Beaters, Burnouts and Blazing Heat at the Duct Tape Drags with David Freiburger and Friends
The 2024 Duct Tape Drags at Tucson Dragway was akin to walking on the sun, but it didn’t matter as thousands of fans and all sorts of homebuilt beaters and fun-rods joined David Freiburger of Roadkill and Derek Bieri of Vice Grip Garage for a couple days of hot rodding debauchery, innovation and runnin’ what ya brung.
The weekend mantra: Don’t get it right, get it running.
Despite the soaring heat of the southwest desert, thousands of enthusiasts packed Tucson Dragway to check out the gearhead madness and fun of the Duct Tape Drags. The two-day show, held the last weekend of September, packs the track with cars and trucks put together with used parts and generally packing more power than they can handle. There’s open test and tune on the track, a car show area full of non-showy cars, a huge burnout pit and even with the heat, there was still the evening bonfire.
Freiburger and Bieri brought in several of their buds to hang and meet/greet with the participants including Lucky Costa, Tony Angelo, Steve Brule and Steve Dulcich but the big part of the weekend is the highly anticipated “Battle of the Beaters” billed as the World’s Worst Drag Race. Sure, there are some serious derelict cars involved, but you also see some creative thinking and serious performance packaging efforts that all adds up to a fun time. Once again, it’s all about having fun with cars.
The cool thing is that there are hardly any rules other than the cars having to be worth $5000 or less and will be deemed accepted into the race by crowd applause and the “judges”. Of course, the cars must pass NHRA tech inspection to run, but rules state, “Don’t bring your ego because you might get hurt when the judges ridicule your car and joust with the crowd to decide if your car will be allowed to race.” In short, everyone is there to have fun with cars, regardless of chrome, perfect paint or even style.
Our ace lensman, Terry Lysak, braved the heat and put together a gallery to give you taste and idea of what the Duct Tape Drags are all about. Plan for the Drags to be about the same time next year – so you have about 11 months to get that project car rolling. Remember; don’t get it right, just get it running. It’s time to go have some fun! (Check out Freiburger’s YouTube Channel for a event episode.)
Photos by Terry Lysak
