It had been a couple of years since I’d managed to get to the United States to compete in one of the country’s seemingly countless drag-and-drive jamborees, but the many event livestreams I’d watched had done their job to whet my appetite. So, with a break in work commitments, I decided another trip Stateside was just what the doctor ordered, and Sick Summer – a five-day drag-and-drive through America’s Midwest – was going to be the event for me.

First published in the September 2025 issue of Street Machine

Autotech Engineering’s Tyson Munro and I still had a G-body Malibu in the States from our previous campaigns there, so the first order of business was to get the car back up and running. Sounds easy when you say it fast, but orchestrating a car build from the other side of the world is a mission.

The previous set-up was a 6/71-blown small-block Chev, but this time we decided to go turbo LS, with a Forced Inductions S485 turbo, Turbosmart 60mm wastegate and a Haltech Nexus VCU.

We began by scrounging through our sheds for parts we had lying around, before building a stock-bottom-end, all-alloy, 5.3-litre LS in Tyson’s garage. The mill was then shipped to Chevy Thunder Down Under in Queensland, complete with loom, fly-by-wire pedal, Nexus, flex-fuel sensor, converter, flex-plate and manifolds, before being sent across the pond to The Car Shop in Independence, Kansas, where owner Dale Wilkens had graciously stored the Malibu for us.

With the Aussie dollar’s exchange rate in the trash at the time, we managed to score a complete hot side for the engine with a massive bar-and-plate intercooler from a seller in the States, via the Boosted LSX page on Facebook. This was then delivered to the Car Shop team, who installed the engine (including as much of the hot side as possible), trans and driveline in the Malibu before sending it on to Henderson Race Shop in Missouri.

Owner Troy Henderson had a long to-do list to tick off, including mounting the parachute, removing the sump and moving the oil drain, fabbing a tubular radiator support to fit the enormous intercooler, adding a new alternator and mount, making a bellypan, and a bunch of other odds and ends.

With six months left until the event, the car was shipped to Rustin Ledbetter at Riverside Racecraft in Arkansas for the final stages of the build, including sorting a full fuel system and wiring up the Nexus, among other jobs. However, with Rustin working most weekends as a race car tuner, he and his dad weren’t able to make a start on the Malibu until four weeks out from Sick Summer. Yep, we were nervous, but the Riverside crew got it all buttoned up in time and did an amazing job of it.

Finally, the big day arrived when our Aussie contingent – Tyson Munro, Shannon ‘Pyro’ Jennings from Melbourne’s Pro Finish, and yours truly – finally touched down on American soil in Dallas, Texas. We grabbed the tow rig and drove six hours straight to Arkansas, where we found the Malibu sitting outside Riverside Racecraft. After just a single lap around the block, we loaded the car up and headed to Monroe, Louisiana for a few test passes and to get licensed for NHRA.

We managed a couple of eighth-mile hits, and the car drove mint, but the datalogger showed the converter was really pulling the engine down mid-track, which was far from ideal for a stock-bottom-end combination.

But we didn’t have time to sort that out, as we had a 26-hour drive to Byron, Illinois ahead of us so we could make the start of Sick Summer at Byron Dragway.

We rocked up to the venue for the scrutineering and testing day on Sunday 15 June to find the place abuzz, with a record 342 cars entered for the event.

After changing a few out-of-date race belts, we got scrutineered for the Unlimited class in the afternoon, and we were then all good to make our first quarter-mile pass with the new combination. We were pumped!

The weather was amazing and the stands were packed, but as I let go of the button in the burnout box, there was a bang under the car and we lost drive.

We got the Malibu back to the pits to discover that the Gear Vendors overdrive was glowing hot, with putrid fluid coming out. What had happened was a mystery, but Gear Vendors’ Rick Johnson was always on hand, and he promised a replacement by the next morning.

Come 10:30 Monday morning, Day One’s racing had already begun while we thrashed to get the trans and replacement overdrive into the car. Fortunately, we smashed it out and got the Malibu into the lanes by mid-afternoon.

We managed a best of 10.98 on Day One, but we were having issues with the bump function, and the knock the engine developed after the first pass was of even greater concern, as it sounded a lot like a bent rod. The datalogger revealed that the engine was lugging mid-track due to high converter pressure, which made the converter even tighter.

We started searching online for some replacement rods and pistons, but with the temp in the high 30s, no shade available, no head gaskets and no torque wrench, we just had to cross our fingers and hit the road to the next stop.

