Texas Automatic Outlaws at Houston

Records set, champion crowned

Words and photos by Joe McHugh

The final Xtreme Meltdown event of 2012 at Houston Motorsports Park marked the season finale of the Texas Automatic Outlaws in addition to the popular and ever growing X275 and Outlaw 275 program.

Chris Domino

Coming into the last event the battle for the TAO series championship had Chris Domino holding a 50-point lead over Eric Clark. The previously scheduled race at Texas Raceway in Kennedale was cancelled, so the Houston race would award double points to the participants and add extra pressure to maximize the opportunity to finish strong. The championship scenario was pretty simple: Domino had to qualify and win one round of eliminations while Clark had to qualify and go one round further than Domino.

Lawayne Brown

Qualifying

One of the largest fields of the year would battle for the eight qualifying spots that would make up the TAO final elimination ladder of the year with 14 entries throwing what they had at the eighth-mile strip. The first of two qualifying sessions was highlighted by a solid off-the-trailer run by Lawayne Brown and the Twins Performance group running 4.26 at 165.32 in the orange Pontiac. Luis Hidalgo claimed the second best run of the session with a strong 4.30 at 157.73 while championship contender Eric Clark carded a solid 4.31 at 163.70.

Chris Domino and crew were still in the pits thrashing to get his wounded power plant healthy after damaging it the previous day testing. Steve Benoit showed he came to play also laying down a 4.35 at 169.81 with the red Camaro.