“It must’ve spun just a hair because it fell off a little bit and the mile an hour was down a couple,” Key said. “But I’ve got to give it to my man Greg Blaydes at GNS Custom Fab and Suspension, he’s got these old leaf-spring cars cookin’!” He also thanked his friend Brian and brother David Key for their work and support on the car. “I just couldn’t do this without them and I really want them to know that.”
INDEX CLASSES
 Perennial rivals Kenny Acree (near lane) and C.G. Knight met for their second-straight ORSCA 5.30 final, with Acree coming out on top this time. |
In a rematch of the season-opening ORSCA final a couple of weeks earlier at Atlanta Dragway, the ’94 Lumina of Newnan, GA’s Kenny Acree and the ’68 Ford pick-up of C.G. Knight squared off again at Jackson. Acree was looking to reverse the Atlanta result, so he deep-staged and left with a .069 light leading to a winning 5.353 pass at 119.85 mph in just his second race outing with the car.
“I saw Kenny cut the top (staging) bulb out and I just sat there. When I saw him do that I thought, ‘I’ve got him,’” Knight said after running a quicker 5.343/128.65, but waiting .117 after the green. “He got me that time.”
Acree said he intentionally went in deep with the ex-Tom Hammonds Pro Stock ride. “I needed to cut some E.T. off,” he explained. “The car was going too fast all day and I was able to cut about 15 miles an hour off in the final. I meant to go in and cut two or three hundredths off the time.”
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Coming from deep in the field, Michael Strickland steered his '95 Camaro to the 6.0 win at Carolina Dragway. |
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In the 6.0 final, number-17 qualifier Michael Strickland put his ’95 Camaro up against the ’87 Regal of fellow Georgian Blaine Aldridge, who started from 11th place. In a double-breakout match, Strickland left first with a .014 reaction to Aldridge’s .053 and went 5.977 at 115.50 to the Buick driver’s 5.966 at 117.42 mph.
“All day I was just dodging bullets,” Aldridge said. “Everybody let me get from round to round, but in the final he just drilled me on the tree and trying to run him down I just went too fast.”
Strickland also said he felt fortunate to make it as far as the final. “I was off the tree and on the tree all weekend and just got some lucky breaks at the right times. The driver was off and on; the car ran good.”