INDEX CLASSES
Mark Armstrong promised his wife, Crystal, a trophy this year and finally made good with a win in 7.0 index action at Huntsville. “The truck’s been working great all year, it’s just been me and we finally got it all working together here for a change,” Armstrong said. “I’ve been practicing a little more lately to get my driving together and it paid off.” After qualifying his Southern Truck Parts-backed S-10 number eight in the 64-car field, Armstrong prevailed over Andy Schaefer in the final round. Schaefer took a .010 head start, but Armstrong’s 7.024 was just enough to beat Schaefer’s 7.036 at the top end. “I felt like I had him off the tree, but what actually happened is he spun, and when we got to the other end I was just determined I wasn’t going to let him take the finish line, but I didn’t want to take too much finish line and it ended up working out.” Also, the top 16 qualifiers in 7.0 all had 7.00 runs, led by T. McClendon’s 7.0002 and B. Taylor’s 7.0007 in the top-two positions. Incredible.
The postponed Carolina win in 6.0 went to LeBron Hill and his Newnan, GA-based ’68 Camaro when final-round opponent Blaine Aldridge went red off the start.
Bill Cowles (far lane) started his Mustang from the 15th position in 6.0 qualifying, but made it to the final against the Oldsmobile of number-four starter Glen Bolton. In a tight race, Cowles left first with a .013 light, then made a winning 6.01-seconds pass at 107.02 mph to Bolton’s 6.01/116.49 effort.
Columbus, GA’s Bick Bickerstaff finished twice as the 5.30 class runner-up at Huntsville, falling short of Alex Thomas on Saturday in the delayed Carolina final and again on Sunday to Israel Deraney. On a brighter note, Bickerstaff went 5.3004 in his 565-equipped ’69 Camaro to lead 24 entries in qualifying.
Israel Deraney, out of Eatonton, GA, came from seventh-place in 5.30 qualifying to notch his first ORSCA win. Deraney put together an excellent package in the final beginning with a .004 light and ending with a 5.305 at 120.68 mph to beat Bick Bickerstaff’s .036/5.307/130.28 combination. Deraney said he wished all his racing weekends could go so smoothly. “I don’t even think we pulled the hood off of it.”