Stop us if you’ve heard this story before. Mark Micke is the Pro Modified driver to beat headed into final eliminations.
Micke, a serial top qualifier, claimed the $10,000 low qualifier bonus at the Drag Illustrated [DI] World Series of Pro Modified event at Bradenton Motorsports Park outside of Tampa, Fla. The WSOPM is the final race in the three-event DI Winter Series.
John Pluchino (Mountain Motor Pro Stock) and John Carinci (Pro 10.5 Challenge) joined Micke atop the leaderboard for their respective professional divisions.
Micke recorded a 3.575-second pass in Friday’s Q-4 session, which held through the fifth and final session. On the other end of the spectrum, three-time PDRA Pro Nitrous champion Tommy Franklin anchored the 32-car field with a 3.637-second effort.
“We got behind during testing, and Thursday, we just couldn’t put it together,” said Micke, who also collected the $10,000 low qualifier bonus. “We had changed the car up a lot at U.S. Street because there’s radial prep, and we found out we couldn’t run it like that at this race. We put our heads together, looked over the data, and were pretty confident this morning.
“We ran a .61 in the morning, and that got our confidence back,” Micke continued. “Things just fell our way in the next round – we watched the weather falling and the track getting cooler, and I said, ‘Boys, I think this is our run.’ To put together 13 No. 1s in a row against the baddest Pro Mod racers in the world, I’m just really proud of our guys. Thick and thin, hot or cold, whatever the prep, we’ve been able to pull it out with the car. To be standing on top, that’s pretty badass.”
Micke drew Kye Kelley as his first round in the traditional chip-draw pairing.
Large-displacement Pro Stock racer Pluchino staked his claim on the No. 1 seed on Thursday and never relinquished his spot atop the Mountain Motor field. He earned the top spot with a 4.061 at 177.60 run in the Kaase-powered Ross Environmental Services ’13 Mustang and, as fate would have it, drew the No. 2 qualifier Dennis Firkus for his first-round opponent.
“We’ve made four really good runs all weekend, but our No. 1 run was good,” Pluchino said. “I’m honestly more impressed with what we did in the heat. Both of our runs during the daytime were low for the session and very impressive runs. As happy as I am to be No. 1, I’m really happy that we have a car that’s capable of going out in the heat and going .09, .10 when the conditions are difficult.”
Carinci claimed the Pro 10.5 Challenge No. 1 spot Friday night in the final session with his turbocharged 2004 Corvette. He claimed the spot with a 3.903 at 205.69 to slide by Thursday leader Joel Wensley Jr.
“We’ve been struggling all weekend,” Carinci said. “We did some work on the car. It’s got a lot of new chassis work on it, and it’s got a fresh engine in it. We were struggling, but then we were able to figure out a few little glitches and got them all taken care of. Carl Stevens Jr.’s tuning, Xtreme Racing Engines, Mark Micke’s transmission, Neal Chance Racing Converters, Precision Turbos, Atomizer Injectors, Aeromotive fuel pumps – these guys are all on board helping us out.”
Friday also saw the final qualifying session for the sportsman classes, the second annual Intercontinental Top Sportsman and Intercontinental Top Dragster Championships. Friday’s provisional No. 1 qualifiers, Glenn Butcher in Top Sportsman and Russ Whitlock in Top Dragster, held on to their top spots.
Pro Mod’s first round of eliminations will begin Saturday at 9:45 a.m., following Super Pro’s first round at 9 a.m.
