True Street Vs. Dragweek

Full Disclosure: True Street Racer Mike Jovanis Takes On A 1,000-mile Torture Test.

- Mike Galimi

What is a street car? If you ask 10 different people, odds are you’ll get 10 different answers. It is a moving target that means something different to everyone, but there are several local and national drag racing events to help weed out the poseurs from the legit street cars.

Two of the more prominent challenges that push man and machine are NMRA/NMCA True Street, and Hot Rod Magazine’s Drag Week presented by Gear Vendors. One is over 20 years old, while the other eclipsed the 11-year mark, and both have become the standard by which most street cars are measured. True Street is the older category. While it is completed in one day, contestants perform a 30-mile cruise that is followed by three consecutive passes down the track to establish an average elapsed time. Part of the challenge is that racers cannot pop the hood during the cool-down period between the cruise and the on-track competition, nor can they add more fuel. Regular readers of Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords are probably familiar with True Street because it is run at all NMRA events.

Drag Week has fewer restrictions on maintenance but requires racers to use only what they can carry in the car or in a small trailer towed by the car in competition. The major hitch on Drag Week is the 250-milesper-day cruise to the next track, so by the end of the week all competitors have covered roughly a thousand miles. A minimum of one pass down the track per day is required in order to create a five-day average. Many different categories make up Drag Week, from daily drivers to Pro Mods with license plates.