US Highway 66, better known as Route 66, is the most romanticised road in America. There have been songs sung about it, novels written about it, movies shot along it, but never before had there been a car event dedicated to exploring it.
First published in the January 2025 issue of Street Machine

Sick 66 was a drag-and-drive experience that took its entrants down the historic road across five US states in eight days. From Ozark, Missouri to Roswell, New Mexico, there were six drag strips, 34 checkpoints and hundreds of largely forgotten towns to explore along the way. It was both an epic nostalgia trip and a heck of a bumpy ride.
Sick The Mag masterminds Tom Bailey and Luke Nieuwhof have changed the drag-and-drive game over the past few years. When Hot Rod Drag Week started it all two decades ago, all anyone knew was fierce competition. This wasn’t meant to be fun – it was a gruelling challenge where you pushed your gear and yourself to the limit. But in recent times, we’ve seen some more casual, less competitive types of drag-and-drive events cropping up, and Sick is leading the way.

As promoters, the Sick team are now in the enviable position of being able to have their cake and eat it too. They’ve established Sick Week in Florida and Georgia as the flagship event for the quickest true street cars in America. They also host the annual Sick Summer, which caters to the drag-and-drive heartland that is the Midwest. Those are their two go-fast events. At the same time, they’ve leaned into promoting these other types of adventure-first rallies, starting with Death Week in 2023.
Sick 66 was kind of a follow-on from Death Week, it being a once-off event combining bucket-list tourism with eighth-mile drag racing. The kicker this time, of course, was the chance to cruise old 66.

Some of the world’s quickest street car racers were along for the ride – including a handful of Drag Week winners – although all of them were in very different cars.
Event organiser and six-time Drag Week winner Tom Bailey was there with his son and co-pilot Aydan in a Mexican-made 2001 Dodge Ramcharger SUV. Tom’s regular Drag Week offsider and engine builder Steve Morris was also along for the adventure in his turbo LS-swapped 2006 Chevy Trailblazer SUV. Steve had come for a leisurely sightseeing cruise with his wife Valerie, but he quickly got sucked into an SUV battle with Tom that went back and forth to the bitter end.

Other really quick drag-and-drive competitors who decided to cruise Route 66 in slower cars with their better halves included two-time Drag Week champ Dave Schroeder, who swapped his C7 Corvette for a ’32 Ford roadster that he raced and cruised along with his wife Joanna. While recent Drag Week 2024 winner Bryant Goldstone swapped his AMC Javelin for a lightly fettled 2017 Corvette with the number plate FST ENUF. Bryant raced the car, while his wife Bethany handled the road driving.

Since the whole premise was to traverse as much of the existing Route 66 as possible during the timeframe, Sick 66 broke with tradition by not doubling back on itself. Unlike most drag-and-drives, which finish back where they started, this one started out from Ozark Raceway Park, near Springfield, Missouri, and headed in a westerly direction, finishing up eight days later at Alien City Dragway in Roswell, New Mexico.
The four race tracks in between were Mo-Kan Dragway, Missouri; Tulsa Raceway Park, Oklahoma; Amarillo Dragway, Texas; and Albuquerque Dragway, New Mexico. The driving legs amounted to an average of around 125 miles (200km) on the six racing days and 320 miles (515km) on the two drive-only days for a total of over 1300 miles (2090km).

Among the mandated checkpoints were museums, junkyards, tunnels, bridges, ghost towns and ice creameries, not to mention all kinds of weird and wonderful roadside attractions. One stand-out was the Sandhill Curiosity Shop in Erick, Oklahoma, a jumbled mess of memorabilia collected and displayed by a singing, swearing, boozing hoarder named Harley Russell. A painted sign out front of the shop reads: “See rednecks work and play in their own environment.” Harley played his guitar and sang songs for some entrants. Others he told to go away.
Another notable attraction was the Devil’s Rope Museum in McLean, Texas. I still don’t know what’s weirder, the fact that there exists a museum dedicated entirely to barbed wire, or the fact that it was totally fascinating.

The quirky hits just kept on coming as the cavalcade rolled from the kooky Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, past the official Midpoint of Route 66 in Adrian, Texas, and through to the town of Tucumcari, New Mexico. With its pastel-coloured mid-century motels, antiquated ‘motor courts’ and broken neon signs, it’s a faded slice of America unlike any other.
Other stops of note included The Los Alamos Main Gate in New Mexico, where J Robert Oppenheimer oversaw the bomb project, and the Lewis Antique & Auto Museum in Moriarty, New Mexico, which is not so much a museum as it is an eight-acre dumping ground for every type of vehicle ever produced. As if to underscore the weirdness of it all, the event concluded in Roswell, the alien capital of the world, where even the McDonald’s is shaped like a UFO.


