think it is capable of doing what it does. What’s even more impressive is that Rich built this entire car in his garage, by himself. The body is all steel, except for the fiberglass hood, and it tips the scales at well over 4,000 pounds. Despite its heft, it consistently runs mid to high eights in the 1/4-mile.

So what does it take to push a 4,000 pound, gear-jamming consistently into the eights? About 1,500 horsepower. Guido’s GTO is packing a turbocharged, 521 cubic inch Pontiac powerplant, built by Todd Blakney. The engine features an IA2 iron block with a 4.35-inch bore and 4.375-inch stroke. Crower supplied the billet crankshaft, a set of I-beam rods, and 1.5:1 ratio rocker arms. Other engine components include CP pistons and a Comp Cams camshaft. The Edelbrock wide-port cylinder heads were carefully worked over by SD Performance, and feature Manton valves and pushrods, and PSI valve springs. In addition to the Edelbrock aluminum heads is a port-matched Edelbrock Super Victor EFI intake manifold. For power, efficiency, and consistency, Rich opted the fuel injection route; on top of the Super Victor sits a Warr Performance 102mm throttle body.

While we can certainly appreciate a true Pontiac engine under the hood, when Rich pops the hood, you’ll notice the tiny little Works 94mm turbocharger on the left side. To the right of the radiator you’ll see the Chiseled 2000 intercooler, complete with TurboSmart 50mm waste gates.

Rich runs two separate fuel systems, one for the street, and one for the track. The street system is routed from the stock fuel (baffled) tank which is filled with 91 octane and fed by a single Walbro fuel pump. In race mode, Rich utilizes C16 fed by a Fuelab pump, via a 3 gallon fuel cell. Engine management is handled by an AMP EFI, MS3 Pro Evo. “I have to thank Matt Blasco for teaching me how to tune,” Rich mentioned.

Now for the fun part! As we transition to the other components of the drivetrain, we bring you great news: it’s a stick shift! If the story wasn’t already impressive enough, Rich’s GTO is equipped with a T56 Magnum transmission from G Force and a Nexgen single disc 11′-inch clutch assembly from Cale Aronson of Black Magic clutches. That’s right, he drives it to the events, (sometimes 3,000 plus miles), runs the event, wins a lot, and drives it back home. Connecting the transmission to the rear is an Extreme driveline one-piece chromoly driveshaft with a loop. The rearend housing is a stout Moser Engineering -inch, complete with a Mark Williams bolt-through aluminum 3:50 gear ratio set, spool and 35-spline axles.

As we make our way over to the rear suspension, the GTO is equipped with a stock-style, triangulated 4-link setup. The rear brakes were sourced from a Cadillac Eldorado, complete with the integral emergency brake. Out front boasts a stock-style suspension with just a few upgrades. These include TRZ upper and lower control arms and Viking Crusader double-adjustable shocks. Like many drag-and-drive cars, Rich’s GTO has two sets of wheels: traditional Pontiac Rally wheels for the street, and RC Comp Torx for the track!

The interior is what you would expect: nearly stock appearing. Rich added two Procar 1300 racing seats with massage beads, housed inside a chromoly cage that is certified to 8.50, and other mandatory accessories like a phone holder, cupholders, a fan, and everything else you would need for a 7,000-mile trip.

“It has been great having my dad, who will turn 81 this year, along for the ride. I also have to credit Crower, G Force Transmissions, AMP, Muscle Motors Strathmore, Warr Performance, Tick Performance, Luhn Performance, Black Magic Clutches and Matt Blasco for all their support,” Guido says.

As you can see, Rich Guidos’ GTO is both mild and wild. When enthusiasts find out he drives his car to and from all the events, they are amazed. The GTO has run a best of an 8.75 at 165 mph, and done so  consistently. It’s that consistency that has led him to winning the Stick Shift Shootout categories at Sick Week in both 2022 and ’23. Not one to slow down, you’ll find Rich competing at many of the major drag-and-drive events throughout North America!