Modern Street Hemi Shootout Roars in Michigan

Rain didn’t stop the world’s quickest modern Hemi-powered machines from shining bright.

This year’s Modern Street Hemi Shootout series took place in the Motor City. This marked the fourth event of the six-race season schedule, with this stop bringing the quickest modern Hemi-powered Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, and Plymouth vehicles to the Milan Dragway in Michigan. For the second year in a row, the weather didn’t cooperate. But the group still got in five hours of great drag racing, making for some great Hemi action for the crowd that included former Dodge boss Tim Kuniskis.

Modern Street Hemi Shootout

If you are a fan of modern Dodge and Mopar performance and you aren’t familiar with the Modern Street Hemi Shootout, you are missing out on a world of wonder. The MSHS is the leading modern Mopar racing series in the world, with a collection of the quickest and most powerful modern Dodge, Jeep, Ram, and Chrysler vehicles, as well as some classics running modern engines. While the competitors change from event to event as the series travels around the country, every record-setting modern Hemi-powered machine in the United States has appeared in the series at one point or another. And at any given event, the odds are good that at least one of the world’s quickest modern Mopars will be racing, if not several.

This season, each event includes the following racing classes, and each entry gets the driver and vehicle into two classes of their choice.

Modern Street Hemi Shootout Classes:
* Demon Performance Super Pro Class – Heads Up, Run 8s to Be Competitive
* ThiTek Pro Class –  9.50 index
* True Street Performance Modified Class – 10.50 index
* Legmaker Intakes Super Stock Class – 11.50 index
* Gearhead Fabrications Street Class – 12.50 index
* East Coast MoParts Pentastar Bracket Class – Bracket Dial-In
* High Horse Performance Hellcat Shootout – 10.00 index
* A2Speed Demon Class – Heads Up
* Authentic Performance Rookie Class – Bracket Dial-In
* Whipple Superchargers King of the Hill – Bracket Dial-In

The field is predominantly comprised of the modern Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger, Dodge Magnum, Ram 1500 pickup, Chrysler 300, and Jeep Grand Cherokees; with the Dodge products being the most common machines in the field. It is a modern Mopar performance showcase like no other, so, I headed out to the track with my Hellcat Challenger to check out the action.

Rain, Again

The 2017 Modern Street Hemi Shootout event was completely rained out. We all got there early in the morning, a few cars went down the track and then the heavens opened up, dumping rain on the track for hours and extinguishing any chance of drag racing.

This year, we arrived at the track early on Friday morning and the vehicles hit the track on schedule. After a dozen or so modern Hemi-powered vehicles went down the tracks, it started to rain lightly. Then it rained a whole lot harder, driving all of the cars out of the staging lanes and back to the garage area where we all huddled in tents in an effort to stay dry.

After two hours of moderate rain, the skies cleared, the sun came out, and the track crew got to work. By roughly 1:00 pm, the cars were back in the lanes, ready to go racing.

continued…

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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