Coming from 8th-place on the qualifying list, Shannon “Mr. Mile-an-Hour” Ragsdale wheeled his way through five rounds to the Outlaw 10.5 win at Huntsville Dragway.
Ragsdale Rules Huntsville
The Outlaw Racing Street Car Association (ORSCA) made its second visit this year to Huntsville Dragway’s eighth mile Sep. 22-23, where Marietta, GA’s Shannon Ragsdale survived a very tough field to pick up his career-first Outlaw 10.5 win.
“I can’t complain a bit, the car ran flawlessly. It was the easiest weekend we’ve had in a long time,” Ragsdale said of his ZR-1 Corvette after defeating Todd Moyer and his Camaro in the all-twin-turbo final. “We hadn’t changed anything all day since the first round this morning. We just left it alone and let it do its thing all day.”
Joining Ragsdale in victory lane were Limited Street racer Carlton Thompson, Shane Crowden with his first EZ Street win and Ryan Rakestraw, who scored his second Modified Street title of the weekend. Meanwhile, Israel Deraney earned his first ORSCA 5.30 index win, Bill Cowles went all the way in 6.0, and Mark Armstrong broke through with his first ORSCA 7.0 event title.
Also on the Saturday card at Huntsville were the semis and final rounds of the twice-delayed ORSCA race from Carolina Dragway, first for weather and later because of a curfew at the Jackson, SC, strip. In another all-turbo affair, Tim Lynch defeated Ken Rainwater for the Carolina 10.5 win, while points leader Darrin Hoyle took the Limited Street title, Shane Stack won in EZ and Rakestraw set the stage for his sweep in Modified. Index class wins for the Carolina event went to Alex Thomas (5.30), LeBron Hill (6.0) and Ed Bendahl (7.0) with his crowd-favorite Chevy wagon.
OUTLAW 10.5
Richard Sexton once again proved the power of car owner Gil Mobley’s ’06 GTO in qualifying, earning the top spot with a 4.48-seconds pass at 165.50 mph after three rounds were completed on Saturday. After a first-round bye and a win over Rainwater in round two, Sexton fell in the quarter-finals when he lost traction off the hit against Ragsdale.
