Drag Racing’s Most Prestigious Radial Tire Race Began With a Dream and Ended With a Fantasy Finish

Donald Long had a vision. The colorful promoter best known for putting drag radial racing in the public spotlight believed that with a large purse, low spectator count and aggressive pay-per-view, he could finally enjoy one of his races. 

His Duck X Productions staged the Sweet 16 drag radial event, which caught the eye of the drag racing world. “It was designed to be really just a frickin’ let your balls hang out, find out who the baddest Radial vs. The World car is,” Long says, political correctness be damned. “We actually can prep just for Radial vs. The World cars.”

Long stuck to his guns, only fielding two classes, Radial vs. The World, without any no-time/grudge-style competition. He also limited the event’s attendance to 500 pre-sold ticket packages.

Long was adamant about being able to enjoy this event and not work like a dog. After all, he is “The Duck.” No offense to his über-successful pair of events at SGMP, he wanted one where he garnered the most press, all while smelling the roses and enjoying the moment.

“The other races are great, but there are too many people there for me,” Long admits. “I don’t get a chance to hang out. I wanted to be able to go around, hang out, talk to everybody, and that’s what I did—more of the camaraderie thing. I wanted to be able to actually see the race.”

In what seemed like a fairytale, the plan worked like a charm thanks to faithful Radial vs. The World campaigner Mark Micke.

Micke, who campaigns an essentially stock-bodied, turbocharged ’78 Malibu, made a mockery of the field during the three-day event by not only pocketing an unheard of $101,000-to-win purse but also establishing both ends of the world record (3.62, 221.02) in a display of utter domination. And he did it on a tire measuring just 10.5 inches wide.

“It’s really not about the money; the car’s going to eat that up pretty fast anyway,” Micke says. “We race for the trophy and the satisfaction of beating the best, and that’s what it was all about here. We had a great time, the car worked perfectly, and it all worked out for us. I really couldn’t be any happier right now.”

Micke, in route to the huge payday, survived nine marathon sessions of qualifying, entering eliminations as the top seed. He then ran the table on a murderer’s row of competition, starting with second-gen drag racer Ty Tutterow, who anchored the quickest field in Radial vs. The World history with a 3.768 elapsed time.

Just how quick was the field? Tutterow’s bump spot performance would have been #1 at the Lights Out 9 event just a month earlier.

Next, Micke beat Tim Slavens and Paolo Guist to reach the finals against Dwayne Mills, a multi-time winner in past Duck X events.

In the finals, Mills launched first, but Micke quickly bridged the gap, turning on the win-light with a 3.72/214.01.

“I knew I had to be pretty good on the tree because I know DeWayne is, and once I got going I kept waiting, but I didn’t see DeWayne, and then the win light came on,” Micke states matter-of-factly. “I wasn’t too worked up because I really felt like this was our race to lose. If I just did my job, we should be okay.

“I’m speechless now. I don’t know how we could do any better. We just came out and kicked ass,” the Sweet 16 record-setter and inaugural winner concludes. “What else is there to say?”

Thirty-four cars attempted to qualify for the 16-car show, and Long enabled the 16 quickest non-qualifiers to fight for a $5,000-to-win consolation prize. Tim Kincaid, third alternate with a 3.822, garnered the Second Chance prize, stopping Rodney Whatley in a battle of supercharged 1963 Corvettes.

Phil Bowley won the no-time/grudge portion by beating Timmy Meiser.

With the success of the inaugural event, Long has already begun laying the groundwork for Sweet 16, 2.0.

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