Robbins backed up his qualifying effort within the required one percent with a 4.573-second bye run in the first round of eliminations. Tony Johnson actually bettered Martin’s

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speed with a 4.66/163.52 mph pass in the first round, but just missed backing it up to make it official, while Martin’s first qualifying pass did the trick for him.

After Ulsch got past a broke-on-the-line Robbins with a strong 4.59/160.89 in the first semi final, Martin beat Miller, who had all sorts of trouble of his own, to reach the big money round. There was some talk of splitting the $9,500 final-round purse ($7,500 to win), but Martin said a quick call to Tindle quashed that idea. The final was to be a heads-up run for all the marbles.

Joey Martin, from Milton, FL, had made only two full test passes in his new car before arriving at Huntsville. Martin’s new ride, owned by Tim Tindle of Santa Rosa Beach, FL, features a 738 c.i. Gene Fulton-built motor with four stages of nitrous available and backed up by a three-speed Lenco.

As it turned out, Ulsch left way too early and Martin was able to cruise to a 4.603-secs victory at 157.78 mph. "That was only the 13th or 14th time down the track for this car," the Milton, FL-based racer said of the Outlaw 10.5 final. "We started building it on December 5th last year and we made the first pass with it the last weekend of February."

Martin said the car had serious traction problems with getting up on the wheelie bars during Friday’s test-and-tune sessions, but after moving some weight around and "taking some bite out of the four-link" it was ready for qualifying. "The first good pass was our first qualifying pass," he said. "To go from there to winning is obviously a great start."

No, Craig Miller isn’t trying to look cool with his shades on at night. The Savannah, GA-based driver broke his glasses just prior to his semi-final pairing against Joey Martin and was forced to wear prescription sunglasses to the line. If that wasn’t enough, the second and third stages of nitrous never kicked in, which in turn caused his shifter to malfunction and he slowed to a 4.90 at 144.09 mph. "It’s frustrating because I left on him (.036 holeshot) and a .68 would’ve won it," Miller said. "We were on the easier side of the ladder, so we never showed our hand; we just ran quick enough not to lose and we were ready to step it up."

Leaving Huntsville, Martin led the Outlaw Racing Street Car Association’s (ORSCA’s) 10.5 championship chase with 52 points, followed by Robbins at 43, Miller with 36, Johnson with 26, and Brian Goethe just one point back in fifth. The next ORSCA points race is scheduled for Apr. 2-3, at Memphis Motorsports Park.