In a world of blowers and turbos, Macon’s own Marcus Birt just proved that a nitrous car can in fact compete at any level of drag racing. Marcus absolutely demolished the doorslammer nitrous record during qualifying at Donald Long’s Sweet 16 V2.

For quite a long time the nitrous racers, whether it be Pro Mod, RvW, or just about anywhere else has been behind the eight ball when it comes to performance and records. Over the off-season one of the biggest names ever in nitrous racing, Rickie Smith, made the change to a turbo. Nitrous racer, and Mid-West Pro Mod Founder Keith Haney stated, “I’m not bringing a knife to a gun fight”, and NHRA has been losing Pro Mod entries to the point where we only saw three at Gainesville last week.

Even one of the world’s most well-known nitrous engine builder, Pat Musi, stated that the nitrous cars wouldn’t be able to do exactly what Marcus just did. This morning was a shot heard around the world when it comes to racing. Doesn’t matter if it is radial racing or pro mod racing, what Marcus did was set a standard that everyone will now have to shoot for.

Recently Marcus joined up with NHRA and Radial Superstar Stevie Jackson on the Corvette. Stevie is known for his ability to tune and/or drive damn near anything on the planet. Stevie has been helping Marcus go A to B with tuning and other help. A little background on those two though. Marcus and Stevie have lined up against each other plenty of times over the years in the grudge world as well. Both from the East Georgia and Western area of South Carolina, so they have faced off at Macon, House of Hook, etc. The amount of smack talk between them is that of legends. To say that it is an odd paring might be an understatement.

What about the car though? Marcus’ car is a 2016 Corvette built by Jerry Bickel Race Cars and features a Musi Racing Engines 959 cubic inch beast. Bolted to the Musi beast is a Chance Converter and a M&M Transmission by Mark Mickie. To control all the power that the nitrous huffing monster is making, Holley EFI is utilized for the tuning.

We spoke to Marcus and he stated “We are making horsepower. We’ve finally got a hot rod”. Marcus went on to say that he wanted to thank Pat Musi (Musi Racing Engines), Houston Auto Auctions, Mike Adam’s Towing along with JB & I. “Without my crew none of this is possible”, stated Marcus. So a big shoutout to Craig Amerson, Eddie Wilson, Heather Woodard, Harlie Birt, Jeffrey Barker, and of course Stevie “Fast” Jackson. On a side note, I also want to thank Melanie Wilson, Christie Redd, & Shane Tucker.

Not to be left out, we spoke to Donald Long about the fact that Marcus crushed the nitrous record and set a new door-slammer nitrous record. “It’s good that the nitrous cars are in the hunt. Just because people can’t do it doesn’t mean it can’t be done, Stevie and Marcus just proved that it can be. It’s great for the sport as a whole as well. There are no excuses anymore when it comes to running nitrous. It can do done and now it has been done”, Donald said.

Tommy Kundrik from Mickey Thompson added “that is great to see Mickey Thompson hold the official door car nitrous powered record on our tire.” “When other races want to say that it can’t be done on a small tire, or it can’t be done on our tires, it’s just another motivational factor in an effort to constantly push the industry and performance within the industry forward”, added Tommy.

Behind the numbers, at least until they pull the car up to the line again. Marcus dropped the hammer in the Vette with a .940 sixty foot, a 2.41 to the 330’, and crossed the stripe at 3.604 204.67. On top of that Marcus was 80 pounds heavier than the rules required. He crossed the scales at 2330 pounds, and the rules allow him to be at 2250. Watch for the team to put up another number today if they want to, and be a huge contender tomorrow during eliminations.