ORSCA WASHED OUT IN ALBANY
Words and photos by Ian Tocher
10/26/06
The penultimate race of ORSCA’s 2006 season was all set to go Oct. 20-22, at U.S. 19 Dragway, just south of Albany, GA, but Mother Nature had other plans as rain washed away Sunday’s planned eliminations.
Steve Kirk Jr.’s team readies the Monroe, GA-based driver for his track-record-setting Outlaw 10.5 pass Oct. 21, at U.S. 19 Dragway, in Albany, GA.
Saturday provided plenty of action, though, as a good-sized crowd witnessed three qualifying rounds each by six classes, highlighted by a record-setting EZ Street run and interrupted by a major Outlaw 10.5 crash.
In Saturday’s second qualifying session, Shane Stack steered his Drag Radial-shod ’86 Monte Carlo to EZ Street’s first four-second pass, going 4.9777 seconds at an also-record 153.55 mph. Unfortunately, Stack was unable to back it up within the required one percent in the night session and without eliminations on Sunday, he had no opportunity to officially earn the record.
Huntsville, GA’s Shane Stack launches toward history with the first four-second EZ Street run over the eighth mile, though it would not stand as an official ORSCA record.
Still, the Huntsville, AL-based racer was thrilled, if somewhat surprised, by his speedy pass. “I never dreamed it would do that here, but it felt pretty good,” he said. “It felt like it never put the front end down until I got on the brakes.”
The big, red Monte carries an R&R Racing Engines 436 topped with SB2.2 NASCAR heads, with the turbo plumbed and installed by Stack. It’s all backed up by a Powerglide transmission fitted with a PTC converter, with Alan Dudley providing tuning advice behind the scenes.