Amongst all that sightseeing, there was drag racing. New Yorker Jason Rousseau backed up after his win at Death Week to claim overall victory in his turbo LS-powered 1980 Chevy Malibu. His six-day average of 5.46@133mph was more than a tenth quicker than his travelling buddy Rick Steinke from Pennsylvania, who ran second in his turbo big-block ’67 Malibu.
Third overall was Texan Lamar Swindoll Jr in his nitrous-huffing ’72 Camaro. Lamar actually ran the quickest time of the week, but he struggled to put the power down on a few of the other days, which hurt his average.

Sick 66 was touted as a one-time-only affair, but there’s bound to be similar explorations of the old road in the future. It was too good not to happen again. What’s more, there are more states to visit, more drag strips to race at, and more roadside attractions to be astonished by. Route 66 will officially turn 100 years old in 2026. When the planets align, it’ll be party time.
Driver versus tuner

Event promoter Tom Bailey’s Mexican-made 2001 Dodge Ramcharger was hands-down the ugliest car at Sick 66. Tom and his son Aydan had acquired the hideous parts-bin special and built it afresh with Dodge’s turbo-six Hurricrate engine as part of a promotion for Roadkill Nights. Since they had yet to install a rollbar in the SUV, it was only certified to run as quick as 7.36sec over the eighth-mile.
It was the same story for the 2006 Chevy Trailblazer of Tom’s longtime engine builder and Drag Week co-pilot Steve Morris. Steve built the Blazer 10 years ago as a stealth cruiser, with an LS3 swap and a turbo mounted under the passenger-side floor. He showed up to Sick 66 wanting nothing more than to enjoy a laidback sightseeing cruise with his wife and co-driver Valerie, but the chance to go head-to-head with Tom in an uncaged SUV battle proved too hard to resist. Cue the smack talk.


The two friends traded playful verbal barbs as the lead swung back and forth daily. After six days of intense racing, they finished 35th and 36th overall, with Steve claiming bragging rights over Tom by a margin of just 0.002sec!
DAY ONE: MISSOURI
1. Ozark Raceway Park, Rogersville, Missouri

Above: Nashville, Tennessee’s Heather Krug did Australia proud behind the wheel of her blown 2014 HSV ClubSport R8. A first-time drag racer, Heather made multiple runs each day and finished with an average of 7.57@96mph. The event’s major sponsor, Edelbrock, recognised the great strides she had taken and awarded her its staff trophy.


Above: Maryland wife-and-husband team Christine and Erik Wiegand probably wished they were riding in something with a little more ground clearance after the transmission pan on their 1971 Trans Am was wiped out on a particularly bumpy stretch in Texas. Christine cut plenty of laps at each track and finished the event with an average of 7.80@89mph.

2. Point One Manufacturing, Rogersville, Missouri

3. Gary’s Gay Parita, Ash Grove, Missouri



4. Spencer Station, Miller, Missouri

5. Supertam Ice Cream Parlour & Superman Museum, Carterville, Missouri

DAY TWO: MISSOURI, KANSAS & OKLAHOMA
1. Mo-Kan Dragway, Asbury, Missouri

Above: William Patton’s supercharged 1970 Chevy Suburban has a coolness overload. Powered by a 6/71-blown 454 big-block that injured eardrums across five states, the big party truck proved to be a beast on the track, running as quick as 6.66sec and as fast as 103mph over the eighth-mile, while lifting both front wheels for added style points.


2. Gearhead Curios, Galena, Kansas

3. Rainbow Bridge, Baxter Springs, Kansas

4. Crosstar Flag & Tag, Afton, Oklahoma


5. Hi-Way Cafe, Vinita, Oklahoma



6. Blue Whale of Catoosa, Catoosa, Oklahoma

DAY THREE: OKLAHOMA
1. Tulsa Raceway Park, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Above: Rick Steinke took on Sick 66 with his wife Jacki and their son Troy in their battle-hardened ’67 Chevy Malibu. The Steinkes are masters of the 8.50 quarter-mile bracket, and they put their knowledge to good use to run right behind their pit pal Jason Rousseau to claim second place overall. Rick’s quickest pass was a 5.40@131mph on Day One, and he finished with a six-day average of 5.60@130mph.

Above: Berthoud, Colorado’s Brooks Fleharty came to Sick 66 believing that his Sharpied-up 1986 Fox-body Mustang was capable of 5.20s. It never got close to that potential, though, running a best of 5.50@129mph at Tulsa Raceway Park, with Brooks and his crew fighting a range of issues before bowing out of competition after the fourth day of racing.




