“The air came to us and it’s a good track and when we came up we knew we could get after it,” Key said later, though he admitted the first .07 was a bit of a surprise. Upon learning some of the 10-wide racers were complaining the track just wasn’t there for record times, he responded, “Well, I don’t know what they’re doing, but with these drag radials, we’re hooking.”
The 1941 Willys of Vidalia, GA's Clarence Cloud nailed down the 5.30 pole with a 5.302/133.42 combination in qualifying.
Clarence Cloud, of Vidalia, GA, earned the top starting position in 5.30 with an excellent 5.302/133.42 package in his ’41 Willys, Scott Palmer was number one in 6.0 with a similarly impressive 6.002 at 110.65 mph in his Oxford, GA-based ’67 Camaro, and Town Creek, AL’s Ed Bendall led the way in 7.0 with an even better 7.001/94.95 combination in his wheelstanding Chevy wagon.
OUTLAW 10.5
The opening round of Outlaw 10.5 saw both Robbins and Steve Kirk Jr. make solo passes after Jackie Ward and Scottie Wortham were unable to answer the call, respectively. Other winners included Jack barfield, Tony Johnson, Jimmy Blackmon, Michael Robinson, and of course, Hill and Miller.
In round two, Miller got past Johnson, Hill took care of Robinson, and Kirk overcame a holeshot by Barfield, who lost traction on the run. “I actually made a bad judgment on that last pass,” Barfield said. “I knew the track was getting hotter, I knew I needed to loosen the
car up more, and just didn’t do it. My gut was telling me to do it and then I got talking to some other guys and they kind of talked me out of it, but you’ve got to go with your gut instinct, I guess.”
In the final pairing of the session, Blackmon and Robbins ran identical 4.663-seconds, but the win went to Blackmon’s 1992 Trans Am, courtesy of a .021 holeshot. Blackmon also set top speed of the meet and set a new ORSCA speed record of 170.11 mph on the pass.
The semis had Miller paired with Blackmon and Hill against Kirk. Unfortunately, Blackmon’s transmission let go on the run, allowing Miller to advance with a 4.783 at 161.00 mph, and after a brief delay for clean-up in the left lane, Hill earned lane choice for the final with a 4.669/164.27 to Kirk’s 4.717/159.61 effort.
Afterward, Kirk said he’s “tired of experimenting” in his John Ferguson-owned Camaro and plans a return to his tried-and-true combination from last season. “If we had our old combination from last year on there I think we’d have done a lot better,” he said.
A little down-home ingenuity and a beer can allowed Craig Miller to make the call for the Outlaw 10.5 final.
