Record-breaker Mick Begley leaves everyone in his wake at Irish Open Drag Racing Championship

Mick Begley went back to his roots last weekend when he visited Ireland to compete in the Irish Open Drag Racing Championship. Not only that, he returned in true Mick-fashion.

An exceptionally talented driver who has broken several records and owns one of the quickest Nissan Skylines around, Mick knows his stuff and when he competed in the Irish Championship he pulled out all the stops to impress his dedicated Irish fan-base.

Driving the powerhouse ‘Gaijin’ (Japanese for ‘Outcast’), Mick did three runs on Sunday.

His first run down the dragstrip was a ‘sighting run’, during which he gets a feel for the track and how the car is performing on the day. However, despite Mick “backing off halfway” and being in 3rd gear, he still achieved a time that others can only dream of.

Mick in the Nissan Skyline R33, which hosts twin Turbo Dynamics modified and blueprinted GT3542R one-off turbochargers under its bonnet, got a time of 9.5 secs.

Then came the second run, in which Mick backed off again, but this time two-thirds of the way down the strip and having just changed into 5th gear. Mick was over the line in 8.8 secs.

Now, thoroughly warmed up and with no holds barred, Mick prepared himself for the third and final run.

Running on a slippery track with no traction control, on just 1.5 bar of boost and with no nitrous, Mick put his foot down… and didn’t lift it back up again until he’d gone through the finish line. His time was an astounding 8.3 secs at 167mph.

Mick said, “It was a brilliant weekend and I’m really pleased with my result” and when questioned about the car he explained, “Rob [of TR Racing] made some changes to the mapping for me, which has made a massive difference in the car’s power and times. The car has the makings of big things and I am going to give it 100%.”

Turbo Dynamics Senior Technical Advisor, Matt Waterman, said of Mick’s achievement, “It is a fantastic result! My congratulations to Mick. We are always excited when Mick takes to the strip; he never disappoints and we know there’s more to come.”