Sick The Magazine is proud to announce that Sick Week has been recognized by USA Today as the Best Motorsports Race in the United States.
Nominations for the award were carefully curated by a panel of subject matter experts and USA Today 10Best editors before being voted on by the public. The Sick community quickly rallied to the cause and helped bring national recognition not just to Sick Week but to drag-and-drive as a whole.
Sick Week Presented By Gear Vendors Overdrive is held annually in Florida and Georgia. Over 300 teams take street legal cars to four drag strips across five days, handing in their best time on each day. In simple terms, the racer with the quickest average time is the winner. The event pitches itself as the Super Bowl of Drag-and-Drive.
The sport of drag-and-drive is currently in an explosive state of growth. Cars are under construction in thousands of workshops across the country and new events are being created across the world. First imagined by journalist David Freiburger as the ultimate test to determine America’s quickest street car, drag-and-drive now encompasses not just those in search of peak performance, but the adventure that comes with it.
Sick The Magazine was launched in 2021 to cover the sport in detail, with a quarterly book of 212 pages dedicated to real car people. Tom Bailey is the publisher of Sick The Magazine, as well as one of the top drag-and-drive competitors.
“Some people might ask, how can an event like Sick Week possibly compare to the Indy 500 with over 100 years of history, or the thunder of Daytona?” he said. “For me, it comes down to opportunity. Where most professional motorsport is a dream out of reach, drag-and-drive is for all. We see people from all walks of life at Sick Week and they are racing on the same drag strips, driving on the same routes and having the same adventure, no matter what vehicle they are in.
“Sick Week encourages us not just to be spectators to other people’s achievements, but to make sure our own lives are full of accomplishment. Drag-and-drive is a sport where people have experiences they remember for a lifetime. We’re proud to be the recipient of USA Today’s Best Motorsports Race award and I hope this helps bring even more people into the world of drag-and-drive.”
The first Sick Week was held in 2022 and it has become a must-attend event for any fan of motorsport. Sick The Magazine editor Luke Nieuwhof said Sick Week and the sport of drag-and-drive is unique for the way it breaks free of the confines of a track and takes part in the real world.
“Elite motorsport is almost clinical, racing down to a science,” he said. “While the engineering behind the cars at Sick Week is incredible, they are all subject to the demands of the road and the inherent unpredictability of that environment. What’s more, the general public are exposed to the sport in a visceral way — it’s really something to be cruising down the highway alongside a street car with 3000 horsepower. We have a lot of people now racing whose first exposure to the sport was simply seeing the cars on the road and that’s pretty cool.
“Thanks to everybody who voted for Sick Week to win USA Today’s Best Motorsports Race. It goes to show the strength of the community we have involved in drag-and-drive. The passion and enthusiasm people have for this sport is taking it far.”
Sick Week’s 2024 edition was won by the USA’s Brett LaSala thanks to an average quarter-mile time of 6.340 seconds over five days of competition. Fellow American Bryant Goldstone was second with a 6.519 average, while Sweden’s Stefan Gustafsson clinched third with a 6.745 average.
The name Sick has now become synonymous with the drag-and-drive lifestyle, offering a full range of merchandise as well as the industry-leading magazine that launched the brand.
Sick Week couldn’t happen without a team of volunteers, support staff, media and officials who ensure safe, fair and fun competition for all. These efforts are boosted by those of Sick Week’s sponsors, including Gear Vendors Overdrive, Motion Raceworks, Summit Racing Equipment, PEAK Performance, Driven Racing Oil, ISKY Racing Cams, Mickey Thompson, VP Racing Fuels, Pilot Transport, XS Power Batteries, Delta PAG, Dodge, Edelbrock, Precision Turbo & Engine, RaceQuip, TBM Brakes and Holley NOS.
This story was originally published on May 8, 2024. 
