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INDEX CLASSES
Jeremy Ellis picked up a $100 bonus courtesy of Southern Truck Parts for qualifying first in the 5.30 index class.
Jeremy Ellis, out of Phenix City, AL, made a perfect 5.300-seconds pass at 130.08 mph in his ’67 Chevy II to start number one in the 5.30 class. Qualifying in 6.0 was led by Michael Strickland (6.003/111.66), who also went on to win the race, while Decatur, GA’s Wesley Kelly was awarded $100 by Gay Tire Company for leading after the opening round of 6.0 qualifying. And following up on his win at Jackson a week earlier, former ORSCA executive Quick Vandiver led the 7.0 qualifying crowd with an outstanding 7.000 in his Chevy S-10 pick-up.
The 5.30 final came down to David “The Alabama Outlaw” Goodson and his 1969 Camaro convertible and the ’91 Corvette of Lester Pitts. Both drivers had been quick on the tree and running the number all day, but it was Pitts who emerged victorious after going 5.323 at 128.45 mph.
Lester Pitts (near lane), had the early lead over David Goodson in the 5.30 final, but Goodson came back to lead at half-track before falling off and allowing Pitts to score a nine-thousandths margin of victory.
Goodson went 5.352/132.78 and was somewhat mystified by his worst run in eliminations. “When I went down for the final round I treed the guy pretty good, but it just wouldn’t run the number,” he said. “It fell off four hundredths and I don’t know where that came from.”
Pitts said it took all three qualifying rounds to get his car sorted out, “but once we had it, if I could do my part, the car would do its part.” He described a see-saw battle in the final round until Goodson trailed off at the end. “After the second time he was out in front of me I saw his car kind of nose down like something happened to it. So I pedaled it once to keep from breaking out. It was a really close race.”
