Sick At The Rock Presented By Motion Raceworks marked a new style of drag racing event, combining drag-and-drive and class racing for one jam-packed show at Rockingham Dragway last weekend.
With north of $50,000 on the line in payouts, some solid competition showed up to battle in North Carolina for what was originally scheduled as a two-day drag-and-drive alongside classes inspired by the former NMCA/NMRA series. A Thursday night downpour led to a weeping track on Friday, resulting in an unusually sunny rainout that pushed the first sessions of qualifying to Saturday. The drag-and-drivers were able to get their street cruise out of the way, however, checking out some of the local sights, including a railway museum, a Mexican restaurant, and a giant strawberry-shaped ice cream shop.
Once cars finally got on to the track, the action didn’t let up. A total of three new world records were set at the event, largely thanks to the quality Total Venue Concepts track preparation brought in by Sick The Magazine.
Leading the charge in entry numbers was the Sick Street Car Challenge, where 32 different types of cars were given a shot to each win $1000. Some drivers walked away with several thousand dollars after taking out multiple classes! Among them was Street Outlaws star Jeff Lutz, who would take out the overall win, as well as awards for the Quickest Chevrolet, Quickest Big Block and Quickest Turbo car.
Lutz, who thrashed just to make the cruise on Friday after breaking a rod in Wednesday testing, posted a 3.846 average for the victory (two time slips were required to make the average). Lutz was also one half of a world record as he and Tom Bailey went 3.84 and 3.86 respectively side-by-side for the world’s quickest street legal pairing.
Lutz wasn’t done yet, as he also entered Pro Mods at the Rock, which was run in conjunction with the Sick event. Not only did he qualify, but he also won the first round in a stunning upset against a red-lighting Mike Decker III. Win lights were one thing, but Lutz was happier about getting to spend time with his son Jeffrey, who convinced him to enter the event.
“It put tears in my eyes to know Jeffrey wanted to do this with me again and ride in the car and stuff,” he said. “That is why we came here and why we put forward the effort that we did. On Wednesday, when we blew it up, I wanted to go home, but that man right there (pointing at Jeffrey) said no way.”
Alongside the drag-and-drive, five classes were introduced to the Sick fold: Small Tire Pro Stock, Coyote Stock, Street Race 8.60, Nostalgia Super Stock/Muscle Car and Open Comp.
The newly formed Small Tire Pro Stock class would have an eye-opener of a race for their 2025 season as they ran off for the $4900 prize pool. Dwight Ausmus blasted into the 7.5s for the first time in class history, including a 7.567 run to qualify number one. He would go on to run as quick as 7.549 in eliminations and win the event. Ausmus’ opponent John Langer couldn’t fire for the final round due to the isolator on an ignition coil breaking.
A huge $5000 payout was on offer from Sick The Magazine for Coyote Stock, a class based around a Ford Performance sealed Gen 3 Coyote engine and spec tuner. The cars must meet a 3000 lb minimum weight and use a 28×10.5-inch width tire. Aaron Worstell’s ’92 Mustang rode a pair of 9.5-second time slips to the final round to face Chad Stephens, who qualified his Ford Thunderbird on the pole at a 9.596. Stephens and Worstell opted to split the final round money and call it a night in the cold conditions.
Eleven cars qualified for Street Race 8.60, racing for another enormous $5000 payout thanks to Sick The Magazine. Paul Sienkiewicz qualified number one thanks to an 8.602, but he turned on the red-light in the final to swing the victory to Logan Day’s supercharged 2021 Mustang.
The Nostalgia Super Stock and Nostalgia Muscle Car Combo class presented by Driven Racing Oil combined together for Sick At The Rock with period-correct and nicely restored rides clocking anywhere from eight-second runs to fifteens, based on an index. All big three manufacturers were represented, but after three rounds of racing, it would be an all-Plymouth Belvedere final, where David Horton took the class victory over Bill Boomhower.
The Open Comp class, based on a handicap format using personal indexes and a five-tenths pro tree, had 33 entrants in Rockingham vying for the $3500 on offer from Sick The Magazine. Junior McKenzie would be the top qualifier with a near-perfect .0002 reaction time, but after four rounds of racing, it was Anthony Cupolo, Will McKay and David Woodside remaining in competition. The trio decided to split the remaining money due to cold conditions, and David Woodside won the coin flip for the winner’s trophy.
While the weather challenged Sick’s first combined drag-and-drive and class racing event, there were plenty of smiles and positive comments to come. The format will be rolled out again for Sick On The Green at Beech Bend Raceway in Kentucky, May 29-31. Event details, including discounted racer pre-entry, are now available at https://www.sickthemagazine.com/sick-on-the-green.
This story was originally published on April 16, 2025. 
