August 16, 2021 , Auburn Hills, Mich. – Back after a one-year hiatus, MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge staged a thrilling return to Woodward Avenue on Saturday, August 14, drawing 38,000 performance enthusiasts to M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan, for the popular festival of street-legal drag racing.
“Roadkill Nights is all about stoking the passion of the Dodge Brotherhood of Muscle, and this year the energy and excitement of our fans was off the charts — people were so pumped up to be back on Woodard Avenue celebrating the return of live, street-legal drag racing,” said Tim Kuniskis, Dodge Brand Chief Executive Officer – Stellantis. “In its sixth year, Roadkill Nights remains the ultimate celebration of performance-car culture and the perfect grassroots event to showcase what Dodge represents — a pure performance brand.
“We set out to settle once and for all the great debate; who’s faster: TV or online car builders. In the end, the debate will rage on until next year.”
Historic Woodward Avenue was transformed into a 1/8-mile straight-line playground for 110 street-legal drag racers, while spectators also had the chance to get their adrenaline pumping with thrill and drift rides in Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat vehicles on the M1 Concourse. New-for-2021, the Hellcat Grudge Race pitted Eric Malone of MotorTrend’s television series “Fastest Cars in the Dirty South” and four online automotive builders in heads-up racing. Malone and each of the online builders — Alex Taylor, Tavarish, Westen Champlin and Throtl — received a Challenger or Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye and $10,000 in cash for car modifications.
Taylor emerged victorious in the battle between the four online builders, earning a spot in the final round faceoff against Malone thanks to a .002-second reaction time that helped her knock out Westen Champlin and his twin-turbo modified Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye. Taylor was victorious in her modified, racing slicks-equipped Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye ride after Malone left the line too early in his Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye. In a “just for fun” exhibition run after the final, Malone left first and beat Taylor to the finish line, leaving room open for further discussion in the TV-versus-online builder debate.
“I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to go head to head in this build-off and Hellcat Grudge Race against four worthy opponents: Alex, Tavarish, Westen, and Throtl,” said Malone. “No matter the outcome, the race has proven that TV and online builders and racers each bring something special to the table, and we all brought our A-games to Roadkill Nights. I look forward to seeing what these four builders do in the future, and hope to have the opportunity to race against them again soon.”
The Big Tire (unlimited size tires) and Small Tire (tires 275 mm wide or narrower) classes saw competitors battling for bragging rights and cash prizes totaling $30,000 on the iconic 1/8-mile Woodward Avenue drag strip, with unique urban features including an active railway located just behind the starting line. Each class winner earned $10,000, with the Quickest Dodge cars in both classes taking home $5,000 each.
Jimmer Kline, of Wyoming, Michigan, repeated as champion in the Big Tire class. Kline raced his 1966 Acadian Chevy to victory in the final against Litchfield, Ohio’s Jeremy Bonnett and his 1928 Pontiac Sedan. The event wrapped up with one of the best races of the day, as Nicholas Taylor drove his 2000 Ford Mustang to a razor-thin win in the Small Tire final over Shawn Fensler’s 1993 Ford Mustang in a battle of Fort Wayne, Indiana, natives.
James Pranis of Verona, Pennsylvania, (Big Tire – 1968 Dodge Charger) and Peter Bokedon of Roseville, Michigan, (Small Tire – 1972 Dodge Dart) earned back-to-back honors as the Quickest Dodge winners in their respective classes. Both also claimed the Quickest Dodge purse at the 2019 Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge event
Additional activities included a First Responder Showdown between southeast Michigan fire and rescue teams, virtual head-to-head racing in Dodge Challenger SRT Demon simulators, a classic/modern muscle car show with 300 vehicles, and flamethrower, wheelstander and pro-mod exhibitions.
Unique event fan packages and experiences were also auctioned off, raising thousands of dollars for the United Way for Southeastern Michigan.
Fans unable to attend MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge can view an event replay at DodgeGarage.com. Two half-hour Roadkill episodes will air on MotorTrend television, with additional coverage in an hour-long episode of MotorTrend’s Roadkill TV series.
MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge: The Numbers
- 1/8 mile, in length, of Woodward Avenue drag strip
- 110 drag racing competitors
- 300 car show vehicles
- 4,000+ Dodge drift/thrill/simulator rides
- 38,000 MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge attendees
Street racing can have serious legal and safety risks. Both ROADKILL and Dodge want enthusiasts to enjoy performance driving in a safe, controlled environment, run by professionals with vehicle safety inspections, driver evaluations and track safety.
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, Roadkill Extra, Roadkill Garage and Roadkill’s Junkyard Gold shows available on the MotorTrend App.
MotorTrend Group
MotorTrend Group is the largest automotive media company in the world, bringing together Discovery’s MotorTrend TV and a vast automotive digital, direct-to-consumer, social, and live event portfolio, including MOTORTREND, HOT ROD, ROADKILL, AUTOMOBILE, and more than 20 other industry-leading brands. With a monthly audience of 26 million across web, TV, and print, and 110 million social followers, culminating in 1.3 billion monthly impressions across all platforms, the company encompasses television’s #1 network for automotive superfans, a leading automotive YouTube Channel, and the MotorTrend App, the only auto-dedicated subscription video-on-demand service. MotorTrend serves to embrace, entertain, and empower the motoring world.
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 muscle cars and SUVs that deliver unrivaled performance in each of the segments where they compete.
2021 marks the year that Dodge is distilled into a pure performance brand, offering Hellcat-powered, 700-plus-horsepower SRT versions of every model across the lineup. For the 2021 model year, Dodge delivers the drag-strip dominating 807-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock, the new 797-horsepower Dodge Charger SRT Redeye, the most powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world, and the new 710-horsepower Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat, the most powerful SUV ever. Combined, these three muscle cars make Dodge the industry’s most powerful brand, offering more horsepower than any other American brand across its entire lineup.
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). The Dodge brand also ranked No. 1 in the J.D. Power APEAL Study (mass market). These results are historic because it marks the first time a domestic brand has earned top spots in both J.D. Power studies in the same year.
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.
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