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be honest, I love the traveling.”
Stamper has worked in a promoter role even longer, putting on races up and down the East Coast for 14 years. Aside from King of the South, he has helped run and promote events like the popular Carolina Cash Days No Prep Series, held at Shadyside for 11 years and counting, which is regarded as one of the first front-side no preps in the Carolinas.
He also put on the $ 20K-to-win Palmetto No Prep, a back-of-thetrack race in the shutdown area at Darlington Dragway, five times. Stamper fondly recalls one of those races selling out its 64 small-tire spots in under 20 minutes. In addition, he has jumped into helping with Southeast Street & Yeet, the East Coast’ s biggest eighth-mile drag-and-drive event.
If promoting and covering drag racing events all year long isn’ t enough, Stamper also promotes and competes in RC drag racing, most notably the Hillbilly Nationals with Shadyside co-owner Zach Buff. Like his media work, promoting rarely gives him any time off, but it’ s a task he gladly accepts.
“ Some people say we put in 150 %, but we really put in 200 %,” Stamper says regarding his commitment to promoting events.“ We’ re fans of this sport first and promoters second. We’ re wanting to see crazy passes and big upsets as much as anybody else.” – CRAIG COOK
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THE STORYTELLERS
Brian Lohnes
Few people in drag racing can connect the sport’ s past, present, and future quite like Brian Lohnes. A lifelong gearhead, Lohnes began announcing during college, working the microphone at Lebanon Valley Dragway on one weekend night and the next at New England Dragway. There, he was the announcer and race director, building firsthand knowledge that would eventually become one of his greatest strengths behind the microphone.
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Lohnes later became a national event announcer with IHRA before joining NHRA in 2014. His television career quickly followed, and today he serves as the lead announcer for NHRA on FOX, a position that goes hand-in-hand with his now iconic voice. Lohnes’ influence extends far beyond the broadcast booth. He co-founded BangShift. com, has written extensively about automotive history and motorsports, hosted podcasts, and has lent his unmistakable voice to major independent events.
In 2021, Lohnes was named
Drag IllustrateD’ s Drag Racing Ambassador of the Year, fully embracing his role as building bridges between different levels of the sport. Now, as drag racing enters a new era, Lohnes brings his years of experience documenting drag racing history towards helping define just how that history will be remembered. – MADELYN ZARON
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Bobby Bennett
For more than a quarter of a century, Bobby Bennett has helped document drag racing’ s history while simultaneously changing the way the sport’ s stories are told. A Spartanburg, South Carolina, native, Bennett’ s journey in motorsports journalism began long before CompetitionPlus. com. After borrowing $ 1,500 to launch a print magazine in the late 1980s, he eventually recognized the potential of an emerging platform called the internet. In 1999, Bennett founded CompetitionPlus. com, becoming an early pioneer of online drag racing journalism.
What followed was the creation of one of the sport’ s most well-recognized independent media outlets. CompetitionPlus built its reputation through breaking news, in-depth reporting, event coverage, commentary, and storytelling that wasn’ t afraid to tackle difficult or controversial subjects. More than 25 years later, Bennett remains its founder, publisher, and editor, continuing to provide a platform that chronicles drag racing’ s racers, personalities, businesses, and
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defining moments.
And Bennett isn’ t standing still. CompetitionPlus recently underwent its first complete website redesign in more than a decade, expanded its social media operation, and continues investing in video, podcasts, and programs like Power Hour and the Alan Reinhart Show with Nicole Clark.
In an era when motorsports media changes almost daily, Bennett’ s ability to adapt while maintaining an independent voice has made CompetitionPlus a trusted news outlet in the industry. Bennett has undoubtedly earned the title as one of drag racing journalism’ s most influential figures.
– MADELYN ZARON
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Tom Bailey and Luke Nieuwhof
Nieuwhof, left, and Bailey
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Tom Bailey first made his mark by redefining what a street-driven race car could do. A five-time HOT ROD Drag Week Unlimited winner, Bailey became the first competitor in event history to run in the 5-second zone when his“ Sick Seconds 2.0” Camaro went 5.998 at more than 250 mph in 2019 after hundreds of street miles. His larger impact has come from turning that drag-and-drive credibility into the Sick brand.
Through Sick The Magazine and events like Sick Week, Sick Summer, and Sick 66, Bailey and editor Luke Nieuwhof have helped fuel the rapid growth of drag-and-drive racing. Sick Week alone has developed into one of the category’ s marquee events, bringing together hundreds of street-legal race cars for five days of on-track competition and highway driving.
Nieuwhof has been central to that growth behind the scenes. A drag racing media veteran with 25 years of experience spanning Australia and the U. S., he helps shape the editorial and creative direction of the Sick brand while developing event concepts designed to broaden
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participation. Ideas like the Sick Week Freaks and Bullseye classes, as well as routes and checkpoints for events like Sick 66, reflect an effort to give more racers a place to participate and create memorable experiences.
Together, Bailey and Nieuwhof have built more than a magazine and event business. They’ ve helped turn drag-and-drive from a niche format into one of the sport’ s most exciting growth areas, bringing new racers, spectators, and sponsors into drag racing. – NATE VAN WAGNEN
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David Freiburger
David Freiburger’ s influence on car culture spans magazines, television, video, land-speed racing, and decades of hands-on hot rodding. His biggest contribution to drag racing, though, may be an event concept launched while he was editor-in-chief of HOT ROD.
Freiburger created HOT ROD Drag Week in 2005 as an answer to critics who questioned whether the incredibly quick cars appearing in the magazine were actually streetable. The premise was simple yet demanding: race at multiple dragstrips over the course of a week, drive roughly 1,000 miles between them, and do it without support vehicles. Forty competitors showed up for that first edition. By the 2020s, Drag Week was routinely capped at 400 entries and selling out quickly.
More importantly, the concept created a new segment of the sport. Drag-and-drive events now take place across the country, with major“ weeks” like Sick Week and Sick Summer joining numerous regional events built around the same basic challenge Freiburger introduced. Drag Week with largely kicked off a movement that now attracts significant racer, fan, and sponsor participation.
Freiburger also helped expand automotive media through Roadkill, which became one of the most influential automotive video franchises of its era.
Drag Week, however, remains his clearest mark on drag racing: an
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY NHRA, SICK THE MAGAZINE, KRISTA ZIVCIC, JOE MCHUGH |