2. Bristow Fire Department, Bristow, Oklahoma

3. Route 66 Bowl, Chandler, Oklahoma



4. Chicken Shack, Arcadia, Oklahoma


DAY FOUR: OKLAHOMA & TEXAS (drive day)
1. Deatschwerks, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

2. Historic Route 66 rest area, Oklahoma

3. Stafford Air & Space Museum, Weatherford, Oklahoma

4. Oklahoma Route 66 Museum, Clinton, Oklahoma

5. National Route 66 & Transportation Museum, Elk City, Oklahoma


6. Sandhill Curiosity Shop, Erick, Oklahoma

7. U-Drop Inn Cafe, Shamrock, Texas


8. Devil’s Rope Museum, McLean, Texas

9. Restored Phillips 66 gas station, McLean, Texas


Above: Sick 66 was the deadline for Pittsburgh’s Jeff Oppenheim to finish building his 1940 Pontiac Deluxe gasser, powered by a tunnel-rammed 327ci small-block. He made it just in time, only to be rear-ended by a Nissan driver at a set of lights near Oklahoma City on Day Four! Undeterred, Jeff soldiered on to finish the event with a six-day average of 9.65@72mph. “I’ve never been so happy to run so slow,” he laughed.
10. The Big Texan Steak Ranch, Amarillo, Texas

DAY FIVE: TEXAS & NEW MEXICO
1. Amarillo Dragway, Amarillo, Texas

Above: Zack Anibas’s oddball open-wheeler Jeep confused folks all along Route 66. Zack and his team at Wissota Collision & Customs in Wisconsin finished the one-off curio just days before Sick 66, its stock Wrangler body sitting over equally stock Grand Cherokee Trackhawk underpinnings. It’s an impressive piece of packaging, and it cut a crazy figure cruising along with all four doors off.




2. Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas


3. Midpoint of Route 66, Adrian, Texas

Above: The midway point of Route 66 in Adrian, Texas seemed like a good spot for Josh Dowies and friends to lift the engine out of his 1968 Mercury Cougar in order to replace the oil pan, which had copped a gruesome beating on the bumpy old road. The stick-shift Cougar went on to complete the event with an 8.31@85mph average.
4. The town of Tucumcari, New Mexico


DAY SIX: NEW MEXICO (drive day)
1. Old Route 66 Underpass, Quay County, New Mexico


2. Ghost-town church, Cuervo, New Mexico



Above: Lamar Swindoll Jr in his nitrous-assisted, BBC-powered ’72 Camaro ran the quickest time of the event – a 5.32@129mph at Mo-Kan Dragway on Day Two – but he couldn’t always get the power down. Amongst starter motor issues, a couple of lost flywheel teeth, and a fuel pump failure, Lamar’s greatest enemy was traction, but he still finished third overall with an average of 5.67@125mph.

Above: Two-time Drag Week winner Dave Schroeder was one of the really quick guys who just wanted to cruise and see the sights, taking things slow and classy alongside wife Joanna in their flathead V8-powered ’32 roadster. “The car doesn’t brake good, turn good or accelerate that good, but I think it follows the spirit of Route 66,” said Dave, who put in a casual one-and-done each day on track for an average of 11.54@60mph.
3. Route 66 Auto Museum, Santa Rosa, New Mexico


4. Pecos River Station, San Jose, New Mexico


5. Los Alamos Main Gate, Los Alamos, New Mexico

6. Bosque Brewing, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Above: Jason Rousseau backed up his 2023 Death Week victory to win Sick 66 in his 1980 Chevy Malibu. Recent improvements include a built 388ci LSX and an extensive reworking of the back half of the car to fit a wider radial underneath. Jason ran his quickest time on Day One with a 5.36@133mph, but a steering rack failure on Day Six almost derailed his campaign. Undaunted, he finished on top with an average of 5.46@133mph.



DAY SEVEN: NEW MEXICO
1. Albuquerque Dragway, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Above: Drag-and-drive OG Steve Atwell had the audacity to bring along a super-rare, mint-condition, low-mileage 1967 Dodge Coronet WO23. Powered by a 427ci Hemi, the factory Super Stock special had a paltry 355 miles on the clock when Steve took possession of it in 2020, but that didn’t stop him from driving it over 1300 miles on Sick 66, and racing it to an average of 8.27@88mph.

Above: Alexis Zarate’s ’69 Camaro made its drag-and-drive debut at Sick 66. Alexis has owned the car – formerly her dad’s, who raced it back in the 90s – since she was 15, developing it over many years from nitrous combos to its current twin-turbo 4.8L LS. After having to swap in a motor one day and a transmission the next, Alexis’s sixth-place finish overall was a monumental result.



2. Clines Corners gas station, New Mexico


3. Penny’s Diner, Vaughn, New Mexico

DAY EIGHT: NEW MEXICO
Alien City Dragway, Roswell, New Mexico



Comments