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LIMITED STREET
Tom Hammonds, the former NBA star and NHRA Pro Stock driver, has turned his attention to ORSCA’s Nitrous Express Limited Street class this year, making his first appearance at the Atlanta race. He missed the Jackson, SC, event in favor of doing more testing with his Fulton-powered, Mike Lupfer-built 1970 Camaro and it paid off big time with a win at Albany over class frontrunner David Reece.
“David’s a good racer and I knew he would be tough,” said Hammonds, now living in Crestview, FL. “But I think lane choice played a big part in the outcome of the final round.”
For the second race in a row, Tallahassee, FL’s Carlton Thompson earned the number-one starting slot in Limited Street, this time going 5.006 seconds at 150.80 mph.
Hammonds earned lane choice after making a bye run in the first round, cleanly beating Eric Dillard in round two, and running 5.086 in the semis to beat number-one qualifier Carlton Thompson. On the other side of the ladder, Reece also got a free pass to round two, where he dispatched Jason “Spike” Thomas, then made it past Jeff Cooner and his first-generation Camaro with a 5.120-seconds pass.
A pair of 1970 Camaros squared off in the Limited Street final, with Tom Hammonds (far lane) taking the win over David Reece.
Running in the right lane, Reece took a slight .006 advantage off the start in his own ’70 Camaro, but Hammonds reeled him in by the 60-foot mark and went on to post a winning 5.044/148.04 combination against Reece’s 5.535 at 106.93 mph. “Pretty clean run, I think an .04 wasn’t bad at all for the conditions,” Hammonds said later. “I think we stepped up as the track got better and that’s exactly what we intended to do.”
EZ STREET
Robby Erwin, from Lithonia, GA, raced his nitrous-equipped ’88 Mustang through a first-round bye, then beat Bob LaBrecque and Eubanks to reach the final. Waiting there was Tall, Fl’s Larry Melton, who drove his turbocharged ‘Stang past Danny Griffin, Kincaid, and Key. “Everything just fell into place. I got by a couple of guys I probably shouldn’t of,” Melton said.
