Marcus “The Axeman” Birt was forced to shut off early after finding a little too much bite in his Outlaw 10.5 semi-final match against Hill.

“The track was good, definitely better than we thought. We just underestimated that deal,” the VIP Racing driver admitted. “But we knew the pass before he went a .63 and we went a .66, so were just trying to get three-hundredths somewhere. I think if we had locked the front end down we’d have been alright.”

Regardless, that set up the dream match of Chevy versus Ford, of the top-two qualifiers, of the quickest pair of cars throughout eliminations, and of the same combatants who had faced each other in the final round of the previous two 10.5 races—where Hill prevailed both times.

“I think lane choice will help me; I think the left lane has a little more track on it, the right has a couple of bald spots on it,” Hill said before the final. “I’ll just have to cut a good light and go for it; I know he’ll be gunning for me.”

Kirk appeared unconcerned about losing lane choice, but said his team made some tuning changes for the final as the ambient temperature dropped about 15 degrees from its mid-afternoon peak of nearly 90 degrees. “The air has got real good and we’ll make some moves here,” he predicted.

Alas, it was not meant to be. Surrounded by hordes of fans on the starting line, Kirk, then Hill, performed their burnouts, but it quickly became apparent something was wrong with Kirk’s 2000 Camaro. The car stalled and restarted a couple of times before his crew members rushed to remove first the hood and then the scoop. By then, Hill was motioned into the beams by the starter and left on a solo pass that ended about half-track with a loss of traction.

“After I saw he couldn’t make it, I decided to try something and I brought in my third (nitrous) system a little quicker to see if it would take it. I think the track may have had a little dew on it, too,” Hill said of his aborted pass.

A minor part failure put an end to Steve Kirk’s dominating performance at Phenix City Drag Strip.

Kirk said he knew right away what the problem was with his car—a nitrous fitting failed—and insisted he could’ve fixed it “in two minutes” if given the chance. “The track starter is the one who told him (Hill) to go. He started the one-minute countdown like we’re racing to NHRA rules. I can’t believe they didn’t wait,” he lamented. “It’s not like we’re on national TV or under some kind of time limit. This is a typical backwoods outlaw race and they do something like that.”

Even his rival agreed it was a strange outcome after such a promising buildup to the final.

“I would’ve had no problem with backing out and waiting on him,” Hill said. “We had a lot of fans here and that was the one race they all wanted to see.”