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By Craig Cook
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 – and the threat of more on Sunday – forced event officials to make the difficult decision to call the race . “ It was a tough deal for them , but they did the right thing ,” says Mark Micke , the No . 1 qualifier , regarding the decision to halt the event . “ They tried , but Mother Nature just threw us for a loop . You can ’ t make teams from the East Coast sit around all day with that much uncertainty . One thing about Mid-West and Keith Haney – he really cares about his racers . For him to make that call … it may not have been in the best interest of his pocketbook , but it was in the best
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interest of the racers . At the end of the day , I think they need to be proud of stepping up and paying it out .”
The four drivers left in Pro Mod at the time – Micke , Jason Harris , Melanie Salemi , and Roderjan Busato – 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
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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 .
“ The four cars that were left were all badass race cars ,” says Micke . “ It was fixing to be a pretty wild semifinal and finals . But it was still a good payday , and I ’ m proud of how they handled it . When it came to splitting the money , there was no hesitation – [ Flying H owner ] Scott Higgs wrote the check . I joked with the guys about how many events they ’ d typically have to win to get that kind of money .”
Throughout pre-race testing and qualifying , it was clear that Micke – whose shop , M & M Transmission , is less than two hours down the road from Flying H – 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 fivehundredths quicker than Harris , his closest competitor .
As the weather cooled Thursday evening , the competition seemed
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS SEARS |