I said that I was busy this past summer and one of the reasons was Jason (Kustom Persuasion) being invited to finish his build and race Snot Rocket at the Roadkill Nights 2018 street races in Pontiac, Michigan on August 11. I was a last-minute addition to the crew as a helping hand and photographer but I sure am glad I went along for the ride. Jason, Bernie and I rushed to finish the car on Friday (the day before the event) and it had all of the typical calamity that one would come to expect of us. The night before they were working hard and not getting too far with things. The next day I showed up and it was all hands on deck. Seriously, Jason was cutting up the hood and doing final adjustments just to get this pig onto the trailer. In typical dumb hillbilly fashion it started pouring rain during load up but Bernie and Jason soldiered on and made it work. We strapped it down, loaded up our things and hit the road. At last we were off to Pontiac to make our mark but not before covering the air cleaner with a taped-up grocery bag to protect it from the rain.
Once we were on the road it was pretty uneventful until we got around Detroit. Since we left an hour or two late we found ourselves in some city traffic. I’m used to this every day but when in a mid-size truck hauling a long trailer and a beefy car it makes it all the more perilous. Bernie was driving and he was a complete pro. No issues, no accidents and no lost parts. Gotta love that.
We finally made it to our hotel and unloaded the car. It still wasn’t running right so Jason and Bernie got to work as soon as we checked in. The diagnosed and performed some surgery right there in the parking lot. Before long the beast was purring (loudly) and then we went to fuel it up so we could make our way to the tech area for check-in. We got no more than 1,000 feet from the parking lot when the car shut down. Completely empty. No go-juice to get us down the road. Bernie and Jason hustled from the car back to the truck and I sat on the trunk waving cars and semi-trucks around us. In the 20-30 mins while I waited one guy stopped to take a photo of me on the trunk and one person asked if I needed help but other than that nothing worthwhile happened. I just got to enjoy the sun while taking in the sights of all kinds of awesome vehicles running the roads. Once we got to the tech area it was quick and easy. In, out and then it was time to go rest up for the next day.
Race day was a HOT affair. Sun beating on us from the moment we stepped from the hotel lobby. As there is no back seat in the Snot Rocket I just sat on metal floor in between the roll cage. It wasn’t comfortable but I didn’t want to walk any more than I knew I would be doing when we got to the event. As a matter of fact, I had to jump out at the entrance/crew gate and walk about a 1.2 mile to the spectator gate. Once inside the event I found my guys and we checked out some cars and talked about the rest of the day. From here I would find myself parked in the stands at various places for the rest of the day trying to get any good photos and video that I could muster.
In the end Jason put up some decent times but he was nowhere near the top of the pack. Some of these cars were just absolutely insane. But that really wasn’t the point of the weekend. It was all about having fun with friends, burning rubber, wasting fuel and making people smile when they saw the car. Mission accomplished.
The event closed with a bit of a whimper as it started raining before they could finish the final runs. At that time Jason and Bernie were on their way back to the hotel for load-up. I was at the trailer waiting for them and had everything unloaded and ready and then the rain comes to spoil those plans. I had to quickly cover all of the tools and anything that shouldn’t be wet and then get them out again once they arrived. Typical. Damn weather. After that we just hauled ass back to rural Ohio and loaded the car into the shop. A long weekend completed and a successful feeling in our bellies.
I managed to get the video from an online feed but I spaced out when uploading to Instagram and I cut off parts of his runs. Whatever. Enjoy what’s here and get a sense of the day.
I did manage to take some photos of non-Snot Rocket’s while there too (plenty of down time between runs). Check em out!
Oh, in case you were wondering Jason killed the Snot Rocket. He decided to have a little fun with it on some country roads and ripped apart his rear end. RIP to a true country OG.
Black Curse Creative 