The Quick Six: The First Radial-equipped Cars In The 3.60’s!

Coming into February’s Lights Out 9, hopes were high that we would see the first 3.60-second pass in radial racing based on almost a year having passed since Steve “Stevie Fast” Jackson laid down a scintillating 3.71 at Woooostock last year. However, a combination of a tricky track and less-than-ideal weather conditions kept the badasses of Radial vs the World from really being able to push their hotrods to the brink and try to smash through the 3.70 barrier.

However, Donald Long, the genius behind the Lights Out and No Mercy tandem of events, had a little trick up his sleeve with the Sweet Sixteen, an exclusive, limited-access event that allowed the track prep guru Wade Rich to focus on making the surface the best it could possibly be for only one class. With the track biting as hard as ever, the biggest names in the class brought out the home run swings and the barrier not only fell, but was completely demolished by the time the weekend was over. As always, my good friend Hans from Free Life Films was on hand to catch all the action, and he put together this video, featuring the quickest passes made by each of the cars to record passes in the 60’s over the weekend.

Not one, not two, but a total of six different drivers made passes covering the 660’ track in less-than 3.70 seconds, with Mark Micke swinging the biggest stick when he threw down a run that shocked all in attendance, even those who had seen the flurry of 3.60 passes uncorked over the two days of qualifying.

I’m not going to spoil the ET, you have to watch the video to see that, but I will tell you that he one-upped his MPH record by a full SIX MPH on the weekend, just not on the same run that he laid down the record elapsed time. Over the course of one weekend, the ET record dropped by nearly a tenth and the speed record jumped by six MPH, showing just how insane these cars are and what they can do when the track is truly at “MAX PREP” levels.

Congrats to all of these drivers and their teams for throwing down some insane numbers. We can’t wait to see who is the first to knock down the door to the 3.50’s now!