Axe Falls on Atlanta Outlaws
Words and photos by Ian Tocher
7/13//06
Fresh off a win just a week earlier in Macon, GA, Marcus “The Axeman” Birt proved it was no fluke by again cutting his Outlaw 10.5 competition down to size July 7-9, at the eighth-mile Year One Outlaw Racing Street Car Association (ORSCA) event at Atlanta Dragway. Making the win that much sweeter, it came at the expense of his old team, VIP Racing, with Michael Robinson now behind the wheel of team owner Damon Forbes’ 2000 Camaro.
“Me and Damon are still like family,” Birt said later. “I talk to him nearly every day and he’s one of my best friends, but I want to beat him and he wants to beat me so we kind of egg each other over who wins.”
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| Alabama’s Jeff Cooner was the only driver able to double up at Atlanta Dragway, winning on Saturday night the rain-postponed final from ORSCA’s previous race, then duplicating the feat in Sunday’s elimination rounds. |
Also finding victory lane was Jeff Cooner, who earned his second Limited Street win of the weekend. All class finals from the ORSCA race a few weeks earlier at Farmington, NC, were run as final qualifying pairings on Saturday night at “Georgia’s House of Speed,” where Cooner edged Darrin Hoyle for the rain-postponed title.
“We really figured out something here in the heat and that’s the main thing because I think now we really have a handle on it,” Cooner said of track temperatures that hovered around 125-130 degrees while the sun was out.
Robby Erwin picked up the EZ Street win and climbed to second place overall by defeating points leader Tim Kincaid, who also finished runner-up the night before to Tommy Brewer. In the index classes, David Goodson scored his first ORSCA 5.30 win, Jody Voyles backed up his 6.0 victory at Macon the week before, and Kevin Thompson prevailed in 7.0 competition.
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| Defending ORSCA Outlaw 10.5 champion Terry Robbins led after each round of qualifying at Atlanta. Here, he launches into the top spot for raceday with a 4.581-seconds blast in Saturday night’s final qualifying session. |
OUTLAW 10.5
Defending class champion Terry Robbins earned the number-one starting spot in Mickey Thompson Outlaw 10.5 with a 4.581-seconds blast at 166.08 mph in Saturday night’s third and final qualifying session. Randy Leavy was the only other competitor to break into the 4.50s all weekend, steering his turbocharged ’88 Mustang to a 4.591 to score the number-two position. Brad Brand set top speed of the meet at 168.80 mph in a first-round bye, with Jimmy Blackmon not far off after a 168.28 run in a losing effort against Brand in round two.