Mark Carlyle [1] and his IPS Motorsports team have been the class of the LSX Drag Radial field for some time now, and this past weekend at the NMCA [2]‘s World Street Finals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, they showed exactly why. The Lucas Oil Raceway team had the track surface prepped to insane standards, with Jeff Conley and his guys working the track at every opportunity to provide the competitors with a chance to turn in personal bests.
[3]Carlyle did exactly that, three times during the course of the weekend. When the smoke cleared at the end of the qualifying sessions, Carlyle’s Corvette had simply crushed the LSX Drag Radial record and reset it at an unheard-of 6.697 at 217.84 MPH – two-and-a-half tenths quicker than the nearest competitor, fellow Ohio resident and standout LSX competitor Mark Koehler.
During Sunday’s elimination rounds, Carlyle appeared to play it safe, never running quicker than 6.82 but outclassing the field in all respects, going on to win the race over number seven qualifier Chuck Buckhart. He was never seriously tested during eliminations, as it seemed that each of his competitors encountered issues when the tree dropped.
Not only did he re-set his own record three times during qualifying, going quicker on every single pass when it counted, he did so using the factory-style independent rear suspension.
Tuning help from Patrick Barnhill and Jason Lee of Part Time Performance [4] in Ohio keeps him on the straight and narrow. Carlyle’s 2007 Z06 relies on a 427-cube Kurt Urban-built engine using a Dart [5] billet block, All Pro [6] cylinder heads, 106mm throttle body, and a pair of Garrett [7] 88mm turbochargers.
Thanks to Hans Pierre Jr. at Free Life Films [8] for the footage!