On the highway, the noise the knock was making seemed to cycle, and we began to think it could be a lifter going away. On the plus side, the drive through Illinois was amazing, with wide-open farmland, corn crops stretching to the horizon, red barns, and old country towns – it was probably the best five-day drag-and-drive route I’ve done in 11 events.

After that cruisy 109-mile (175km) drive to Union Grove, Wisconsin – including the obligatory checkpoint stops, which turned into mini burnout parties – it was time to get our game face on for Day Two’s racing at Great Lakes Dragaway.

The atmosphere was really pumping at Great Lakes, and we pitted with expat Aussies Kylie and Rohan Hawley, who were competing in their absolutely stunning 1973 Dodge Duster.

Aside from the undiagnosed knock, the Malibu seemed to be running well, and we ran a single pass of 9.27@146mph, putting us into fourth place in the Unlimited class.

With reports of bad weather approaching, we then hit the road through Wisconsin towards Cordova, Illinois, stopping at the mind-blowing Historic Auto Attractions in Roscoe, before heading to Motion Raceworks in DeWitt, Iowa.

Unfortunately, it was a rushed stop at Motion, as massive rain clouds were blackening the sky and we’d been driving on 275 Radial Pro tyres, which were near-bald, so we were keen to get to Cordova as soon as possible and get off the road.

Day Three at Cordova Dragway saw the threat of bad weather from the previous day come to pass, as no sooner had we emptied the car, banged in a new set of sparkplugs and juiced up with E85 than the heavens opened. There would be no Unlimited-class racing today!

Fortunately, we had checked the forecast the week before the event and brought along a set of 275 ET Streets in case the weather turned, as they were good enough for road driving and had a bunch more tread than the Radial Pros, so we hit the road, bound for Iowa.

We followed the eastern banks of the Mississippi to the Poopy’s Biker Bar & Grill checkpoint, but with the weather closing in, we pushed on towards Tri-State Raceway in Earlville, Iowa.

Day Four at Tri-State turned into a bit of a shitshow. The track timing system took a dump, so the racing was down for over two hours in the morning and 90 minutes in the afternoon. Nevertheless, we gave the car a bit more boost in the 60-foot and ran a 1.35sec short time and [email protected] full pass – so close to an eight!

With our timeslip handed in, we hit the road once more, and the drive was spectacular, particularly as we headed past Sabula, Iowa’s only island city.

The one checkpoint for the day was a block party at Rock Falls, featuring a burnout comp, live music and a show ’n’ shine. It was a magic afternoon, with fantastic weather, good vibes, and a great sunset.

It was a relief to roll through the Byron Dragway gates once more for the final day of racing, and we were met with the news that Unlimited class leader Nick Cryer had knocked the bearings out in his ’33 Ford on the drive, leaving us on top of the class leaderboard!

We were all pretty pumped, and we just needed a single pass in the low nines or high eights to seal the deal. We played the waiting game until mid-afternoon to make our first run, but when we fired up the Malibu to head to the lanes, it would barely run. Panic set in!

The Haltech ECU was telling us that the tune was too lean, and the flex-fuel sensor was measuring 100 per cent ethanol content, so either the sensor had packed it in or we had a load of crap fuel. Tyson banged more fuel into the tune, but the car left the startline like a dog and started misfiring mid-track, so I got out of it. The clock was really ticking now for us to get that win in the bag!

We dumped the fuel, bought new drums of VP Racing fuel, and sent the car back to the lanes at the 11th hour. With the front wheels in the air off the line, we banged out our final pass, running a 9.46@122mph to claim the win in the Unlimited class!

Were we the quickest car there? Nope, but we drove it fast and made it last, making the countless years of thrashing, busting arse and spending coin all suddenly worthwhile! What a way to finish a three-week road-trip with good mates!

A few days after the event, we returned to Riverside Racecraft in Arkansas and pulled the motor down, which revealed two bent conrods, which we swapped out thanks to some spare parts and machining by the wonderful guys at Holcombe’s Automotive. At some stage, we’ll pull the trans and fit a restrictor in the converter feed to lower the line pressure, and then we will be good to go for next year.

Special thanks to my awesome team – Tyson Munro, Shannon Jennings and Willard Howard – and a big shout-out to Riverside Racecraft; Henderson Race Shop; the team of legends at The Car Shop; Elgin Industries; Mickey Thompson; and the team at Haltech.