Michalek Brothers Racing Focused on Positives After Hot Start to 2021 in Charlotte
It was a weekend full of ups and downs for Michalek Brothers Racing (MBR) to kick off the 2021 season at zMAX Dragway just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. MBR’s Fund That Flip / Empowerment Alliance entry qualified in the #10 position with a 5.317 second lap at 268MPH, the team’s quickest elapsed time to date, and was out front in its first round matchup until a crankshaft failure ended the team’s attempt to earn their spot in Sunday’s semi-final round. To add insult to injury, a resulting oil fire just past the finish line in the first round of eliminations caused sizable damage to MBR’s A/fuel dragster that will need to be repaired prior to the team’s next outing.
Michalek Brothers Racing and Fund That Flip kick of their 2021 season this weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Drag racing is a sport of highs and lows, and you have to focus on remaining steady and even keeled,” said Kyle. “Friday was a great day and validated our tune up redirection to get the car’s performance back on track. Saturday was a humbling experience with not only an engine failure, but also a fire. Fortunately, Corey is just fine and we are a very determined and resilient team that will be ready to hit the ground running when we pull into the track next month at Norwalk. Corey and I are blessed to have a great team that helps us keep this car running, and great marketing partners that enable us to chase our dreams!”
Team co-owner Corey Michalek is optimistic for what’s to come after seeing the car respond to changes that were made in preparation for the NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals.
“While the end result of the weekend was certainly a tough pill to swallow, it’s hard to not be excited about the progress that both the car and the team made during the 5 runs in Charlotte,” said Corey. “We had the goal to go down there, make it down the track early, and then chip away at getting the car back to how it ran at Night Under Fire in 2019. We were able to not only do that, but also eclipse the car’s previous best performance mark in just the second run of the weekend. That’s a testament to how much effort Kyle and the rest of the team put into the car over the offseason. Despite the E1 run going south before the car made it to half track, we know we now have a tune up that is showing very strong potential. Once we can get the car to run on all 8 through the finish line with the numbers we had to 60’ and 330’ in E1, we’ll be on our way to becoming a formidable opponent in an already loaded class.”
“Off the racetrack it was great to have new members of the Fund That Flip team join us in our pit area throughout the weekend. This has been such a productive partnership at the two races we’ve done together so far and we can’t wait to head back down there in September with an ever larger group and an expanded presence in Nitro Alley.”
Michalek Brothers Racing now turns their attention towards the next event, the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio the weekend of June 25-27.
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