Mark Micke came out swinging in his new ’69 Camaro at the Mid-West Drag Racing Series double event at the World Wide Technology Raceway in St. Louis, Missouri.
Micke, also the owner of M&M Transmission, bested Brandon Snider’s 3.66 E.T. with an impressive 3.64 E.T. for the Stroud Safety Pro Mod win. Micke had a semi-final bye and a second-round victory over Preston Tanner.
“We won that race, and then we set low E.T. of the event,” said Micke. Then, after completing the make-up race on Friday, they rolled right into qualifying for the second MWDRS event.
Micke was the No. 1 qualifier after two rounds but lost in the final to Snider’s teammate, Steven Whiteley of YNot Racing. However, it wasn’t a complete loss on the weekend for the M&M Transmission owner and his team. They collected data and improved their performance in the brand-new car Micke debuted in January at the U.S. Street Nationals.
“I’ve got so many people behind me,” explained Micke. “I have number one guys here at the shop. With M&M Transmission – the cars have our latest and greatest stuff. My guys flat-out kill it on that. The car was prepped flawlessly. Most races are won at the race shop.
“Then, we have a badass race car built by Blake Housley from Mayberry Motorsports. We have a Pro Line engine and the whole Pro Line support system behind us, which is second to none,” Micke continued.
In addition to the best bones and team, Micke is working on a new technology for turbocharged cars. “The biggest reason why this car is so unique and runs good, is we are in development with a company called Turbosmart. In addition, with FuelTech, we have a new system that’s called an E-gate system. It’s a new way of controlling the boost on a turbo car that FuelTech and Turbosmart have developed, and we’re the flagship for it. We’ve made a turbo car competitive in Pro Mod again.”
Micke continued to explain this new system is a group effort of all the parties involved to get turbo cars back in Pro Mod. Another big supporter of Micke’s is Garrett Advancing Motion and Garrett Turbo Chargers.
“In St. Louis, we made 11 runs, what I’m going to call competition – from qualifying to eliminations – over two days, day and night, varying conditions,” stated Micke. “Our E.T. average was 3.65 over 11 runs, and we had zero aborted runs.”
Furthermore, Micke couldn’t have done this without his “young” crew, as he calls them. It’s something that he’s proud of when it comes to getting the younger generation involved in the sport.
“We don’t have enough young people in drag racing, and we’re pushing to get more young guys involved,” said Micke. “I was really proud of them. I have two guys under 21 who are the main crew – my nephew Bryce Micke and Alec Miller. Then the car chief on [the team], he’s still young, is Damon Cole.” Cole is also a Drag Illustrated 30 Under 30 alumni.
Lastly, Micke thanked his wife, Maria, “She is the co-owner of everything and makes everything happen behind the scenes.”
This story was originally published on August 25, 2023. 
