Words and photos by Jason Fenn
Courtesy of OutlawRacing.com
3/9/04

xpectations were running high March 6-7, when Jack Barfield hosted the "Outlaw Jack Barfield Shootout" at Macon National Dragway, near Jeffersonville, GA. As one of the last outlaw races before the official ORSCA season begins (at Carolina Dragway Mar. 20-21), the Shootout offered a chance for southern 10.5 racers not only to measure up against the competition, but also to go after a $10,000 top prize.

Saturday's action began a little later than scheduled due to rain the night before, as officials had to work extra hard to get the track ready for three rounds of qualifying. Their efforts paid off, though, with a record-setting performance that evening. In the second to last qualifying run of the night VIP Racing's Marcus Birt set down a 4.73 pass to put him on top of the Outlaw 10.5 field. Not to be outdone, Steve Kirk pulled to the line and laid down a track record-breaking 4.68 pass to end the night. Darrin Hoyle led the Limited Street pack with a 5.065-seconds run, followed closely by Shannon Ragsdale with a 5.068 in his new ZR-1 Corvette.

Marcus Birt just missed being the number-one qualifier in Outlaw 10.5 at Macon National Dragway.

On Sunday, fans and racers awoke to beautiful sunshine and warm temperatures. Last-chance qualifying kicked off at 11 a.m. and went smoothly until Brandon May, in his Limited Street turbocharged T-bird, took a ride straight into the guardrail on the spectator side. Unfortunately, that wasn't even the worst incident of the day. In last- chance qualifying for Outlaw 10.5, Mark Micke's beautiful first- generation Camaro caught fire at the end of the strip. The Macon National track crew scrambled to the rescue at the first signs of fire, rushing to put it out, but the car was severely damaged and Micke sustained second-degree burns on his feet and was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.