Are you ready? Drag Week 2019 is only a few weeks away. Drag Week is a car show combined with drag racing on steroids: a few hundred miles of driving interspersed with a day of friendly drag racing competition, with a twist. While drag racers can have support staff and vehicles to carry spares, Drag Week participants can only rely on themselves and what they can fit in a trailer that their competition car can tow.
Drag Week builds self-sufficiency and teamwork among competitors. One of the main rules of drag week is that you can’t have a huge support staff following you with semi-trailers full of spare parts. You have to bring a trailer with whatever tools, parts and supplies you think you’ll need to overcome any obstacle confronted during the week. You have to tow that trailer with the car you’re racing. You can’t have a dedicated tow vehicle.
There are some minor exceptions, but if you twist an axle during a pass, you have to be able to repair it yourself. There’s no calling Joe’s Garage to bring a wrecker and tow you to the shop for repairs. However, it’s not uncommon for another participant to come across someone on the road with a problem and give, lend or sell them what they need to get going again. That’s allowed.
What Do Between Now and Drag Week
Drag Week 2019 starts in a couple of weeks. You should already be well on your way to being able to just grab your keys, hook up the trailer and go. If not, you’ve got some rushing to do. First off, make a list of what you know you’ll need:
- Drag tires and street tires – You will be putting around 1,000 miles on your car between racing venues. If your drag radials are street legal, bring two sets.
- Fluids – Drag racing consumes engine fluids at a prodigious rate. Have a case of oil, trans fluid and rear end fluid, as well as two gallons of coolant.
- Tools – Everything you need to do most engine and suspension repairs either at the track, in a parking lot or on the side of the road.
- Spare parts – Plugs. Filters. Wiper blades (Yes, it will rain during Drag Week). Plug wires. Anything you think that repeated high speed passes and driving between tracks will use up and require replacement.
Now, go rent a trailer that will fit all of that and get a trailer hitch installed on your car.
If you haven’t already made your hotel reservations for Drag Week, open a new tab right now and get to it! You’ve probably already lost the best rooms and prices. You’ll need to get a list of the tracks where Drag Week activities will take place and find somewhere to stay as close as possible to those venues.
You’ve also got to register both yourself and your car. That means having your insurance ducks all lined up and waddling together. It also means making sure your regular and your E.T.-based licenses are valid and up to date. Most of you have hopefully already registered, as first-run registration has already filled up. Don’t fret if you haven’t, though, as there is a waiting list you can get on.
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