Many people who may read my stories or casually watch Drag Week as it unfolds may think it's roughly the same group of people and cars year after year, but the cold hard numbers tell a different story completely.

Over the past five events, we've averaged about 40% new entries every single year. Also, about 11% of the old competitors, show up with new rides every single year, so there is always plenty of new hardware to check out, and new people to meet on registration day!


2012-187 total entries 82 rookies
2013-230 total entries 93 rookies
2014-307 total entries 146 rookies
2015-305 total entries 118 rookies
2016-356 total entries 156 rookies

Think about that, they had 50 more cars to process this year, and 156 of them had never been through this gauntlet before!

The excitement I felt checking out Scott Hendrix's White Duster, reminded me of how I was last year when I first saw Terry Keifer's Bronze 67 Barracuda at St. Louis. Terry, and the fast back fish were back for another try, but even from across the parking lot something was clearly different. In 2015 Terry was running a single turbo through a carb on the 440, with the exhaust exiting just behind the driver's side front tire. This year the typical fender well exit headers with exhaust running just under the rocker panels that have been a dead giveaway of big block powered A-bodies for decades, were clearly visible under the 67.
"Terry, Terry, Terry! What have you done?" I thought to myself, as I spun away from the Duster and headed for the barracuda with the hood up. My jaw dropped, as I realized all the turbo stuff was long gone, replaced with a plate nitrous system!

top: 2015 turbo
Bottom: 2016 N20