Rainwater Reigns Over Alabama Outlaws
Words and photos by Ian Tocher
8/24/06
 Ken “Big Chief” Rainwater |
Unbelievable, amazed, astonished, speechless—all were words used by Ken “Big Chief” Rainwater to describe his first major win in more than six years after he bested a field of 16 Outlaw 10.5 entries Aug. 18-19, at Montgomery Motorsports Park (MMP). Adding to the accomplishment, the $10,000 win came in Rainwater’s debut with a new twin-turbo powered ’03 Mustang, AND in his inaugural effort as an event promoter.
“To win our own race in Outlaw 10.5 with our partner winning Limited Street, it’s really a fairy-tale story, just unbelievable,” Rainwater said, referring to Jeff Cooner, who steered Randy Sharpston’s twin-turbocharged Mustang to the largest winner’s purse in Limited Street history—another $10,000 payday.
“It feels great, I really don’t know what to say, it’s just a great feeling,” Cooner said. Also sharing the spotlight were EZ Street winner Robby Erwin, 5.30 index champ James Lowe, 6.0 winner Joe Smith, and Ed Bendall in the 7.0 class.
Sweltering heat, drenching humidity, and track temperatures exceeding 145 degrees made for tough conditions all weekend, but overall, the race was a great success. Local bands played both Friday night and Saturday between rounds to keep the sizable crowds happy and entertained, and racers arrived from Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and Mississippi, as well as all the typical southern states to vie for a piece of the $40,000 total purse.
Rainwater ran a 4.63 straight off the trailer on Thursday after working every night for more than three weeks straight to get his new 2003 Mustang ready for his “Beat the Heat” outlaw race at Montgomery Motorsports Park.
But after a late-afternoon start to avoid as much heat as possible, the one thing you don’t want to see when a race has already dragged on until nearly 2 in the morning is the track cleaning crew. Regrettably, that’s exactly what happened after a Limited Street entry was allowed to make a test pass right before all final rounds were about to begin and the driver
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“That was a bad deal,” Rainwater said a couple of days later. “I had people mad at me for letting him make a pass, but I didn’t even know it was happening. I was getting ready for my final.” Veteran track owner George Howard also said he hadn’t authorized any test passes and he was none too pleased with the result. “If that was my driver, he’d be looking for a new job right now,” the former team owner angrily stated at the track. “There’s just no excuse for that.” Nevertheless, the long-suffering MMP track crew set into action once more and in a credit to their work, five of the six winners came from the left lane.