Roadkill Nights brings grudge matches, burning rubber, legal street racing to Woodward
Christina Roki will try something new on Saturday.
She’ll get behind the wheel of a 2010 Dodge Challenger R/T that just happens to have a new Hellcat Redeye engine under the hood and try to win a grudge match,
Roki has never drag raced before, but she’s planning to do it on Saturday in front of thousands of people as part of MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac. The annual legal street drag racing event, which attracted 38,000 attendees last year and features plenty of burning rubber each year a week before the Woodward Dream Cruise, gives amateur drag racers a chance to compete on a closed section of Woodward, hopefully with their pride intact. The total purse for this year's racers, in all categories, is $30,000.
Roki said she's ready.
“I’m pretty confident. I want a clean pass. I want to gain a good amount of traction and hopefully beat whoever I'm competing with,” Roki said.
Roki’s no stranger to hot rods. She and her boyfriend, Grant Sloan, both 21 and living in Utica, have big social media followings on YouTube and TikTok, where they post lots of car videos. That’s how they got this opportunity. Dodge picked a group of social media influencers, gave them a $10,000 budget and a Hellcat Redeye engine and told them to build a drag racing car.
Roki and Sloan, who are both engineering students (she’s at the University of Michigan and he’s at Purdue), found their ride in a barn a couple of hours outside Detroit, and like everyone else ended up with only about a month or so to build their racers, though they said they got some help along the way.
More: Dodge returning to Woodward Dream Cruise, capping week of unveilings, Roadkill Nights
More: Dodge 'Chief Donut Maker' competition winner beats out 170,000 applicants
More: Metro Detroit car cruises: 7 shows to check out this summer
Sloan said the Challenger, which is expected to deliver close to 1,000 horsepower, was not in “terrible condition,” but still needed work.
“We saw potential. We saw an opportunity with it,” he said.
When Roki gets her shot Saturday, it's possible she could face Herman Young, 57, of Mansfield, Texas, near Dallas.
Young’s got his own social media following on his “Demonology” channel on YouTube and, like Roki, was selected by Dodge. He’d had the makings of his car, just a car body for a year and half, but it was “just a shell.” A month ago, he started building his machine.
”I had to build an entire car, brakes, steering. We ran out of time, so we couldn’t get the dash, but we built what we could build,” said Young, who is a regular at three drag strips, and has a method to his racing.
“My deal is I snatch souls,” he said, describing how he won’t bet ahead of a race, he just "takes the souls” of those he beats.
Although the racing is the main event at Roadkill, plenty of people come for the sheet metal eye candy and possibly to catch sight of an auto celebrity. Dodge thrill and drift rides in Challenger and Charger SRT Hellcats are back, and this year will also feature an off-road course with a Ram 1500 TRX thrill ride.
Roadkill Nights runs 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday. Drag racing qualifying starts at 11 a.m. The Dodge Direct Connection Grudge Match begins at 4:45 p.m. and opening ceremonies start at 6:16 p.m.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence. Become a subscriber.
For ticket and event information
Go to motortrend.com/roadkill-nights-2022
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Roadkill Nights returns to Woodward Avenue in Pontiac on Saturday
