Takin’ a Shot
A Florida racer, Bill Futch, sat atop Outlaw 10.5 with a 6.65 at 221 and a track record. But the motor kicked a rod and was unable to make the semi-final round.
 Horsepower TV filmed the event and did interviews. The show is slated to air sometime in April |
A couple of weeks ago my friend Shannon Wren had asked me if I wanted to tag along to Memphis. He told me he didn’t care if he won or not, "I just want to go 200." How could I resist? Hell, this was the first ¼-mile race of the year. Game on! On March 1-2, Memphis Motorsports Park produced the Mid-South Street Shootout with four classes of intense racing action: Outlaw 10.5, Outlaw Heavy Street, Outlaw Pro Street, and Drag Radial.
Friday morning, the skies were cloudy and the tarmac was wet. The track had been recently ground smooth and this was the first event since the operation, so there was very little rubber down. This situation was compounded by the fact that former track manager Wade Rich had packed up and left. This hastened pre-race grumblings on the Internet concerning the vague surface potential, but drag racers being drag racers, none of that deterred record-setting performances.
Floridian Bill Futch was the number one qualifier in Outlaw 10.5, cranking out his best performance to date, a 6.65 at 221, which makes his Camaro the second fastest 10.5 car down the quarter mile behind Tim Lynch. Ritchie Stine had the top nitrous car in Drag Radial running two 7.57's during the weekend with a tune-up that included three Steve Johnson Induction Solutions kits on his big-block Chevy. He would need all that and more to keep up with the forced-induction camp. His time was only good for fourth spot on the ladder.
Rickie Smith’s Cobalt made its debut, ran a 6.33 off the trailer, and Smith took home the money in Outlaw Pro Street.