This past Wednesday at the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit, the folks from Roadkill teamed up with Dodge to have the 1st annual Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge. This event had a couple hundred show cars, a couple hundred race cars, about a dozen or so food vendors, a handful of Dodge brand displays includeing thrill rides in the Hellcat Challenger and Viper, a Quickest Dodge Shootout where the winner got a Hellcat Hemi crate engine and a match race between the stars of Roadkill and Fast N Loud. Best of all, it was free to everyone – whether you were showing your car, racing your car or if you were just there to watch.
It was an awesome event attended by more than 10,000 people and Dodge has already confirmed their plans to hold a similar event next year. For those who didn’t get to make it to the Roadkill night in Pontiac, I was on hand to capture all of the hottest racing action and today, you can check it out right here on DodgeForum.com.
First up, we have the Quickest Dodge Shootout. Although the racing field was open to all makes and models, only the Dodge racers were eligible to try to win the free Hellcat Hemi with a Tremec manual transmission. During the course of the day, the 6 quickest privately owned Dodge cars and trucks were picked from the field and pitted against two guys from Roadkill – one of which was driving a 2015 Hellcat Charger and the other driving a 2015 Hellcat Challenger. Joining the Hellcat cars from Roadkill was another Hellcat Challenger, another Hellcat Charger, a 1968 Dart, a 2nd gen twin turbo Cummins Ram, a 1969 Dodge Super Bee and a 1972 Dodge Challenger.
In round 1, the B5 Blue Hellcat Charger beat the Roadkill Hellcat Challenger, the ’69 Super Bee beat the other Hellcat Challenger, the Cummins Ram beat the 72 Challenger and the ’68 Dart beat the General Maintenance Hellcat Charger from Roadkill.
In round 2, the 1969 Super Bee beat the B5 Hellcat Charger and when the ’68 Dart ran into mechanical issues, the Ram had the easy run to the finals.
In the finals, the Ram and Super Bee went head to head, with the Mopar muscle car taking the win over the Ram owner, who wanted to put the Hellcat Hemi in a Chevy S10.
Finally, after the winner of the Quickest Dodge Shootout was decided, the teams from Roadkill and Fast N Loud went head to head and you can watch that video below. I won’t spoil the outcome for anyone who hasn’t seen it. Enjoy!
"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.
