OUTLAW 10.5

Since November of 2004, it has almost been a guarantee that an ORSCA event would result in a new World Record Elapsed Time for the small-tire terrors, and MMP obliged with a 4.532/161.48 from Joey Martin in Tim Tindle's new '68 Camaro nitrous machine (above). Martin, again alternating between 10.5 and OPM action, also took the Fulton-powered Chevy to the required back-up pass at 4.57/161.67 (Top Speed). Steve Kirk's slick new nitrous Camaro (4.61/158), and Tony Johnson's Georgia Roots-blown '69 Camaro (4.62/157) were close, but one had to search the qualifying sheets for previous record holder and most recent ORSCA winner Terry Robbins, whose nitrous Camaro fell in the seventeenth position in the 32-car field with numerous problems.

On raceday, however, Robbins (shown) returned to life. A 4.60/160 in the opening round was threatened only by Kirk's 4.62/159 while Martin shook and spun to a 5.05 win. Because of Robbins' dismal qualifying position, the second round forced the North Carolinian to line up with the man to whom he'd lost the record. Robbins gained a sizeable amount of revenge in a spectacular race, winning with a 4.65/159 to Martin's 4.66/161.36!

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Moments later, Kirk inexplicably fouled away a 4.63/158 to Bobby Cole's '70 Nova (which had run no better than 4.86 during the event), and the battle quickly turned to include ORSCA World Champ Jack Barfield and Sambo Price's bright red North Carolina '87 Camaro.

All three ran 4.60s and 4.70s in round two and advanced with Mike Hill's slick black Mustang, which hit a 4.66/157 to drop recent Huntsville runner-up Craig Miller's Camaro. In the semis, Barfield squeezed out a 4.71/154 to 4.72/155 win over Price and Robbins clocked a deadly 4.62/159 over a tire-spinning Hill. In the championship dash, Barfield was forced to lean on the 'Tree and missed by a solitary thousandth of a second to hand Robbins the win at another 4.62/159.