Mark Micke Wheels Jason Carter’s Wicked Malibu to Sweet Sixteen $101,000 Payday!
Mark Micke has been racing the car that he drives for Jason Carter for two decades. Along that journey, the two have always been frontrunners in whatever class or niche they chose to compete in, often setting national records and taking home some big wins. However, last weekend at Donald “Duck” Long’s inaugural Sweet Sixteen, Micke, Carter and the blue Malibu collectively dropped a bomb on the entire sport when they not only knocked almost a tenth off the elapsed time record and tacked on a full six MPH to the previous records, they also marched through the competition to take home the $101,000 payday.
This video from one of the most respected outlets in all of drag racing, Competition Plus, captures the entirety of eliminations, as well as Micke’s record-smashing 3.62 run in qualifying. As you can see, the combination of great weather, an insanely well-prepared track surface and one steel-bodied Malibu combined to put on one hell of a show for the limited fans on the South Georgia Motorsports Park property.
With extra qualifying rounds added due to the restricted class count – there were only two, compared to the dozen or more at a typical event – the field was packed extra tight, with an insane 3.76 bump spot. This meant that the teams had plenty of chances to throw all they had at the track, and let me tell you, the track was there! Wade Rich had the track prepped like no other, and the ridiculous Mickey Thompson radials bit hard, allowing the total number of cars to have ever breached the 3.60’s to go from zero to six in the course of a single weekend.
Once eliminations came to an end, there was only one man standing. Micke took out some stiff competition, including Ty Tutterow driving Barry Mitchell’s old Camaro who strapped a near-perfect light on Micke in the first round. Mark would go on to face the always-tough Dewayne Mills in the finals in a bit of an anti-climactic race as Mills knocked the tires loose around the 220’ mark, giving him the best seat in the house to watch the Malibu drive away to take the win and the cash!
