Maybe the Best Award at 2017 Drag Week!

HOT ROD Drag Week 2017, powered by Dodge and presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive

Shifty Frank Romano will never give up his manual shift 1955 Chevy. If you talk to most people running manuals at Drag Week they’ll tell you their cars would probably run quicker with automatics, but then racing would be no fun. They love the brute strength, violation of their racecars, brutally banging gears barreling down the quarter mile. We did a short piece on three of these shifty Drag Week stalwarts so you can hear in their words what shifting means to them.

Frank felt there should be more reward to his and his fellow shifter’s quarter mile efforts, and so last year he came up with a shift-off at the end of the last day of racing, where those with manuals could race heads up to see who had the fastest arm. No awards were involved; it was all about the bragging rights. Of course Frank won. Over the last year Frank wanted to make it more coveted than to brag, and so to help goose the shift shoot-off he’s created this super-bitchin’ award with cast off pieces of past shiftcapades in his Chevy. His hope is that the “Shifty” will be passed on year-to-year to each winner, and that they will add their names to the perpetual trophy. We suspect every Drag Week entrant would love to have this—but you can only win it if you win the Shift-Off, which takes place later today on the last day of Drag Week competition.