Roadkill Nights Returns to the Street! Ticket and More Event Info Inside
Downtown Pontiac will host this year’s Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge with street-legal drag racing on Woodward Avenue.
Last month, we declared August 9 as the date for this year’s MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge, and we are back to add a few more details about the wildest single-day motorsport event of the year. The great news is that the event is moving back to the downtown area in Pontiac, Michigan, and street-legal drag racing will take place on Woodward Avenue.
AI Quick Summary
Roadkill Nights returns to downtown Pontiac, Michigan, on August 9, featuring street-legal drag racing on Woodward Avenue. The event includes new product reveals, thrill rides, a car show, and competitions with $20,000 in prizes. Tickets are available for spectators, car show, and racers.
This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article
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"The Dodge brand is bringing street-legal drag racing back to where it belongs during our iconic Roadkill Nights Powered Dodge event, and that’s right on Woodward Avenue,” Dodge CEO Matt McAlear said. “We are marking a decade of partnering with MotorTrend on our premier event by returning to Pontiac’s downtown district, where the community can really experience Dodge performance with our new product reveals, thrill rides, drag racing, a massive car show, manufacturers midway, and more.”
Related: Roadkill Nights Presented by Dodge Tickets Are Available Now!
For those unaware, the MotorTrend event team, along with our partners, turn a strip of roadway into a dragway with safety barriers, a timing system, and surface preparations like you’d experience at dragstrips across the country. Several hundred cars will be entered in competition, along with the popular Direct Connection Influencer Grudge Race as it returns for its fifth year. Dodge has invited new builders to create race cars for the “outlaw” competition, with each vehicle being powered by a Direct Connection I-6 Hurricrate engine. MotorTrend and HOT ROD are also putting up $20,0000 in prize money for Small Tire and Big Tire competitors—applying the same rules as last year with licensed and insured street cars that feature DOT-legal tires. Interested racers should check the racing details on the Roadkill Nights website for the rules package. Fans can experience the thrill of Dodge performance vehicles with ride-alongs and new product showcases, as well as exhibition vehicles. An unjudged car show is also part of the event, but be sure to enter quickly before the limited spots sell out.
“We are extremely pleased that Roadkill Nights will mark 10 years of celebrating automotive excellence in Pontiac,” Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel said. “Our business corridor and the Woodward Loop will serve as the perfect midway for tens of thousands of auto enthusiasts with a need for speed to enjoy all of the food, fun, and entertainment this event and Dodge have to offer.”
Spectator, car show, and racer participant tickets are available now.
I’ve been fortunate enough to blur the line between career and hobby/passions for over 25 years, and it has been a rather unusual pathway to my current role as the Network Director of HOT ROD. Naturally, cars have been a large part of my life since I was a young kid—complete with car posters on the wall and a chest full of toy cars. As time marched by it was R/C cars and trucks until finally, into the big leagues when I turned 16. By that time my life was heavily influenced by magazines like HOT ROD and Car Craft, and it was the 5.0 Mustang that piqued my interest thanks to a heavy dose of the local car scene that I experienced through my two older brothers. I was fortunate enough to grow up as the Fox Body Mustang scene began to flourish, however at no time did I ever imagine a media career in the automotive-enthusiast aftermarket. Life after college was spent behind the desk as a stock analyst, but every other waking moment was occupied by Mustang drag racing. It was a friendship that changed my life from the rat race to the drag race, I was given a chance to contribute to a fledging new title for a quickly growing racing organization, one that focused on my true passions—Mustangs and street-legal drag racing. The opportunity eventually turned into a full-time gig in the early 2000s, despite no formal journalism degree or photography courses. By 2003, I was offered the dream job of joining the staff of Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords, which was the bible for the late-model Mustang movement that was taking over the world. One thing led to another, and I ended up back at the drag racing sanctioning body in which I had started my career as the content and marketing director, a role I occupied for a decade. In 2022, I was offered a chance to step into the network director role for the largest automotive-enthusiast aftermarket brand, the revered and legendary HOT ROD.
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