2018 Radial VS The World Recap
One of the awesome advantages that our good friend and partner Hans from Free Life Films has by going to so many races is that he has footage to pull from the whole season to make badass compilations like this one, chronicling each of the major Radial vs the World events that have taken place in 2018. Now that most of the season has wrapped for RVW, we’re going to take a look back at the insane year enjoyed by the most exciting doorslammer class in all of drag racing.
With a little bit of a preview of things to come, Missouri native Mark Micke opened the season with a win at the US Street Nationals in Bradenton, Florida when he took out Jeff Miller’s fan-favorite Camaro known as Bumble Bee. Miller put up a very respectable 3.80 elapsed time, but Micke’s 3.74 was more than enough to take the win and kick off the season with a bang.
Up next was Lights Out 9, also known as the Stevie Fast and Keith Haney show. Not only did these two line up in qualifying for a big-bucks grudge race, they would meet in the finals for the $60,000 winner’s check. As most predicted, Stevie Fast took the win in both races, though there’s no denying Haney put up a hell of a fight.
The showcase event of the year for RVW was up next when class creator and promoter extraordinaire Donald Long’s latest brainstorm-brought-to-life, The Sweet Sixteen rolled around. With over $100,000 on the line, it was two of the class’ most well-known, well-respected and fastest competitors, Mark Micke and Dewayne Mills who met in the finals. Both cars had put up ridiculous numbers, with Mills becoming the first RVW car in the 3.60’s and Micke dropping the record to a scintillating 3.64 at over 220 MPH in qualifying. Mills would strike the tires about 90’ and could do nothing but watch as Micke streaked away to take the win and claim the massive payday.
From there, the action rolled into historic Bowling Green, Kentucky’s Beech Bend Raceway for the fifth running of Tyler Crossnoe’s Outlaw Street Car Reunion, where Daniel Pharris would drive Andrew Alepa’s gorgeous C7 Corvette into the finals against nitrous badass Jeff Naiser. The two would put up nearly identical numbers, with Pharris just nosing out the Camaro of Naiser to get the win.
Finally, the action would return to South Georgia Motorsports Park for No Mercy 9, where our very own Alex Laughlin raced his way into the finals in his blown C6 ‘Vette to take on Naiser. Once again, the numbers were nearly identical, but this time Naiser would come out on top to take the win and close out the season with a fat check of his own.
If you’re keeping score, the final rounds in each of these races were turbo vs blower, blower vs nitrous, turbo vs turbo, turbo vs nitrous, and blower vs nitrous. That should tell you all you need to know about how well Long’s rules are working to maintain a level playing field. If you’d like to purchase a Free Life Films DVD from any of these events, Hans can be reached on Facebook or by visiting the Free Life Films website!
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