Since the first Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge event that was held outside of the Pontiac Silverdome back in 2015, the festival of horsepower has included a grudge match program that has evolved over the years. In the first year, the Celebrity Grudge Match had the team from Roadkill taking on the team from Gas Monkey Garage in a pair of SRT^® Hellcat-powered Dodge classics. When Roadkill Nights moved to the M1 Concourse, the Celebrity Grudge Match consisted of high-profile automotive celebrities competing in brand-new factory-stock vehicles that were provided by Dodge. For the past few years, the Grudge Match program picked social media celebrities who were tasked with building a car that was powered by a supercharged SRT Hellcat Redeye HEMI^® engine – and that is the case for 2023 – but there is a new twist for the latest chapter of the Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge Grudge Match program.

This year, each team consists of a rookie and a mentor, with the mentor providing input on building the car and racing while the rookie has to get the Redeye-powered project car down the temporary Woodward Avenue drag strip. The experience levels and types of automotive experience varies wildly from team to team – and experience could be the key to winning. The supercharged SRT Hellcat Redeye HEMI engine makes monster power when properly built and tuned, but getting the most from these engines takes some key knowledge that not every tuning shop can offer. As for racing on Woodward with a car packing upwards of 700 wheel horsepower, that can only be learned through experience.

Today, we bring you a look at the 2023 Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge Grudge Match teams and what type of motorsports experience they bring to the table.

Team Soul Snatcher

We are starting with Team Soul Snatcher, as one of the members of this team is well-known within the modern Dodge community. Herman Young – better known online as Demonology – is easily one of the best-known owners and racers of a 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT^® Demon. Young’s SRT Demon is shown “snatching souls” all over the internet, so there is no question that he knows how to go very fast with a supercharged HEMI engine. He built a car for this very event last year and while he did not win, he gained valuable experience. Between his experience with the engine platform and his experience competing in last year’s RKN Grudge Match – his mentorship should be a huge advantage for his rookie racer.

Team Soul Snatcher’s rookie is Lee Carter, who is a salvage yard owner and YouTube content creator. His salvage yard specializes in high-performance and exotic cars, and his YouTube channel focuses on the interesting things that he builds from his salvage finds. He appears to build a ton of Porsche and Chevy vehicles, but he is in the process of building a 2018 SRT Demon with a manual transmission. There is no sign of any drag racing experience on his Instagram or YouTube channels, but he has plenty of experience from his mentor in terms of the vehicle build and the racing action.

Team Throtl

Next up, Team Throtl comes into Roadkill Nights 2023 with the most Grudge Match program experience. Team mentor Rickie Fernandez drove a yellow Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye in the program back in 2021 and 2022, and he also piloted the team’s Redeye-powered Dodge Viper. With two years of experience building a car within the rules and racing on Woodward Avenue, Fernandez has more RKN Grudge Match experience than anyone else in this year’s field.

The Team Throtl rookie is Quinn Clark. It says in his bio that he is a builder for the Throtl YouTube channel and a drifter, but we don’t have his individual social media channels – just the Throtl channels – so it is unclear what Clark drives, but it seems that he does not have any drag racing experience. Fortunately, his mentor and teammate has more experience with this event than anyone else on the program.

Team Corruptt

Next up, we have Team Corruptt, which includes another member of this year’s field with prior Roadkill Nights experience. Tony Arme is the mentor for this team, having competed last year in his Redeye-powered Plymouth Barracuda. Arme is best-known for building some stunning custom vehicles at his shop, American Legends Hot Rods and Muscle Cars, but last year, his HEMI engine-powered Plymouth proved that he knows how to build a wicked drag car. We also happen to know that Arme worked on last year’s build with SRT Autoworks, an Arizona-based shop that turns out some insanely quick modern Dodge products, and he will be working with them again this year. That leaves no question that this team’s Redeye HEMI engine will be making gobs of power.

The rookie for Team Corruptt is Kayla Rundle, an automotive design engineer who has experience building her own Chevrolet Camaro and Honda Civic. Rundle is into road racing and autocross, but there is no sign of any drag racing experience on her social media channels. That being said, her own motorsports experience coupled with Arme’s past RKN experience could make them a formidable team.

Team Sick Bastards

Team Sick Bastards doesn’t have any prior Roadkill Nights Grudge Match experience, but the mentor of this team is one of the most successful street-legal-based drag racers in the universe. Tom Bailey and his wicked “Sick Seconds” Camaros have won countless drag-n-drive events in addition to serving as the quickest car in the field for a few Roadkill Nights racing programs. Bailey is currently in the process of building the world’s most badass Dodge Durango and he plans to eventually put a Redeye drivetrain in a Dodge A100, so while he is best-known for dominating the drag-n-drive scene in a Camaro, he is very familiar with making big power with a HEMI engine.

The rookie for Team Sick Bastards is EJ Naegeli, who recently participated in the Sick Summer Drag-n-Drive event in a 1957 Chevy BelAir gasser. According to her bio, Naegeli is a vinyl wrapping expert and her social media channels show that she has a couple modified Subarus. There is no footage of her racing in her Subaru on her social media channels, but knowing that she just competed in the Sick Summer events in that classic ’57 Chevy, it seems that she might be the most experienced drag racer in the 2023 Grudge Match field. Between Naegeli’s drag racing experience and Bailey’s experience with Roadkill Nights and street-car-based drag racing, this team will be tough to beat.

Team Truck Yeah

Next up, we have Team Truck Yeah, which is one of the two in this year’s program with no prior Roadkill Nights experience. Mentor Justin Keith is the founder of the Street Car Takeover event series and in looking through his social media accounts, he has the world’s quickest and fastest 6^th generation Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and an array of other GM performance vehicles, so he obviously knows plenty about street-car-based drag racing and about building a fast GM product.

Team Truck Yeah’s rookie driver is Lacey Blair, owner of a powder coating shop and builder of some very big 4×4 show trucks. Her social media accounts show that she has a high-riding Ford Super Duty and a Hummer H2, but her performance experience is limited to dyno competitions and burnouts. Fortunately, her mentor has plenty of insight on getting down the drag strip.

Team Dahminators

Finally, we have Team Dahminators, which appears to be facing the biggest deficit when it comes to experience. The mentor for this team is Rob Dahm, who is one of the foremost authorities on Mazda rotary engines. He builds monster rotary-powered Mazda RX7s and he does all sorts of racing with them. However, Dahm’s bio points out that this is his first challenge with a piston engine, but he should be able to provide input on how to get down the track to the rookie on his team.

Team Dahminators’ rookie driver is Erica Schrull. She has not been active on her provided Instagram or YouTube channels in well over a year, but when she was active, we can see that she owned a 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and she was dating Rob Dahm. There is no sign of any motorsport participation of any kind on those accounts, so she will definitely rely on Dahm’s racing experience during the Roadkill Nights Grudge Match.

Tickets for 2023 Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge are on sale now, don’t miss it!