GOING OUT IN STYLE

Words and photos by Ian Tocher
4/1/04

In his semi-final solo pass, Terry Robbins went 4.751 at 153.79 mph, which turned out to be good enough for lane choice in the final round

fter more than six years of faithful service -- and probably in its final race outing -- Terry Robbins' pristine '67 Nova gave him one last Outlaw 10.5 win Mar. 28, on the 1/8-mile at Atlanta Dragway. In the second points race of the Outlaw Racing Street Car Association's (ORSCA's) inaugural season, Robbins made it through four preliminaries before pairing up against Jack Barfield in the $7,500-to-win final.

Marcus Birt's 1997 Camaro broke on the line before going up against Terry Robbins in the Outlaw 10.5 semis.

Robbins, from Mooresboro, NC, had a bye in round one, used a big holeshot to get past Bryan Goethe in round two, then overcame a holeshot by Ronnie Davis to continue his advance. That set up a semi- final match against Marcus Birt, but after the burnout Birt's crew was forced to push him off the starting line. "I knew it was ignition right away," Birt said. "It was as if someone just came up after my burnout and hit my kill switch."

On the other side of the ladder, Barfield got lucky with a bye in his first round as the transmission broke on his '68 Camaro. After a quick tranny swap between rounds, "The Original Outlaw" raced past Wesley Scott Chambers and Mike Hill to reach a semi-final pairing against Brian Morris where Barfield left first with an excellent .412 light and never looked back on his way to a winning 4.765-second pass at 153.81 mph.

We just threw a little too much power to it a little too early," Hephzibah, GA's Brian Morris said after losing in the semis to close friend Jack Barfield. "But this is just our first year with this car and just the third race, so we're still pretty happy."

Barfield saved his best pass for last, running 4.738 at 151.80 mph in the final -- but it was all for nothing, or at least $2,000 paid to the runner up -- as he also lit the red bulb with a .383 reaction. That let Robbins salvage the event win with a 4.770 effort at 152.87 mph. "I messed up. When I first went in I let the car roll in a little deeper than I normally do. Normally I just barely turn that second bulb on," Barfield explained. "The car did what it was supposed to do; it was just the driver that screwed up."