INDEX CLASSES
 The red light tells the story, as Tim Jones left one thousandth too soon against John Smith in the 5.30 index final. |
Bick Bickerstaff’s ’69 Camaro paced the 26-car 5.30 index class with a perfect 5.300 qualifying pass at 132.19 mph. Ironically, eventual race winner Smith was the first car to qualify outside the 5.30s when he placed 22nd with a 5.41 qualifying effort in his ’68 Camaro.
Smith, from Jackson, GA, faced off against number-nine starter Tim Jones in the final round, where Jones left just one thousandth of a second too soon with his Oxford, AL-based ’69 Camaro, pre-empting his 5.310/133.90 combo and handing the win to Smith and his 5.318/129.38 pass.
“It’s always a tough class; everybody you go up against here, you better be dead on,” said Smith, previously a two-time runner-up with ORSCA, but now an event winner. “He tried to kill me on the tree, but it was one thousandths too much, so it made it a little easier.”
 Blaine Aldridge applied nitrous oxide to the 572 cubic incher in his ’87 Regal for the first time at Montgomery resulting in his first 6.0 class win. |
 Troy, AL’s Bobby Davis earned his first ORSCA win in his first 7.0 final-round appearance. |
Known to some as “Mr. 6.0,” Jody Voyles lived up to his nickname in qualifying, taking the top spot with a 6.005 at 114.27 mph and leading a raceday field of 32 cars. Voyles fouled out with a huge .294 redlight in round two, however, helping to clear the way for Aldridge, who started 16th with his 572-powered 1987 Buick Regal.
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Number-14 qualifier Derek Sanford and his flat-black Firebird met up with Aldridge in the final, where Aldridge left first by .016 and went 6.01 to Sanford’s 6.02 to earn his first ORSCA win.
Forty-nine cars made qualifying passes for the 7.0 race at Montgomery and after three rounds Jared Pennington finished on top with a 7.001 at 97.86 mph. The top-seven starters all had 7.00s and it wasn’t until number 40 on the list that the first 7.1 cropped up.
Finalists Davis and Chris Smart started eighth and 14th respectively and each had to make five passes before squaring off. Davis left first with a sizable .037 holeshot and ran 7.01 at 96.76 in the final, but Smart took himself out of contention anyway by breaking out with a 6.94-seconds run at 89.22 mph.
“I got lucky a couple of rounds,” Davis admitted, but added that his car worked perfectly, too. “It was a good weekend,” he concluded.
ORSCA will be back in action July 6-8, returning to Atlanta Dragway where a total purse of more than $50,000 will be on the line.