The 2016 Midnight Drags

Go Fast, Win Cash!

- Douglas R . Glad

Here’s how you get your glory. Show up to the 2017 Car Craft Summer Nationals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After the show on Saturday, throw down $50 bucks and race heads up at nearby Great Lakes Dragaway. The race has no rules, aside from a DOT stamp on the tires, and pairs are drawn out of a hat by race director Lonnie Grim. Luck, and knocking down a 32-car field of really fast cars, is all it takes to win the CC Midnight Drags.

The 2016 winner was Bryant Goldstone in his insanely fast, 572 Chevy–powered 1973 Javelin with a 7.20 at 205- mph qualifying effort that stunned the crowd—and us. We first saw Bryant and his AMC on Hot Rod Drag Week in 2014, where he broke the car during testing. Two years later, he came in second during that competition by running a 6.78 at 210.

Goldstone bought the car 30 years ago and began racing it in the NMCA as a back-half, square-tube car. As Drag Week got more popular, he had Bob Sunneborn convert the chassis to round-tube with an IHRA 6.0-cert to compete. “This was before the Pro Mods began to appear,” Goldstone says. “I wanted to get on the [Drag Week] podium and take home a guitar.”