 |
 |
| Texas racer Grant McCrary won the ORSCA Outlaw 10.5 race one week earlier at Jackson, SC, and spent his few days before hitting Huntsville rebuilding the engine and transmission in his ’05 Mustang at the Pro Line Race Engines shop in Woodstock, GA. McCrary qualified 9th with a 4.52 at 165.50 and improved to a 4.48/162.63 in round one on raceday, but still went home early, the victim of a big .052 holeshot by Steve Kirk Jr. | Tony Johnson waits for his turn on the Huntsville eighth mile during Saturday night’s final qualifying session. Just one week after becoming the only Outlaw 10.5 driver to join Tim Lynch in the 4.30s (4.38 at Carolina Dragway), Johnson managed only to run 4.57 at 139.93 to place 12th before losing in round one to title contender Chuck Ulsch. Johnson said his biggest mistake was in leaving the prior week’s tune-up in the car and not adjusting enough for changing conditions. |
LIMITED STREET
Darrin Hoyle arrived at Huntsville already established as the 2007 Sheppard Race Cars Limited Street champion after clinching one week earlier at Jackson, SC. The Taylorsville, NC-based auto dealer qualified his show-worthy ’69 Camaro second with a 4.84-seconds pass at Huntsville, then made it all the way to the final round to square off against number-one starter Eric Dillard. Hoyle got away first, but Dillard ran him down and edged him out at the finish line.
Hoyle still had a distinct lead just past half-track, but Dillard’s twin-turbocharged 1990 Mustang came on strong and nosed ahead by just four thousandths at the stripe. “We came up and put a little more power in it because it had been falling off all day and we felt like we needed a little more on the starting line to make everything ramp in a little better. When I let off the button it felt like it was gonna’ go on the bumper, so I had to pedal it about 20 feet out and luckily it stayed down and came back around him at the end,” Dillard said. “He put a full car on me at the beginning and I really thought it was over. I was chasing him all the way to the finish line and I got him by maybe a bumper, I’d say.”
ADVERTISEMENT