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In its 16th year, Mustang Week has embraced change to keep its popular enthusiast event moving into the future. From changing the dates to relocating several events, this year’s event offered many of the same features, but many in different locations. Case in point is the drag racing Test ’N Tune day moving to North Myrtle Beach Dragway, which is much closer to the rest of the week’s action.
“So far so good,” Brad Worley of Mustang Week enthused. “I am impressed with the guys that run the place. They were here early this morning track-prepping. We advertised that we were starting at 10 o’clock and at 10 past 10 we were running cars down the drag strip.”
We spotted this insanely detailed, Fastlane Motorsports-prepped Boss 302 at the Meet ’N Greet. Sporting two turbos, an impressive level of detail and four-digit credentials, the Gotta Have It Green machine made some shakedown passes even though it is set up for mile racing. Stay tuned for more on this car.
In previous years, racers and spectators had to travel nearly two hours to the closest drag strip. That meant separating the hardcore 1,320 fans from those who might rather stick around and enjoy the beach. This year, the event was close enough that everyone could sample some drag racing.
Austin Holley took top honors in the Pro Dyno dyno shootout in his Armageddon twin-turbo Boss, which put down over 850 at the rear wheels.
We’ve got completely blue skies and I am not roasting at Mustang Week for a change. — Brad Worley, Mustang Week
“This is unbelievable,” Brad said. “We’ve got completely blue skies and I am not roasting at Mustang Week for a change. It actually feels really good.”
Based on the constant traffic in and out of the track, which overwhelmed the local roads, we’d say most people did make the trip to enjoy the racing action in the moderate weather — some for the first time. At some points during the day the traffic was so backed up going into the track that local authorities turned potential attendees away.
“They are lined up and a little slow getting through the gates, but you’ve got to make sure that everybody signs the waiver and has the right armbands,” Brad explained.
Though it is Mustang Week, there are plenty of other Fords around, including some representatives from the hot hatch contingent. This bolt-on Focus ST actually got the jump on a few Mustangs but the ponies managed to run the ST down before the stripe.
Fortunately, we were there from the jump and able to capture the action on the track and in the pits this year. There were a few times the track went down because of an oildown or an unfortunate crash, but for the most part racers were getting in plenty of steady runs between track prep.
One of the coolest things about Mustang Week is seeing cars from all eras mixing it up together at the events. Even though each style has its fans, they are all appreciated this week in Myrtle Beach.
The track is an old school, eighth-mile facility with no clocks (perfect for the grudge racing that was scheduled after the Mustang Week event officially ended), so we didn’t get to document any e.t.’s, but we did see plenty of great cars run, so keep scrolling to see what we spotted.
On Friday the big day arrives at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, which will host its first Mustang Week car show, so stay tuned for our continuing coverage of the event.
A new venue and cooler temps made the Mustang Week drag racing action far more attractive to participants and spectators alike. Crowds packed the facility and there was definitely plenty of tire spinning.
Bill Tumas of CJ Pony Parts video fame is on hand this week signing dashes and running the company’s SEMA EcoBoost Mustang project car, which we featured last year. Bill was pleased that he beat his co-worker Chris Cervenka, who was piloting his own Mustang GT.
Most people had a safe and enjoyable day, but this driver’s fun came to an abrubt halt, which his car got loose and hit the wall. The driver was fine. The car on the other hand, has seen better days.
