2023 Roadkill Nights - Street Legal Drag Racing on Woodward Ave

[Frosty]

So yesterday, Indyman Joe and I met for breakfast and then headed to downtown Pontiac for the 9th annual Roadkill Nights Presented by Dodge. This year was in a new location in downtown Pontiac, instead of being at the M1 Concourse. Road construction on Woodward near the M1 made the shut down area risky. So this new location in the heart of downtown was choosen instead. They preped a 1/8 mile drag strip on the south bound loop of Woodward/WIdetrack Blvd. The starting line was literally two blocks east of the Pontiac Transportation Museum on W. Pike St.

We ran into our favorite Canuckistanis, notallthere and Mrs. notallthere. It was great to see them. I got hugs from both of them.....the missus still smells better. It was really, really great to see them. Apparently notallthere has to work next weekend, on Woodward weekend!?!?!? Gasp! Say it ain't so.....

It took Joe and I awhile to walk from the VIP parking lot to the main entrance to Roadkill Nights, only to find out that my Canon DSLR Rebel t7i camera was not allowed into the venue. So we ended up going back to the car, dropping it off, and then we discovered the VIP shuttle (e.g. a chartered Pontiac school bus).

 

This bad boy was not marked. I don't know if this is a concept car, the Charger EV prototype, or just a great custom. There was a nearby tent called the Dodge Venum. Not sure if this is tied to this car or not. Regardless, it looks pretty bad ass.

 

Very cool RC. Joe and I agree that the Ramchargesrs RC looks the best.

 

NASCARLO - from Roadkill.

Yes it looks worse in person than on TV.

 

The Ranchero from Roadkill - I think the blankers belong to "Homeless Dave" Freiburger.

 

Here is the Draguar - a supercharged SBC in a Jaguar. 

While photographing the Ranchero, I looked up and low and behold who shows up.....David Freiburger himself and a camera crew. It would appear he is filming part of a future episode of Roadkill right here and now. More filming Roadkill later.

While waiting to cross the street to head to our VIP seats, we came across Lucky Costa, from Hot Rod Garage. I talked with Lucky while on Power Tour. I asked Lucky today is Alex Taylor had gotten any sleep. She was in Bonneville most of the this week because it is Speed Week on the Salt Flats. She is driving a record setting Camaro. She took a red eye flight from Salt Lake to Detroit, did some testing at Milan Dragway in the Savoy, then got on a plane to Nashville to do an appearance for Snap On tools, and then fly back to Detroit for RK Nights. She has barely slept in 72 hours. Lucky said that she was leaving her a case of Red Bull. According to him, it's a "thing now apparently". I got a chuckle out of that.

Sign on the merch / souvenir truck. Interesting though, this sign is directionally correct. North is the right and south is to the left.

The Rick Flairmont blown Ford Fairmont from Faster with Finniegan was driven from Georgia by Newbern and Cotton. Just left of it was Steve Dulchich's Bang Shift Cougar. That is Lucky Costa again to the right.

More of Lucky.

You can see Alex's 56 Hellcat powered Plymouth Savoy with the plastic cover on the trunk. She would be racing in the big tire class later in the day.

This Dodge Daytona Charter clone belongs to Mike Finnegan. This car is the basis for the upcoming episode of Roadkill. Seems Finnegan bought this car here in Michigan last year at Roadkill Nights, ignored it for almost a year. Frieburger and he thrashed on it for a week prior to put it together. Notice that, in true Roadkill fashion, the hood is on the roof. He ran it down Woodward like that too! Frieburger said they installed the tunnel ram under a freeway overpass at the spur of the moment too. Dave did allude to how rust this car is too. Finnegan didn't want to run it hard in a drag race because of it, but he did do a massive burnout in it. Finnegan calls this car "The Dumpster Fire Charger" ! 

 

 

 

Here is the broadcast team, KJ Jones doing the play-by-play for live streaming plus the crow. He is interviewing Freiburger, Finnegan, and Dulchich.

