Roadkill Nights by Dodge Goes Racing on Woodward

This past Friday, the Roadkill Nights by Dodge event took place at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan and while there were all sorts of Dodge-themed displays, food trucks, Roadkill cars and more than a thousand show cars, the main attraction was the legal street racing on Woodward Avenue on the eve of the 2016 Woodward Dream Cruise. Thanks to an agreement with the city of Pontiac, the Roadkill crew was allowed to block off a long stretch of Woodward to set up an 8^th mile drag strip with two narrow lanes and concrete barriers on each side.

Since the event was sponsored by Dodge, Dodge brand cars were the key focus of the racing program, with a Fast Four program paying the driver of the quickest Dodge car on hand a cool $10,000. As a result, the vast majority of the 350 registered race cars were Dodge or some other older Mopar car, but there was a nice (small) mix of Fords, Chevys, Pontiacs and imports that took their turns getting beaten down by the scores of Mopar muscle cars.

The full field raced heads up, grudge match style (no ETs for anyone) from around 1pm until around 7pm or so, when they announced the Dodge Fast Four lineup which would compete for $19,000 in cash prizes. The preliminary races for those first 6 hours were exciting, but when the quickest cars in the field were pulled to the front for the big money races – the massive crowd of more than 30,000 people really got fired up for the late night racing action.

While we didn’t get to hear what anyone ran, the quickest Dodge cars were established during the course of the day, resulting in the following list of four Mopar owners ready to throw down for $10k.

#1- 1969 Dodge Charger powered by a twin turbo race Hemi and driven by Mike Moran
#2 – 1968 Dodge Dart powered by an all-aluminum sprint car engine and driven by Greg Charney
#3 – 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat powered by a Hellcat Hemi with pulleys and a tune, driven by Tom Drago
#4 – 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat powered by a Hellcat Hemi with undisclosed mods, driven by Michael Cole

These four cars each made two runs against each other in round robin format and when they were all finished up, the winner was Mike Moran in the wicked quick twin turbo Charger. The finishing order followed the qualifying order, with Charney taking the $5,000 second prize, Drago taking the $2,500 third prize and Cole taking the $1,500 fourth prize.

Below, we have included a handful of videos from the Dodge Fast Four shootout, followed by a few other key Mopar races from Roadkill Nights. Finally, at the bottom of this piece you will find a gallery showing some of the racing action in still photos. Enjoy!

Dodge Fast Four:

Other Dodge 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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