(near lane) earned a
tough holeshot win over
Jack Barfield in the first
round, had the second round
given to him when Jimmy
Blackmon (far lane) left too
soon, and succumbed to tire shake
in the semis against teammate Ulsch.
While Ulsch enjoyed a relatively stress-free start, his teammate wasn’t quite so fortunate. After managing only a 10th-place effort after Saturday’s three qualifying sessions, Sexton and the rest of the Mobley Motorsports team worked until 4 a.m. repairing a broken rearend in his car. In fact, several outlaw pits at Shadyside were open late as Jack Barfield also had the rearend out of his ‘69 Camaro, Terry Robbins pulled the engine from his ‘02 Camaro for repairs, and Kirk had to replace the Bruno converter drive in his transmission. (“It had 400 passes on it, though, so we can’t complain.”)
In Sunday’s lone qualifying session, Sexton laid down a nice 4.580 that vaulted him to the number-five slot and pitted him against number-12 qualifier Barfield. Sexton left first with a .020 light against the .036 by Barfield, and it was just enough of a holeshot to win by two-thousandths in the closest race of the day. He then received a gift in round two when Jimmy Blackmon gave up a sure win with an uncharacteristic redlight start.
Monroe, GA’s Steve Kirk said he didn’t adjust his car much throughout eliminations “because it’s been within a hundredth every round and earlier today it was over 80 degrees and now it’s going below 70, so that shows the track has been dead on.” He recognized, however, that final-round opponent Ulsch was running quicker, so he’d have to step it up. “We definitely need some E.T. for this final; them boys are doing a good job over there.”
On the other side of the ladder, number-three qualifier Kirk, driving for new car owners John and Michelle Ferguson, also had a freebie in the first round when Darrin Hoyle was unable to make the Sunday call. In round two, Kirk easily handled the Long Island, NY-based 1970 Nova of Chris Keilitz, who had benefited from a redlight start by Marcus Birt in their initial pairing. That established the other semi featuring Kirk and defending ORSCA Outlaw 10.5 champion Terry Robbins, who previously defeated Mark Swanson and Michael Robinson.