The main attraction at the annual Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge automotive festival in Metro Detroit is the legal street racing program, which takes place on the legendary Woodward Avenue. The event organizers block off the four-lane road, line it with concrete barriers, install a timing system, paint starting lines and finish lines, create a burnout box and make a race track. Some years, Roadkill Nights has used an official Christmas tree, like you find at your local drag strip, but for 2023 (and some past years), the drivers raced on the arm drop by the starter.

For 2023, Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge moved to downtown Pontiac, with the racing taking place on a much nicer stretch of concrete road. The “race track” on Woodward, outside of the M1 Concourse road racing facility, has a serious crown to it, with lots of uneven pavement, train tracks, sewer covers and other obstacles. The new stretch in downtown Pontiac is smooth, relatively flat and free of many imperfections in the road, making it a much better spot for street racing. The organizers added grandstands (and protective fencing) along both sides of the track, with over 4,000 feet of concrete barriers lining the track, cones separating the two racing lanes and a metal archway with a win light on each side hanging over the starting line. More than 200 gallons of sticky traction material was applied to the surface to help the vehicles put more power to the pavement without going up in smoke.

In total, building the drag strip on Woodward Avenue took the team between five and six hours.

After making a pass down the temporary drag strip, each racer drove back past the fans on the event-side of the track, providing a closer look at the vehicles as they headed back to the pits. Track times were not announced to the crowd or the drivers, but the organizers did keep track of the elapsed times to select the top eight quickest vehicles from the Big Tire and Small Tire classes. Those two groups of eight racers then went head-to-head in a single elimination shootout to the win in each class. The winner in the Big Tire class was Jimmer Kline, who has won in past years, but this year, he was driving his son’s 1966 Pontiac Acadian. Over in the Small Tire class, Mikael Borggren and his V8-powered Volvo wagon – a popular competitor from Hot Rod Drag Week and 2022 Roadkill Nights Small Tire Winner – backed up his title with another big win.

The title of the Quickest Big Tire Dodge went to Lenny Melton and his 1968 Dodge Dart, while Peter Bokedon was the Quickest Small Tire Dodge in his 1972 Dodge Dart. Melton, who has been featured here on DodgeGarage, has won the Quickest Big Tire Dodge twice before in 2017 and 2022, along with being the overall Big Tire class runner-up in 2017 and 2022. As for Bokedon, the Quickest Dodge title for an incredible fifth-straight year, leaving no question that he is THE QUICKEST Dodge on a smaller tire in the Roadkill Nights crowd.

The two videos below offer a look at the racing action, with a look at Tom Bailey’s Dodge Durango and James Pranis’ Dodge Charger, which has served as one of the Quickest Dodge products in past years.

Direct Connection Grudge Match

In addition to the Big Tire and Small Tire racing programs, 2023 Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge included the Direct Connection Grudge Match program, featuring the new mentor-and-rookie format. Six teams were given a Direct Connection Hellcrate Redeye HEMI^®-engine powered vehicle and $15,000 to build the quickest car that they can, in less than two months’ time. Realistically, the teams all came out with cars that cost FAR more than $15,000 to build, but that is to be expected thanks to help from sponsors. As a result, the teams brought out six wicked racecars. Click here for a complete rundown of the six teams and information on their vehicles.

The first round of eliminations for the Direct Connection Grudge Match shootout saw Team Soul Snatcher and their modern Dodge Charger taking on Team Sick Bastards and their 1965 Plymouth Belvedere AFX car. It should have been a great race, but it became a single pass for the Charger when the Plymouth threw the blower belt during the burnout.

The next race in the first round saw the 1971 Dodge Challenger of Team Dahminator taking on the Dodge Viper of Team Throtl. Team Throtl has the most experience of any competitors at Roadkill Nights events and this is the second year in a row where they have brought this Viper to Pontiac. Their experience paid off, with the Viper beating the Challenger.

The last race of the first round saw the 1995 Dodge Ram 1500 of Team Truck Yeah battling the 1969 Plymouth Barracuda of Team Corruptt. Tony Arme campaigned this same car last year with a manual transmission, but this year, he swapped to an automatic for rookie driver Kayla Rundle. Rundle tapped on Arme’s experience to get the first round win over the Ram, but she wasn’t done winning.

In the second round, Team Throtl’s Viper took on Team Soul Snatcher’s Charger, with the ’90s supercar taking the win. Meanwhile, Rundle and Team Corruptt’s Barracuda got a single pass in round two, guaranteeing her a place in the finals.

In the finals, Team Corruptt and their Barracuda battled Team Throtl and their Viper. Both cars got away from the starting line cleanly and continued to maintain traction as they headed down the track, but the classic Plymouth pulled ahead at the end to take the win. You can watch that final round run in the video below.

Rookie driver Kayla Rundle and experienced mentor Tony Arme were obviously very excited to have pulled down the win.

“After spending the last few weeks working toward this moment, there was nothing but excitement when I finally got behind the wheel,” said Kayla Rundle about bringing home the crown for Team Corruptt in the Dodge Direct Connection Grudge Match. “I’ve always loved drag racing, and as a female racer, rookie and first-timer at Roadkill Nights, this was truly a dream come true.”