Texas Automatic Outlaw Pro Mod Association at Evadale, Texas

Championship drama through the final minute

Words and photos by Joe McHugh

The Texas Automatic Pro Mod Association came to Ben Bruce Memorial Air Park Raceway in Evadale, Texas, on Oct. 17 for the final race of their 2015 campaign with a series championship to be decided. Coming into the day’s event Tim Ortiz held a 36-point advantage over Bengt Blomberg. Ortiz and Blomberg, two of the most consistent TAO runners, would have to negotiate a strong filed of entries to end the night with a championship title.

Ortiz could claim the title by going one more round than Blomberg, and the surprise before a wheel ever turned was that Ortiz would not be wheeling his tried and true Pontiac GXP for the final race. With the Pontiac for sale and wanting a bit more performance, the team opted to run the Team “O” Motorsports nitrous-motivated yellow ’68 Camaro of Richard Otwell. Ortiz has logged seat time in ole yeller doing testing for owner Otwell.

When asked if they were going to approach the race any different with the championship on the line and a new car, Ortiz replied, “The game plan is the same as always. Get qualified and go one round at a time. Yeah, we’d like to win a championship but we have had a good year. The machine is new and a new driver in me with little seat time in it. This car is still new and we’re still getting the set up right on it. Richard (Otwell) has only made a couple passes in it, but if everything goes one hundred percent to plan this car should be a tad faster than my old car; it’s just a matter of getting it there.”

Blomberg would take the title by winning the event and having Ortiz go two fewer rounds than he. When asked how he was going to approach the race Blomberg stated, “We are going into this race just like we do all the other ones: try to qualify and try to go a few rounds. For this race we have to go rounds and go to final to have a chance at the championship.”