$101,000-To-Win Sweet 16 Radial vs The World Coverage From Georgia

Outlww 632 regular and Lights Out 9 champion Ken Quartuccio aimed his Camaro for the sky in the second session of qualifying today, bouncing the nose skyward twice before wisely shutting it down.

Leroy Nabors, Jr. (left) holds down the bump spot after two rounds with a 3.919 in his new supercharged C7 Corvette. Keith Haney (right) who runnered-up to Jackson at Lights Out 9, currently sits seventh at 3.791 -- one of three nitrous cars inside the top eight.

Texas runner Jeff Naiser clocked what was unquestionably one of the finest passes in the history of Radial vs The World in the second session of qualifying, going 3.73 at just 193 mph, after throwing the parachutes around 600-foot mark and scrubbing some elapsed time. Might this be the first radial car into the 3.60s this weekend?

Lights Out 9 champ Steve Jackson and tuner Phil Shuler come into the Sweet 16 as the definitive favorites for the record $101,000 prize -- they're also the frontrunners for the bounty being offered for the first sub-3.70 run. Jackson blasted to the provisional pole in the second session with a stout 3.72 at 200, and the word on the street is he and Shuler are throwing the kitchen sink at it this evening to try punching into the sixties.

Marty Stinnett had an unfortunate excursion with the guardrail in the opening session of qualifying this afternoon when his small-block Mustang drifted astray near the finish stripe. The impact caused plenty of superficial damage to the exterior of the car, but also bent some of the tubing for the turbocharger system beyond repair, forcing the team to seek replacement parts to button the car back up for tomorrow's qualifying.

Oklahoma's DeWayne Mills made history this evening by recording the first 3.6-second pass in Radial vs The World history, storming to a 3.69 in his Pro Line-powered, twin-turbo Golden Gorilla.

While he just missed being the first by a couple of pairs, Steve Jackson stunned an already jaw-dropped crowd here at South Georgia Motorsports Park when he followed Mills’ 3.69 with an even quicker 3.68 to re-take the provisional pole.

Alex Laughlin presently holds down the bump spot in a historically-fast 16-car field at 3.869. Laughlin damaged a seal on the intake manifold on his second qualifier, forcing the team to sit out the third session. Laughlin said the team plans to make as many runs as it takes to punch into the show tomorrow and gain valuable data for eliminations. Laughlin’s spot will be hotly-contested in the morning session tomorrow, with four cars behind him in the three-second range and a handful of others more than capable of making the show.

Mark Micke Stuns With Quickest, Fastest Radial Pass In History

Following two incredible 3.6-second runs by DeWayne Mills and Steve Jackson early in tonight’s third session of qualifying — led by Mills’ first-to-the-sixties 3.69 — nothing truly seemed impossible. With some of the finest track and atmospheric conditions (the adjusted altitude was measured around 275-feet above seal level) the Radial vs The World contingent has ever encountered at their disposal, the session allowed the sport’s elite teams to tee-off in pursuit of radial tire infamy, and while Mark Micke and car owner Jason Carter missed out on the opportunity to be the first, their 3.677-second lap at an otherworldly 221.20 mph was the shot everyone is talking about.

For Micke and Carter, the stunning, world record pass is the culmination of years of work, and something they knew they and their iconic twin-turbocharged Malibu were capable of. Micke had opened the season at the U.S. Street Nationals in Bradenton, Florida with a career-best 3.72. The pair hoped to parlay that performance into success at Lights Out 9 last month, but never quite got a handle on the track and combination, but they had no such troubles on this day.

“We were kind of going for that. We saw DeWayne went the .69 and thought ‘alright, it’s there,’ and then Stevie went .68, and we knew this was our shot. We loaded it up pretty heavy and said ‘hell, let’s go for it, man.’

“I told Jason, ‘we’ve gotta’ hurry up there, but it is what it is, I’m happy for DeWayne…he’s a good customer and a good friend, and it’s just badass that you see a .68, a .68, and then a .67. Stevie was down there high-fiving. We’re all happy for each other, we want to kick the shit out of each other on the track, but after that, we’re all friends.”

Micke’s pole-grabbing pass was temporarily overshadowed by Frank Soldridge, who crashed at the finish stripe in the lane opposite to him, barrel-rolling to a stop following a violent impact with the guardrail. Soldridge was transported by ambulance to a local hospital with a possible broken arm, but was otherwise awake and alert and was quickly out of his battered Mustang.

The 3.72 at Bradenton gave Micke and Carter confidence in their program, sharing it was simply a matter of putting their early numbers together with the back-half to make it happen.

“We knew what we were doing on sixty-foots and everything, what we’ve done previously on sixty and 330-foot numbers, and in Bradenton we were off there — we were slow. So we kind of knew it was there, if we could just put the front and back together. But could we do it? We weren’t sure. It’s one of those deals. The track is just insane here, and the air is great. The air was 275-feet on that run…it’s just insanity.

“We were really bummed because we came here for Lights Out 9, and the circumstances with the track prep and the weather, and we had a mechanical issue, and we were really just pissed when we left. We wanted to run like this then. It was a big let-down, but that’s drag racing…you’re a hero to a zero in a matter of seconds. Bu it was a good run…all of the guys that support us, that’s the big deal.”

Despite the number, Micke doesn’t believe it will hold for the number one spot, with even better conditions possible in tomorrow morning’s fourth session, slated for 10 a.m.

“It will hold until tomorrow morning, or maybe tomorrow night. We looked at the data, and if we can get this weather tomorrow night, I think we can go a 3.62 or .63. There’s tons left on the table. It only went .995 to sixty-feet…we can go .975 with this car. It went 2.53 to 330, and we’ve been 2.50-flat, last year. On this car, every number I get to the 330, it shows me a hundredth and a half out the back.”

Micke had been 215 mph previously, adding the 221 was a bit of a surprise on the scoreboard. “It went a 1.141 back-split, which is the fastest split we’ve ever been. We’d been 1.149 before, and that was on the 215 run. People can say what they want about it, but you know what, it’s on the scoreboard and it’s on the timeslip, so it went 221….I’m sorry. If people don’t want to believe it, that’s not my problem.”

While he didn’t rule out another ‘hero’ pass during tomorrow’s five scheduled sessions, Micke and Carter intend to shift their focus to race-mode and the pursuit of the $101,000, winner-take-all payday. “I think that was my hero run. We’ll probably change focus. I want to win…I wanted my sixty and I got it, and I got some speed, so I think we’ll change our focus. But i’ll be honest, to win this thing, you’re gonna’ have to go that fast. You aren’t going to win this race going 3.80s…you might get a round or two. You take Mills, and Stevie, and Alepa, they can go that fast, so we’ve just gotta’ do it, and keep it in one piece.”