Roadkill Nights 2019 by Dodge Is the Biggest, Best to Date
Legal Racing Woodward Avenue
Once you have seen everything that is to see and experience inside of the M1 Concourse at Roadkill Nights by Dodge, you would have headed out towards Woodward Avenue, where the racing program is held.
This isn’t a gimmick, the racing actually takes place on the street, although the area is blocked off from traffic to keep everyone safe. In the past, they have used a traditional Christmas tree, but for 2019, the races ran on an arm-drop format.
That led to some questionable starts where one car clearly got out before the arm was moving, but in the long run, it was a great day of racing on the street.
There were a few accidents, including a Pontiac G8 that kissed the wall around half-track and a Mustang that went off of the end of the end of the track, but there were few stops for unexpected problems. This allowed the main racing program to run smoothly all day, allowing the organizers to establish the quickest eight cars in the big tire and small tire class, along with the quickest Dodge cars in the field.
Overall, there were more than 120 cars in the racing field, but the quickest Dodge was the 1968 Dodge Charger of Jim Pranis, who won $5,000 for grabbing the title. Unfortunately, he was the only Dodge driver to make it into either of the quick eight fields, with both groups dominated by General Motors products, and he lost in the first round of eliminations.
Pranis ran in the big tire class, while the quickest Dodge in the small tire class was the 1972 Dodge Dart of Peter Bokedon, who also took home $5,000.
In the quick eight classes, General Motors products comprised most of the field and in the end, a 1966 Pontiac GTO driven by Jimmer Kline won the big tire class while a 1979 Chevrolet Malibu driven by Alen Danial won the small tire class, each of which took home $10,000 for winning the class.
Celebrity Racing
In addition to the full racing program, there was a celebrity showdown with a group of automotive names battling on the track in Dodge Challenger 1320s. Participants in the celebrity shootout included Bill Goldberg, Matt Hagan, Leah Pritchett, Mike Finnegan, David Freiburger and a handful of others from television and the internet.
In the end, the team of Pritchett and Freiburger won the shootout, giving the $10,000 prize to the United Way. An additional $11,210 was raised for the United Way through a charity auction and raffle program, leading to a donation of more than $21,000.
Finally, Leah Pritchett and Matt Hagan each took turns doing burnouts on Woodward Avenue with their race cars, smoking the huge rear tires with the 11,000-horsepower Hemis for nearly the entire eighth-mile track.
If you are a gearhead, Roadkill Nights by Dodge is something that you absolutely have to experience at least once, as it is unlike anything else in the United States. Check out our gallery below for a closer look at just a bit of what the huge event has to offer each year.
Photos & Videos for Dodge Forum by Patrick Rall
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