 

Alex Taylor in the racing suit. Joe and I were not permitted in the drag car area. However, I did chat briefly with Alex. She has barely slept. She passed her rookie license at Bonneville and ran a best run of 233 mph (average of 2 passes). Last pass was 236, she said. The record for her class is 255. I gave her a "I cruised Woodward 2023" bumper sticker (Joe saw me). So if that shows up on her social media, I'll be curious to see. She has the bumper sticker in her right hand at her side.

Edited August 13, 2023 by Frosty

[Frosty]

Back for more tales from the Roadkill Nights!

A Mopar Funny car/ Very cool! No it didn't go down Woodward. Pity really.

In the Dodge display, I noticed this "King Daytona" package on 2023 Charger.

As part of the Dodge Thrill rides, they were using Hellcat powered Chargers, Challengers and RAM TRXs! Joe and I were able to Fast Past most of the crowd to go drag racing in a Hellcat. We both opted for each of us running in a Challenger. We both ended up running in the black Challenger, Joe first and me second.

Since I took the picture - this is Joe leaving for his run before mine. I at least videoed my run.....

In case anyone cares - we racing north (towards M-59) on the south bound loop of Woodward for little thrill ride.

 

 

I loved this guy's T-shirt.

Alex and the Savoy, in line on Pike St., are waiting in the staging lanes to turn onto Woodward and run. The white "SICK GARAGE" SUV is Tom Bailey's latest creation.

I loved the "Pizza King" delivery S-10 pickup. Nice to see guys with a sense of humor.

Around 1:30 it started raining. We even got a lightning strike around 2:00 pm about 8 miles away. So we had to leave the grandstands. That meant getting soaking wet. Joe and I decided to stand in line for food since there was nothing else to do and were not allowed back in the grandstand until the lightning cleared. It took awhile to get our food and beverages. Lucky for us, lunch was included with our tickets. It stopped raining around 2:30-3:00. It took another hour or so for them to dry the track. So festivities ran longer than Joe or I planned. We were dry by the time we left after the Roadkill boys did their stuff.

How about some drag racing?

A 4th-gen Trans Am vs a Mustang.

 

A blown 3rd-gen Firebird vs. a blown Corvette

 

 

A Beaumont Acadian (Canada only - version of the Nova) vs. a fast 4-door '57 Chevy

 

 

One of the mentor/mentee influencer cars this year. Nice Barracuda.

The blown Firebird in the staging lane.

The Beaumont Acadian. I love his Michigan license plate "Acadian". LOL!

This is one bad ass twin turbo'd GMC S-15 pickup. It definitely hauled the mail!

This Challenger has the new Hurricane engine in it, which replaces the Hemi. It is a turbo charged inline-6 cylinder. Joe and I agree that it doesn't have the panache or sounds of a Hemi. Hemi please!?!

 

I had to admit, I was surprised to see this next car, but considering this show is heavily slanted towards Mopar, I guess I should not have been. I present to you the world famous Hemi Under Glass wheelstander! Yes, this is the same car that Jay Leno was in when it flipped at Irwindale Raceway during his famous episode of "Jay Leno's Garage".

 

 

 

 

Finally the Roadkill guys finally got around to doing something. I'm sure this will also be part of the upcoming Roadkill episode.

Finnegan does a massive burn out but he doesn't it drag. Freiburger mention that Mike was afraid the car. Notice the hood is still strapped to the hood in typical Roadkill style?

 split in two from the rust.

 

 

Next up is Newbern in the supercharged RIck Flairmont and Steve Dulchich in the Bang Shift Cougar.

 

That was most of it. Joe and I had been onsite for close to 9 hours with the rain delay. We were beat. Still we had a ball. We can say we've drag raced on Woodward now. Joe wants to legitimately race here next year once he gets things fixed up. He knows o register way early now.

 

[Frosty]

Here is some side fun we had at Roadkill Nights.

As I said above, the race was literally two blocks from the Pontiac Transportation Museum. Joe has never been there before, so I drove him to it before we parked for Roadkill Nights. The museum was closed of course, but we still took in the new mural.

