SICK WEEK RECAP

break through the clouds, the rain was followed by strong winds that meant running anything with a parachute was out of the question. That did mean lots of runs for the Dial-Your-Own and Bullseye classes, but the top-ranked teams would be back on the road without so much as a burnout at BMP.

Thankfully the weather finally turned in Orlando for day four of competition. Davis was once again the quickest car on the property with a 6.272, but all was not well in the braking area as a driveline failure resulted in a fire. Well-protected

inside by layers of safety gear, Davis was unhurt, but as soon as Vanderhoof opened the door, he knew their chances of finishing the week were toast – unfortunately literally.

All of a sudden, Linrin was in command at the top of the leaderboard. A week of attrition meant five out of the top six quickest cars were out. A relatively tame 6.814 in Orlando wasn’ t record pace, but the 6.500 average going into the final day was comfortably ahead of second-placed David Armentrout’ s 6.750 average.

The return to Gainesville Raceway for the final day of competition was much warmer than the

week’ s start, though the day threw up even more bizarre challenges such as a wiring failure in the timing system. Short of locust plagues, Sick Week had been challenged at every turn.

Needing just one representative pass to lock in both the Overall and Unlimited class wins, Niklas Linrin nailed a 6.461 for an average of 6.490 and victory. He joined past Swedish winners Stefan Gustafsson and Michael Westberg in the history books, alongside the event’ s only U. S.-based winner, Brett LaSala.

The remaining podium positions stayed in flux until the conclusion of racing. Armentrout

Oveall winner Niklas Linrin and co-pilot Thomas Harr

22 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 199