Heads-up street car racing has seen many twists and turns over the last decade and a half. Organizations have come and gone, street cars have morphed into purpose-built machines for specific classes, and costs have grown nearly as quickly as the performances themselves.
These trends have created a backlash with some groups of Southern street car racers, who prefer to be known as outlaws. For people who still remember Sherman's March to the Sea, this kind of racing is what they like to see, and they really couldn't care less what happens in other parts of the country. With a minimal set of rules on eighth-mile tracks all around the Deep South, the feats that these racers regularly accomplish have become part of the folklore of street car racing that you just can't find anywhere else.
As this phenomenon grows, a handful of these racers have banded together to form the Outlaw Racing Street Car Association, otherwise known as ORSCA. With the help of Year One, they just completed their fifth year of operation in 2007, and look forward to expanding their series this year. Most, if not all of the racers in this series don't have recognizable names. There aren't a lot of big-name sponsors, pre-event advertising, or press releases, but they still manage to capture the hearts and imagination of those who race to the beat of a different drummer. Enjoy a look here at outlaw street car racing, Southern style!
Low Buck, High ReturnFor many people, buying a used race car is the least expensive way to get into heads-up racing. That's exactly what 25-year-old Ricky Pennington did-and with great success. Pennington balanced the responsibilities of a young family with his love for racing, by purchasing this 1964 Malibu SS.
Despite having been a bracket car for almost 20 years, this Malibu still had the original console, radio, heater, and back seat. All of the lights worked, and it was still a street-legal car. It even came with the original bill of sale for $2,970!
Originally equipped with a 283 V-8, Pennington and his Dad bolted in a basic 385 small-block with Brodix heads, which was backed by a 5,600-stall Powerglide. A plate nitrous system was also installed for some extra horsepower during the hot summer months, or in case he had to make up a starting-line deficit. At a hefty 3,530 pounds, the car has been as quick as a 6.61 at 107.10 in the eighth, and a 10.70 in the quarter-mile.
Pennington won the 2006 ORSCA 7.00 Index championship and missed the 2007 title by just a single round. He's also placed well in some big-buck bracket races and footbrake races. Not bad results for a minimal expense.
Li'l Red Turbo CoupeWhen someone said that the best street cars make the best race cars, they must have been thinking about this hot little Chevy, owned by Kevin Scott and Danny Hough. For not only is this 1965 Chevy II SS a great looking car, it's a former champion too.
Kevin got his hands on this car about 15 years ago and has been racing it ever since. In 1999, Kevin was the champ in NMCA Limited Street, but when the ORSCA/Year One series began five years ago, Kevin found Outlaw racing more to his liking, especially since he got to stay closer to home.
When photographed at the end of 2007, Kevin and Danny were running a 407ci small-block from Pro Line Engines with a set of SB2.2 heads and a set of GT4788 turbochargers from Precision Turbo. The team also uses a Big Stuff 3 engine management, with two sets of injectors per cylinder.
Besides its clean looks, what sets this car apart from so many others is that it remains all steel, except for a fiberglass hood. It also retains all of the original chrome, which is near priceless to a lot of car restorers.
At 3,200 pounds on 29.5x10.5 Mickey Thompsons, these guys have already run a 4.87 at 154.87, and that's with just 10 passes on their new twin-turbo combination. With a little more experience under their belts, look for this pair to contend for the Limited Street title in 2008.
Hooked On A FeelingWhen Al Hause goes out on a call in his tow truck, he gets to see a lot of different vehicles. Even so, nothing has caught his eye and heart as this 1970 Olds 442 that he's owned for 15 years. It was big, it was heavy, it was different, but most importantly, it was fast.
Al got this classic Olds as a roller with no drivetrain. After a couple of years, it was back on the street with a 455 block, bored out to 468 cubic inches. With a set of out-of-the-box Edelbrock heads and a Neal Turbo 400, Al has run as quickly as a 6.82 at 101 on 29x10.5W rear tires with 4.10 gearing.
Weekends provided plenty of opportunities for racing with ET brackets on Saturday nights, and heads-up Outlaw racing at the local track on the following day. Sundays turned out to be a lot more fun, so Al began focusing more on that.
Al won an NMCA race at Atlanta some years back, but has since focused almost exclusively on ORSCA's 7.00 class, with top ten season finishes in each of the past four years. In 2007, he won the class championship by just one round at the last event of the year. With his first-ever season championship now under his belt, Al will be looking for another sweet taste of success in 2008.
Sweetheart Of The RodeoWhen people aren't looking at the world's quickest Outlaw 10.5 race car, they're looking at this young lady who's almost always nearby. That's because she's the wife of driver Tim Lynch, last year's Fun Ford champion. Kelly, 30, met Tim through Steve Petty after she'd bought a set of Pony wheels for her Mustang. Married for six years, Kelly is a self-confessed gearhead who's owned a half-dozen different Mustangs herself and is no stranger to racing. When she's not at the track, she's a property manager at an apartment complex in the Atlanta, GA, area. The line starts at the door, boys.