Six-Time HOT ROD Drag Week Champion Tom Bailey Almost Sets Quickest Run in Street-Legal Drag Racing History in 1969 Chevy Camaro
Tom Baiely unleashed a record performance during the 2025 Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Peak Street Car Shootout.
Sunday UPDATE: Tom Bailey and the Sick crew came oh-so-close again for resetting the Quickest Street Legal Drag Racing record. Their Sunday elimination run was a stellar 5.787 at 256.21 mph during the Peak Street Car Shootout during the Route 66 NHRA Nationals, held in Joliet, Illinois.
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Tom Bailey, the purveyor of "sickness" and six-time HOT ROD Drag Week champion, unleashed a wild 5.793 at 263.51 mph at the 2025 Gerber Collision and Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals during the opening round of eliminations of a special Peak Street Car Shootout. The performance has earmarked a number of records, first narrowly misses the top speed performance held by British racer Andy Frost and is .02 off Bailey's personal best ET. The Red Victor 3 VXR, a Vauxhall Victor FD, holds the top speed mark with a 263.74 mph. The most impressive accolade is the 263.51 mph, making the Pro Mod-ish 1969 Chevy Camaro the fastest full-bodied vehicle to ever at a NHRA national event. It tops the Pro Modified category speed record of 261.22 mph, held by Elite Motorsports' Erica Enders. A quick footnote, the Pro Mod category is limited to 88mm turbochargers and other engine and minimum weight restrictions while Bailey's Camaro runs Precision 94mm turbochargers and no engine or weight restrictions.
The Michigander racer is credited with the first and only 5-second run in drag-and-drive history, a feat he accomplished in 2019 as he closed out his fifth HOT ROD Drag Week title. Bailey has been trying to get back into the 5.70s for a few years, facing chassis and engine problems, before getting it all together for the historic run at Route 66 Raceway. The engine combination is his tried-and-true Steve Morris 526-ci powerplant dubbed the SMX. It is an all-billet design and features a pair of turbochargers. The engine is controlled by a Holley EFI Dominator and backed by a Rossler TH400, complete with Gear Vendors Overdrive unit on the backside to allow for highway cruising.
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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