One more thing...AkroNobel donated the paints for the mural. AkroNobel is the successor of Pontiac Paint and Varnish, who provided all the automotive paint to Oakland and Pontiac in the early days. They are Pontiac-based paint company. A paint store on southbound Woodward still bares the name of Pontiac Paint and Varnish.

The '68 GTO is a homage to the old "Now You Know the Rest of the Story" ad from Life Magazine, which appeared in one issue. As well as the infamous billboard "To Birmingham, from Pontiac, With Love". Both ads got Pontiac marketing into heaps of trouble.

 

As we got to the entrance there were some haunted house figures and a car show going on outside the entrance in downtown Pontiac.

 

A panoramic shot of the whole track for our seats.

 

McLaren Pontiac hospital rises about the downtown Pontiac.

 

I like this shot. In the middle of the starting line is Roadkill Nights with the Woodward Avenue sign on it.

I have quite a few more drag race videos but it would take a lot of time to upload them.

Here is the YouTube link to the Live Stream that Motortrend did for the day. All 8 1/2 hours of it. Just note, that the final results of the big tire and small tire shoot out along with the mentor/mentee shootout aren't included (I checked since Joe and I were beat and left by that point). I suspect it will be included in the upcoming Roadkill/Roadkill Garage/Hot Rod Garage episodes.

For context, as you watch the race, notallthere and his wife are sitting in the grandstands to the left. Joe and I are sitting in the grandstands on the right.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Frosty

[64 kiwi boni]

Love it frosty ! Here I am sitting in plumb crazy watching you guys have fun ! 

[Frosty]

Thanks mate! I’ve been meaning to go for years but the boss and I are usually coming back from a weeks holiday on this weekend. So I usually miss it but that didn’t happen this year.

This year I took the chance and bought the VIP package. It was great.

With luck, next year Joe and I will wrenching and running his LeMans instead.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Frosty

[Frosty]

More info from Finnegan himself about the Dumpsterfire Daytona and why he didn’t run it that hard.

[JUSTA6]

Great coverage as always buddy, glad you guys had fun. Wait,,,1 question, did you get one of the Roadkill street signs to go with your collection?

Edited August 14, 2023 by JUSTA6

[Frosty]

I didn't get a sign - in fact I don't think they were even available at the merch trailer.

That said, Joe and I got Roadkill Garage and Hot Rod Garage stickers. We also got a Roadkill Nights ball cap with out VIP package.

[Ringo64]

12 hours ago, Frosty said:

 

This is amazing!! I love it!

[JUSTA6]

9 hours ago, Ringo64 said:

This is amazing!! I love it!

That's on my bucket list for Friday.  Shots with the car, Tshirt and a dash plaque.  If they can be found.  No Official Merchandise tent in Pontiac. All are down towards Detroit.  Think we found one near 12mi last year.

Edited August 15, 2023 by JUSTA6

[Frosty]

I think we found Joe (formerly of the Oakland Press) at the old Pasquales between 12 and 13 Mile last year.

[Frosty]

The latest episode of Hot Rod Garage premiered on Friday night (10-13-2023). This episode dealt with changes to the '59 Savoy in preparation of it racing at Roadkill Nights. Since I have only watched the episode once, I don't know if Indyman Joe and I are in the show, or Mr and Mts Notallthere, who were also there..

However, there is a little drama I need o explain that you wouldn't know if you just watched the show. First of all, the week of Roadkill Nights, Alex was at Bonneville Speed Week, trying to break into the 200 MPH club and set a new class record. She was partially successful, she got over 200 mph but she didn't set a new class record. She had to catch the red eye out of Utah on Thursday night to Detroit to film and test and tune the Savoy that you see in the HRG episode. Those scenes were filmed at nearby Milan Dragway, which is now re-opened under new owners (yeah!). She had to leave for a sponsor speaking/appearance engagement in Nashville on Friday afternoon/evening, and then she had return to Detroit to race on Saturday morning. Alex documents a lot of this on her own YouTube channel "Racing with Alex Taylor". When Joe and I bumped into Lucky Costa, I asked him if Alex had gotten any sleep. His response was "Apparently drinking lots of Red Bull is a thing = for millennials".

Edited October 16, 2023 by Frosty