July 10, 2023 , Auburn Hills, Mich. – Teams are set and the drag car build projects are in progress for the Dodge Direct Connection Grudge Race, scheduled to take place during the annual MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge horsepower festival on Saturday, August 12, 2023, in downtown Pontiac, Michigan. Tickets for MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge, now in its eighth year, are also now available for purchase at https://www.motortrend.com/roadkillnights-2023/.
MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge is moving to a new location in the heart of downtown Pontiac, as well as featuring a new format for one of the highlights of the event, the popular Direct Connection Grudge Race. Direct Connection is the Dodge performance parts brand, relaunched in March 2022, offering factory-backed performance parts through the Dodge Power Brokers dealer network.
The Direct Connection Grudge Race pits online automotive builders in head-to-head drag-racing competition. The 2023 Grudge Race will feature a new twist, with pairs of competitors working together to create a Dodge or Plymouth drag machine using Direct Connection performance parts, including the Hellcrate Redeye 6.2L Supercharged Crate HEMI® engine and a plug-and-play Hellcrate Redeye 6.2L Supercharged Crate HEMI Engine Control Unit (ECU). While 2023 marks the “Last Call” for the Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger in their current HEMI-engine-powered forms, Direct Connection will continue to offer HEMI-powered crate engines.
Product sponsors providing additional parts support for Direct Connection Grudge Race competitors include Mickey Thompson Tires, Garrett, Aeromotive Inc.,Callies Performance Products and Stanadyne.
An experienced drag racer and online automotive builder (The Mentor) will team with a “rookie” online builder/racer lacking previous drag-racing experience (The Rookie). The Mentor will “school” The Rookie on building, tuning and testing their build project before The Rookie ultimately battles it out on the drag strip at the corner of Woodward Avenue and W. Pike St. in Pontiac.
A new winner will be crowned for 2023, as two-time Grudge Race champion and drag racer, mechanic and automotive content creator Alex Taylor will move to competing in the Big Tire class at the event. The six teams of automotive personalities set do battle include:
- Team Sick-Bastards: Experienced racer and Sick The Mag founder Tom Bailey instructs his race shop employee EJ Naegeli as she makes her first-ever drag strip run
- Team Corruptt: Returning Grudge Race competitor Tony Arme (Corruptt Builds) assists adrenaline-loving rookie Kayla Rundle as she goes for the win
- Team Dahminators: Automotive builder Rob Dahmn works with a familiar face — girlfriend and Dodge enthusiast Erica Schrull — as she gears up to compete
- Team Truck Yeah: Performance garage owner Justin Keith coaches truck lover Lacey Blair with a RoadKill Nights first-ever build that’s a must-see
- Team Soul Snatcher: Grudge Race veteran Herman Young (Demonology) thinks his hard-earned race wisdom can help put ScrapLife Garage’s Lee Carter over the top
- Team Throtl: Two-time Grudge Race competitor Rickie Fernandez gives up his seat to school fellow Throtl member Quinn Clark
More information on the full Direct Connection Grudge Race lineup is available at DodgeGarage.com.
All competitors will be linked with a Dodge Power Brokers dealer to assist with their build projects as they use Hellcrate Redeye 6.2L Supercharged Crate HEMI engines as the foundational building blocks of their respective projects. Competitors will also receive VIP access to the Direct Connection Tech hotline at (800) 998-1110 for assistance. More information on Direct Connection and Dodge Power Brokers is available at DCPerformance.com.
MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge
MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge is taking street-legal drag racing on famed Woodward Avenue to a new location at the center of downtown Pontiac, Michigan, as well as growing the overall footprint of the one-day horsepower festival. The new starting line for street-legal drag racing competition will move to the corner of Woodward Avenue and W. Pike St. in Pontiac. The popular enthusiast event, scheduled to take place on Saturday, August 12, 2023, set a one-day attendance record of more than 40,000 attendees in 2022, and will bring tens of thousands of gearheads to downtown Pontiac.
