2017 Roadkill Nights by Dodge Battles the Elements

If you didn’t make it to Detroit for the 2017 Roadkill Nights by Dodge event this past weekend, we have you covered with an in-depth look at the rain-shortened event.

This past Saturday, the 3^rd annual Roadkill Nights by Dodge took place in Pontiac, Michigan and for the 2^nd year in a row, the majority of the event was held at the M1 Concourse road racing facility while the drag racing portion was held on Detroit’s famous Woodward Avenue. Unfortunately, an early crash and repeated periods of rain forced the organizers to cancel the final rounds of racing of Roadkill Nights by Dodge 2017, but there was still lots of racing action, a huge car show and plenty of Dodge-themed attractions for the fans.

The legal street racing action at the 2017 Roadkill Nights by Dodge event began at 11am and in the early going, the track officials were doing an excellent job of rolling the cars through the lanes. However, around 11:45am, the driver of a Chevrolet Chevette with a boosted V8 didn’t lift at the end of the 8^th mile track and when he got to the return road, he was moving too quickly to make the turn. When he tries to make the turn, the car slide, hit the curb, hit some tires in front of a retaining wall and cleared the retaining wall – tumbling through a fence and catching fire. As a result of that crash and the damage to the track’s safety barriers, there was a 2-hour delay while the track crew put out the fire, moved the car and repaired the safety items around the end of the track.

Around 2pm, they got back to racing, but around 2:45, a light rain forced the racing to stop while they dried the track. A half hour or so later, they got back to racing, but within the hour, there was more rain. The pattern of drying the track and facing more rain went on until around 5pm, when the staging lanes were closed so that the Roadkill hosts could make exhibition runs in a few of their cars. After that, the Celebrity Hellcat Shootout began, but these two segments took from 5pm until around 8:30, when hard rains hit the track.

The track team tried to dry it out, but a few hours later, the final round of the celebrity race was called off, as was the quick-4 shootout. As a result, the 4 quickest cars in the main racing field split the total cash prize, meaning that each of them took home a couple grand, while a classic Dart with a old school Hemi super stock look took home the $10,000 prize for being the quickest Dodge in the field.

Aside from the racing action, the 2017 Roadkill Nights by Dodge event had a large food truck area, an area of inflatable bounce houses and slides for the kids, a variety of Dodge displays with all of the hottest modern Mopar muscle cars, the sprawling car show which wrapped around the M1 road course, a handful of past Roadkill show vehicles and the insanely popular thrill ride area where fans could ride along with a pro driver as he drifted around the track in either a Hellcat Challenger, a Hellcat Charger or Viper.

Although the rain punctuated the racing program, the 2017 Roadkill Detroit event proved to be another great automotive festival with a diverse car show area (which was mostly Mopar products) and plenty of legal street racing action.

Patrick Rall

"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.

"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.

"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.

"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.

"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

Rall can be contacted at QuickMirada@Yahoo.com

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