It was hot, it was humid, and it was a long, long day of racing, but when the final echoes of a nitrous versus turbo battle reverberated off the hills surrounding Atlanta Dragway July 8, defending class champion Steve Kirk Jr. emerged as the latest Outlaw 10.5 winner on the 2007 ORSCA trail.
It was ORSCA’s second visit this year to “Georgia’s House of Speed,” where Darrin Hoyle (Limited Street), David Reese (EZ Street) and Brian Murphy (Modified Street) also visited victory lane. In the index classes, the 5.30 title went to Glenn Dutton, Nicky Ewing took the 6.0 win and David Brand prevailed in the 7.0 final.
ORSCA will be back in action Aug. 25, at Carolina Dragway, just across the river from Augusta, GA, for a one-day make-up race for an event rained out in April.
Starting from second place in Outlaw 10.5 with a 4.522-seconds pass, Steve Kirk Jr. had a tire-shaking bye in the opening round, then got past a redlighting Dave Cox in round two, overcame a Craig Miller holeshot in round three, and led stripe-to-stripe against Bobby Cole in the semis. In the final round, Kirk left with a slim .008 advantage over Jimmy Blackmon, then put together a 4.568/163.41 combination to beat 
Blackmon’s 4.780 at 157.04-mph effort. It marked the first ORSCA win in Kirk’s 2006 championship-defending season and he was the fourth different winner after four races have been completed this year.
Rockmart, GA’s Jimmy Blackmon had an off-the-pace start with his twin-turbocharged ’92 Trans Am, qualifying 20th of 24 entries at Atlanta Dragway. His driving was spot on, though, as Blackmon rode a string of big holeshots to wins over Brian Markiewicz, Ken Rainwater and Todd Moyer in the first three rounds on raceday, then mounted a come-from-behind victory in the semis over Pro Street star Chuck Samuel, who arrived from Illinois with a twin-turboed ’92 Camaro. Blackmon made his best pass of the weekend in the final against Kirk, but his 4.780 at 157.04 just wasn’t enough to keep up with Kirk’s nitrous-fed ‘00 Camaro.