The event will mark its second stop of 2023 with the visit to Pontiac. Dodge Last Call Powered by Roadkill Nights Las Vegas, held at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 20, 2023, brought the horsepower festival out west for the first time and served as the setting for the helicopter-drop reveal of the 1,025-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170, the seventh and final Dodge “Last Call” special-edition vehicle to be revealed.
In addition to the Direct Connection Grudge Race and street-legal drag racing in Big Tire and Small Tire classes, the second Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge event of 2023 will feature a classic and modern muscle car cruise in, Dodge Hellcat Thrill Rides, an all-new Dodge Hornet drive, Dodge Demon drag race simulators, Dodge vehicle displays including the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept, Dodge product displays, Direct Connection performance parts, RC car demonstrations, a vendor midway, beer gardens, entertainment, food trucks, celebrity appearances and more.
Roadkill Nights is an event produced by MotorTrend Group. With a hit show, Roadkill delivers a one-of-a-kind taste of Automotive Chaos Theory. For more information on Roadkill and Roadkill Nights, follow facebook.com/roadkillshow and twitter.com/roadkillshow. Fans can follow the action of Roadkill Nights with hashtags #RoadkillNights and #PoweredByDodge or watch ROADKILL across MotorTrend+, MotorTrend TV or MotorTrend FAST TV through Samsung TV Plus and XUMO.
For more information on the Dodge brand, visit Dodge.com or DodgeGarage.com.
ROADKILL
The ROADKILL brand delivers a one-of-a-kind taste of “Automotive Chaos Theory” and features authentic gearheads David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan in a variety of mediums, including Roadkill Nights branded events, and Roadkill shows available on MotorTrend+, MotorTrend TV, and MotorTrend FAST TV.
MotorTrend Group
MotorTrend Group, a Warner Bros. Discovery company, is the world’s largest automotive media group dedicated to introducing, inspiring and intensifying people’s passions for the motoring world. Comprised of more than 50 iconic brands including MOTORTREND, HOT ROD, ROADKILL, TOP GEAR AMERICA and more, MotorTrend Group is the ultimate source of entertainment and information for both auto enthusiasts and car shoppers, with a monthly audience of more than 26 million and over 70 million social followers. Featuring world-class automotive entertainment across the #1 television network for automotive fans, digital streaming channels, iconic events, the largest automotive social network, over seven decades of print and digital editorial content and cutting-edge resources for new-car shoppers, MotorTrend embodies every corner of car culture. From electric vehicles to timeless classic customs, MotorTrend Group brings the latest motoring trends to fans of all generations.
Dodge//SRT
For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the spirit of brothers John and Horace Dodge. Their influence continues today as Dodge shifts into high gear with a lineup that delivers unrivaled performance in each of the segments where they compete.
Dodge drives forward as a pure performance brand, offering SRT Hellcat versions of the Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger and Dodge Durango, as well as an R/T performance hybrid version of the all-new Dodge Hornet, representing the brand’s first-ever electrified performance vehicle. Dodge delivers the drag-strip dominating 807-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock; the 797-horsepower Dodge Charger SRT Redeye, the most powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world; and the 710-horsepower Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat, the most powerful SUV ever; and best-in-class standard performance in the compact utility vehicle segment with the Dodge Hornet. Combined, these four muscle vehicles make Dodge the industry’s most powerful brand, offering more horsepower than any other American brand across its entire lineup.
In 2022, the Dodge brand ranked No. 1 in the J.D. Power APEAL Study (mass market), making it the only domestic brand ever to do so three years in a row. In 2020, Dodge was named the “#1 Brand in Initial Quality,” making it the first domestic brand ever to rank No. 1 in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS).
Dodge is part of the portfolio of brands offered by leading global automaker and mobility provider Stellantis. For more information regarding Stellantis (NYSE: STLA), please visit www.stellantis.com.
Follow Dodge and company news and video on:
Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com
Media website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com
Dodge brand: www.dodge.com
Direct Connection: www.DCPerformance.com
DodgeGarage: www.dodgegarage.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dodge
Instagram: www.instagram.com/dodgeofficial
Twitter: www.twitter.com/dodge and @StellantisNA
YouTube: www.youtube.com/dodge, https://www.youtube.com/StellantisNA