The “Western Swing” Becomes “The American Marathon”
With the postponement of the Bristol race in May, and its subsequent rescheduling to early July, the new NHRA schedule features a segment of eight races in nine weeks, with two of the events (Topeka and Chicago) already in the books. The final three stops on this newly-created massive road trip form the traditional “Western Swing” from Denver to Seattle, and then Sonoma. The swing has always been seen as a test of strength and stamina, as it covers much of the western United States in non-stop fashion, but it is now nothing more than the final three laps of an epic marathon.
After completing the easy part, moving from Topeka to Chicago (a distance of only 580 miles) the tour now heads to Englishtown, N.J. (roughly 870 miles) then backtracks to Norwalk, Ohio for its first-ever stop at that impressive northern Ohio facility (putting approximately 530 miles on the odometers. ) At the completion of the Norwalk event, Team CSK will pack up and head south, to hit Thunder Valley in Bristol (about 500 miles away) before pointing the big rigs and Chevy Suburbans to the west to tackle the Western Swing. The swing alone is worth about 3,580 miles, at its conclusion in Sonoma, but after the tour takes a merciful week off at that point, the next event is again more than half-way across the country, in Brainerd, Minn.
All told, from departure in Topeka to arrival in Sonoma, the American Marathon will cover slightly more than 6,000 miles and will reach from the midwest, to the east coast, to the Appalachians, and throughout the west, before ending near the San Francisco Bay.
Of course, the fun doesn’t stop there. After one weekend off, the team will make the haul from Sonoma to Brainerd for the first of two more back-to-back races, with Reading, Penn. immediately following. In effect, another complete lap of America will be in the books before Team CSK heads back to Indianapolis for the Mac Tools US Nationals on Labor Day. After that, it’s nothing more taxing than Memphis, Dallas, Richmond, Las Vegas, and Pomona, over the course of a leisurely nine weeks.
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