Article and Photos by Ethan Vandervelden (Heathen's Garage)
Drag and Drive. Most everyone in the car community has heard of Hot Rod Drag Week, Sick Week, or Canada’s own, Miles of Mayhem. The rules vary from event to event, but the premise is always the same: Go drag racing, drive that same race car hundreds of miles to a different racetrack and do it again.
Unassisted, no chase car, no support vehicle, no tow trucks.
Race cars with hitches, pulling trailers, on public roads.
Well…mostly race cars. The vehicles range from warmed over daily drivers, all the way to 6-second, wheelie bar equipped, 2500+ HP monsters. Monsters like Pat Miker’s Silver Chevelle, the fastest legit street car in Canada. Or the fastest one I know about anyway. Definitely the fastest car at MoM this year, achieving a 4.91 second 1/8th mile average for the week as well as 1st place in Outlaw class.
Then there are people like us-rolling in the Heathen’s Garage 1978 Jeep Cherokee Chief. Our only goal was to finish and not be last.
159 cars joined the fray this year competing in 10 different classes. Now when I say competing, probably the top 10 in each class are competing; as for rest of us. . . we’re just praying we make the drive and happy to be part of the event.
Which brings us to the drive. This years Miles of Mayhem included over 1000 miles of driving, which doesn’t include getting to the event which was hosted by SIR in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. For the Heathen’s Garage crew as well as many others, getting there would tack on an additional 600+ Miles. . . and when you finally get there, you’re in Saskatoon. Great.
All jokes aside, SIR did a fantastic job of hosting the first and last days of Miles of Mayhem, and it was a pleasure to start and finish the event at their venue, which had an all new track surface this year and proved to be very fast for lots of people. Also they have a great concession, and a nice selection of merch!
After racing on day one, the parade of hot rods could be seen traveling to Rad Torque Raceways in Nisku, Alberta. A 300-mile drive in 95-degree heat. If a competitor made it to day two after this drive, no one could argue if your car was “streetable” or not.
Another cool part of the drive are the checkpoints every car is required to hit. Every drive has a set route that includes checkpoints where drivers must stop and get a picture that shows their race car was actually there. Miss a checkpoint and you gotta go back and get it or you’re out.
Day two of racing at Rad Torque saw many people push a little harder as they were now in the heart of Alberta and parts might be more attainable than the previous day. The following drive was also much shorter as our next destination would be Central Alberta Raceways in Rimbey, Alberta.
Now if you haven’t been to Medicine Hat Dragstrip I’ll tell you this: It’s hot, it’s windy, there isn’t much shade, and for some reason three quarters of the porta-pottys were chained shut. Which after three days of roadside dirt burgers and some questionable tacos. . . was less than ideal.
Regardless, the event continued, the breakdowns became more apparent as the miles had taken their toll, and the abuse some of the drivetrains had endured was starting to show.
It was here that Daniel Goodine epically broke a transmission in his turbocharged, LS swapped RX8. The pieces of faceplated Tremec six speed bouncing off the pavement was both tragic and spectacular to see. Daniel’s week had already been littered with a slew of other parts failure, but he was both determined and persistent. After a buddy hot-shotted a spare transmission from 5 hours away, he swapped the trans in the parking lot, and proceeded to drive 280 miles through the night to complete the week. This refusal to quit earned Daniel the title “Mayhem Warrior 2024”. Everyone cheered for that moment.
Not everyone was able to make the final day though, the event finished with 130 competitors, 29 short of where we began. For those of you who suffered irreparable damage, we salute you and wish you better luck next year.
But for those of us who did make it, taking that final green light and heading down the dragstrip was pure bliss. A feeling of overwhelming accomplishment fills the vehicle as you coast down the return road. For me it even brought a tear to my eye, and finishing the week with our PB in the Jeep added a little emotion as well. We ended up taking 5th place from the bottom in Truck and SUV class with a 9.79 average. In my world that is a big win and the “I Survived” sticker was trophy enough.
So, does drag and drive belong in a magazine called Cruise Culture? You mean where a bunch of crazy car nuts road trip in a convoy for hundreds of miles just so they can race each other somewhere else, make like-minded friends, and look at each others’ cars in parking lots? Absolutely it does.
It’s all part of Cruise Culture.
Article and Photos by Ethan Vandervelden (Heathen's Garage)
