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Ohioan Mark Carlyle has been a man on a mission since late last season, when he set out to not only become the quickest and independent rear suspension-equipped Corvette in the world, but crack the seven second mark in doing so.
After capturing the IRS record at 8.14 seconds during the LSX Shootout in St. Louis last fall, one half of Carlyle’s chores were checked off the to-do list. Unfortunately, the brutal midwestern winter set in before he could get his IPS Motorsports-prepared ‘Atomic Fusion’ Corvette through the boards in under eight seconds. But with an entire offseason to bulk up with a larger 106mm turbocharger feeding the Livernois bullet, and, soon and entirely new powerplant, it was only a matter of time before that magical timeslip was in hand.
The first outing of the year at the LSX Challenge in Bradenton didn’t net the results that Carlyle and company were looking for although he did capture the Drag Radial crown over Michael Meeks, but whatever it was that kept them from performing to potential there, they certainly shook off heading into Atlanta.
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Under record-setting conditions during qualifying at the Atlanta Dragway, Mark and his incredible street-driven Corvette blasted to 7.89 elapsed time at 180 miles per hour on Saturday to become the first and only seven second IRS Corvette in the world. The incrementals were 1.357, 3.456, 5.170 at 144.40, 6.647, and 7.897 at 180.84. A well-deserved congratulations goes out to Mark and his truly sinister Corvette for accomplishing the feat.