Lynch was in position to wrap up the championship with a second-round win over fellow Georgian Steve Kirk Jr. (far lane) in the second round, but lost control of his own destiny when his 2002 Mustang got way out of shape at the top end.
 Lynch joined the rest of the Huntsville faithful in the stands to see if Sexton could put it all together for the race win and establish a two-point margin of victory after eight points-paying events. |
After qualifying number one with a track-record 4.39 at 175.30 mph, Lynch and crew chief Steve Petty obviously were on their game at Huntsville, but Sexton kept pace with a runner-up start after going 4.43 at 166.48 and Ulsch slotted in at fifth behind Ken Rainwater and Texas racer Todd Moyer.
In the opening round of eliminations, Lynch made an on-and-off-the-throttle, all-over-the-track bye run in his twin-turbocharged Mustang, while Sexton and his Gil Mobley-owned ’06 GTO sent NSCA star Bill Lutz packing early from his first ORSCA appearance. Ulsch edged Tony Johnson and his blown, Hemi-powered ’69 Camaro and Moyer advanced over Bobby Cole. Unfortunately, Rainwater damaged the left cylinder head on his twin-turboed Stang in the last round of qualifying and was unable to compete on raceday.
Round two saw Moyer beat Ulsch by a little over a hundredth of a second, which opened the door for Lynch to clinch his first ORSCA championship and back up his 2008 Fun Ford Weekend Street Outlaw title. First, though, Bryan Markiewicz eliminated Anthony New after both drivers had first-round byes.
Just past the halfway point of the final round, Sexton had a clear advantage over Moyer that he held until reaching the finish line.
 With his wife and number-one supporter, Molly, by his side in victory lane, Sexton was all smiles at Huntsville Dragway after winning the race and his first series championship for team owner Gil Mobley. |
With Sexton and Chicago racer Jim Robbins waiting in the staging lanes, Lynch lined up against defending ORSCA Outlaw 10.5 champ Steve Kirk Jr., who earlier used a holeshot to eliminate Grant McCrary and his twin-turboed 2005 Mustang, winner of the previous ORSCA race a week earlier in Jackson, SC.
Kirk again left first, this time with a .018 advantage, and put together a decent, but not spectacular 4.55 at 163.93 mph to advance, while Lynch struggled as his car began drifting toward the right-lane wall. He fought it all the way down to a 4.62-seconds pass at just 140.27 mph before the car suddenly veered left and appeared to be on collision course with Kirk’s 2000 Camaro, but Lynch gathered it up in an impressive driving display and followed his rival down the left shutdown lane, realizing his fate was no longer in his hands.
“We were pretty much heads-up at the 330 (feet, halfway marker) and I could see him moving around over there and all of a sudden he just went out of sight, so I knew he had some kind of trouble,” Kirk said later.