 Kevin Fiscus of Jacksonville, FL, went home early after the first round of eliminations in Street Renegade, but the crowd really enjoyed the wheels up launches like this from his turbocharged true 10.5 2002 Mustang. |
Street Outlaw saw Conrad Scarry continue his hot streak that began with a pre-season event at Bradenton. Scarry and crew not only qualified first, but also wound up being the only car in eliminations when other competitors withdrew their cars due to breakage. It was a pretty noteworthy group that included Jimmy Keen, who finished second in championship points last year. Rookie driver Tim Johnson from Weyer’s Cave, VA, got some attention with his entry and vows to be back at Atlanta. Last year’s champions, Tim Lynch and Steve Petty, weren’t even able to make the event due to assorted problems of their own.
As a result, Scarry was able to win the event, take the $5,000 and go home with the early points lead in the season championship race.
The track surface conditions played a significant role in Street Renegade from the very start of eliminations. Defending series champ Travis Franklin showed up at Orlando with an awesome looking graphics package on his car and had the only 7-second run in qualifying, but he went home a first round loser in an upset loss to number four qualifier John Worley.
The opening round continued with Ron Cox having no mercy over former champion Ronnie Wilson, who was racing with a wounded motor. Joe Morgan, who only made one event last year, then blasted out a 7.92 to knock off Kevin Fiscus. Morgan stayed hot with another round win over Cox while Worley moved on with a single.
The finals seemed like it would be a pretty much cut and dried affair as Morgan (shown) had run about a half second quicker all day. Worley made it interesting, however, by cutting a great .015 light to jump out by more than a tenth at the start. Morgan began to reel him in and then won the race after Worley was forced to lift after getting sideways at mid track. Looks like Renegade is going to have another interesting year!
Of course, another highlight of the weekend was the Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords Spring Break Shootout class, which is limited to small block street cars with a license, registration and insurance. No fewer than six cars were running in the 10’s here – and there was even a wheelstanding Lightning truck!
John Rollins ruled the day, however, as he ran with deadly consistency all weekend to meet Chris DeRojas in the finals of this annual race. It was a close race as Rollins was pushed to his quickest time of the weekend when he used a 10.172 to edge DeRojas’s 10.209 at the stripe.
Kenny Gallman showed that those old Fox bodies can still run hard as he ran a 10.90 to win the heads up Borla Street Bandit index class over Joe Marini’s 2005 Mustang GT.