While the Woodward Dream Cruise will continue this year despite some backlash from government officials from surrounding suburban Detroit cities, the sixth annual “Roadkill Nights Powered By Dodge” event has been canceled. Quickly becoming a main staple of the Woodward Dream Cruise week, the event attracted 47,000 spectators last year to the grounds of M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan.
“When we first introduced ‘Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge’ five years ago as a pop-up car show and drag race, we never imagined it would grow to nearly 50,000 performance enthusiasts over two days,” said Tim Kuniskis, Global Head of Alfa Romeo and Head of Passenger Cars – Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA – North America. “One thing that can’t be canceled is the passion our Dodge SRT enthusiasts have for performance car culture, and we fully expect to see our Dodge Challenger, Charger, and Durango owners cruising Woodward throughout the summer, at a safe distance, of course,” he said in a statement.
The event featured a number of events, including thrill and drift rides in various Dodge Hellcat products, exhibition runs from NHRA Dodge superstars Leah Pruett and Matt Hagan, special celebrity showdown races with a $10,000 purse benefitting The United Way, an amazing car show featuring more than 400 vehicles, lots of food, and of course street-legal drag racing on the famed Woodward Avenue.
The street-legal drag racing event attracted competitors from across the United States and Canada. Two classes (Big Tire and Small Tire) offered competitors a chance at competing for a cash purse of $30,000. Overnight, a 1/8-mile section of the Woodward Avenue main thoroughfare would be converted into a prepped drag strip allowing safe and fast racing.
Originally being held at the grounds of the former Pontiac Silverdome, Roadkill Nights moved to the grounds of M1 Concourse allowing the event to have a first-class automotive venue and available to view a great section of Woodward Avenue. A lot of work between the city of Pontiac, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (who’s U.S. Headquarters is only a couple miles away in nearby Auburn Hills, Michigan), and MotorTrend Group was put in place to bring the event to the streets of Woodward Avenue.
We can only hope that the event will be reignited for next year’s Woodward Dream Cruise week. The event has become a “must-do” on a lot of automotive fans bucket-list. Below is a full-livestream of the 2019 Roadkill Nights Powered By Dodge event…
