NO. 1 WITH A BULLET
BY THE TIME Marcus Birt reached the final round
at Orlando Speed World Dragway, he felt confident
something special was about to happen.
It took finally breaking through and beating tuner,
teammate and now friend — terms Birt would have
never envisioned just two years ago – Stevie “Fast” Jackson
in the semifinals at the COVID-8, giving Birt one last boost heading
into the final round.
He came through there, too, running an incredible 3.565-seconds at
205.19 mph in his nitrous-powered ’16 Houston Auto Auction Corvette
to beat Shawn Ayers in the final round and finally claim his long-awaited
first Radial vs. the World victory.
“This win is definitely one of the highlights of my career,” Birt says.
“Outrunning Stevie was the shit because he’s so damn good. He’s the best
in the world and I’ve never seen anybody like him. It was really special.
Everything just sort of came together.”
Speaking of coming together, that includes the relationship with Birt
and Jackson. Once fierce rivals, Jackson is now Birt’s tuner and close
friend, which is vastly different from how they thought of each other just
a couple years ago.
“Two years ago, Stevie and I wanted to try and kill each other at the
track,” Birt says with a laugh. “Now we’re good buddies and still racing
competitively against each other. If you would have told me a few years
ago we would be racing together, I would have laughed at you.”
Birt’s still laughing, only now it’s because he’s enjoying himself so much.
The COVID-8 victory was the culmination of an incredible trajectory
in Birt’s nitrous Corvette, which instantly became a record-setter the
moment he paired up with Jackson.
It’s set the RvW world on fire, making class-best nitrous runs, setting
records and advancing to a number of finals. Most of the time Jackson
has been waiting at the end, and Birt has just missed out on that elusive
RvW win.
Birt, though, felt like it was just a matter of time heading into the race.
Following going airborne at Lights Out 11, his car was repaired unbelievably
quick by Reese Brothers Racecars and it was immediately back
in top form.
Birt impressed at Wooostock before weather halted the race, and heading
to Orlando, Birt felt like he was simply picking up where he left off.
“It’s like this car never missed a beat,” Birt says. “To have that incident
in South Georgia, get it fixed and go right back to what it was running, it
was pretty incredible. Going down (to Orlando), we just wanted to keep
everything the same. If I didn’t do anything stupid, I figured we would
be in good shape.”
Everyone was on their game at the COVID-8, as Birt qualified No. 1
with a blistering 3.578 at 205.41 in his Pat Musi Racing Engines-powered
Corvette.
He barely left the 3.50s from there, blowing past Jeff Miller in the
opening round with a 3.59 at 203.95. That set up the marquee matchup
with Jackson and, once again, the duo didn’t disappoint.
Birt and Jackson treated everyone to another side-by-side thriller, with
Birt going 3.600 at 205.82 to eke past Jackson’s 3.609 at 210.34.
“I was more nervous with Stevie (than the final). When I outran him, I
felt pretty good,” Birt says. “I just let the car do the work and I just hang
on for the ride. We both ran 3.60 and I was close to the wall, so I didn’t
90 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated.com Issue 157