The Mid-West Drag Racing Series was poised to hand out the largest payout in Pro Mod history at the Fall Smackdown at Flying H Dragstrip in Odessa, Missouri, but the weather had other plans. After two days of hot and sunny conditions, persistent rain on Saturday \u2013 and the threat of more on Sunday \u2013 forced event officials to make the difficult decision to call the race.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a tough deal for them, but they did the right thing,\u201d No. 1 qualifier Mark Micke said regarding the decision to halt the event. \u201cThey tried, but mother nature just threw us for a loop. You can\u2019t make teams from the east coast sit around all day with that much uncertainty. One thing about Mid-West and Keith Haney \u2013 he really cares about his racers. For him to make that call\u2026it may not have been in the best interest of his pocketbook, but it was in the best interest of the racers. At the end of the day, I think they need to be proud of stepping up and paying it out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The four drivers left in Pro Mod at the time \u2013 Micke, Jason Harris, Melanie Salemi, and Roderjan Busato \u2013 split the prize money. Adding the payouts for runner-up and semifinalists on top of the $150,000 going to the winner, the total purse for those four teams equaled $185,000, allowing each of them to take home $46,250. While not the record-setting $150k they were all shooting for, it was still a very healthy payday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe four cars that were left were all bad ass race cars,\u201d said Micke. \u201cIt was fixing to be a pretty wild semifinal and finals. But it was still a good payday, and I\u2019m proud of how they handled it. When it came to splitting the money, there was no hesitation \u2013 [Flying H owner] Scott Higgs wrote the check. I joked with the guys about how many events they\u2019d typically have to win to get that kind of money.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout pre-race testing and qualifying, it was clear that Micke \u2013 whose shop, M&M Transmission, is less than two hours down the road from Flying H \u2013 was the clear favorite to win. In the sweltering afternoon heat, he clicked off an easy 3.62 elapsed time in the first qualifying session, a full five-hundredths quicker than Harris, his closest competitor.<\/p>\n
Mark Micke<\/p>\n
As the weather cooled Thursday evening, the competition seemed to close in, with both Harris and Busato running 3.63. But Micke quickly fired back with a 3.59, the only driver to run in the 3.50\u2019s all weekend, and took home an extra $10,000 as the No. 1 qualifier.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just came off a major rule change, so we struggled a couple of runs in testing,\u201d Micke admitted. \u201cThen it just kind of fell together for us. We\u2019ve got a little home-field advantage, because we test there all the time. My mindset was to set the pace, get out in front of everybody, and let them play catch-up. That was my strategy, and it worked perfectly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jason Harris<\/p>\n
On Friday, the temperature rose even higher, making for tricky track conditions in the first round. Upsets were the order of the day, with the lower-qualified cars taking nine wins, while the top half of the field only earned seven. Micke once again set the pace, running a 3.63 in a first-round victory over Scott Palmer.<\/p>\n
However, as the day wore on, other top contenders closed the gap on Micke, culminating in an incredible quarterfinal round that saw four different combinations run within two-hundredths of each other. While Micke (twin-turbo) was low for the round again \u2013 as he was for every round of eliminations \u2013 with a 3.621, Salemi (screw blower) was right on his heels with a 3.625, while Harris (ProCharger) went 3.638. In a losing effort to Micke, Haney (nitrous) also ran a very stout 3.640. It was a level of parity not often seen in Pro Mod.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melanie Salemi<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the rules are better than everyone thought they were,\u201d said Micke. \u201cI know there was a little gap in qualifying, but I think part of it was we got ahold of the perfect run, and the other guys hadn\u2019t quite got there yet. But by the quarterfinals, they\u2019d figured it out. All those teams are equally good. And with this kind of money on the line, you can\u2019t back off your shit. You gotta be willing to get after it or you\u2019re not going to get anywhere.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the four remaining drivers split the prize money, one thing they can\u2019t split is the championship belt Higgs had custom-made for the Smackdown champion. Micke says there have already been discussions between himself, Harris, Salemi, and Busato about getting together at another event \u2013 perhaps as soon as the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals in Bradenton, Florida \u2013 and settling who will get to wear it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re allowing us to work it out amongst ourselves, and do what we want to do,\u201d Micke said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big race, and somebody wants that belt. You can split the money, but you\u2019re not splitting the belt. I want to beat them for it and have that thing hanging on my shelf with all my other stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roderjan Busato<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on September 24, 2024. <\/p>\n
The post Rain Halts Mid-West Drag Racing Series Fall Smackdown<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Mid-West Drag Racing Series was poised to hand out the largest payout in Pro Mod history at the Fall Smackdown at Flying H Dragstrip in Odessa, Missouri, but the weather had other plans. After two days of hot and sunny conditions, persistent rain on Saturday \u2013 and the threat of more on Sunday \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}