Clark Wins Texas Automatic Outlaws Race at Texas Raceway

Text and Photo by Toyse Woody

Eric Clark

The Texas Automatic Outlaws rolled in to Texas Raceway with seven racers ready make a pass. First round of qualifying everyone skated around and had a hard time getting down the track under power but it rounded out with Richie Price number One followed by Darren Inman, Eric Clark, Chuck Poindexter, Rodney Whatley with Randy Rencher not able to start .

Final round of Qualifying Price stayed number one, Poindexter moved up to the second slot, Inman moved to third, Clark moved to forth, Steve Wiley in his only qualifying pass took fifth and this moved Whatley to sixth. Randy Rencher gets the hard luck award when his starting system batteries expired and he was not able to start his engine .

Chuck Poindexter

FINAL QUALIFYING ORDER

1. Richie Price 96 Camaro 4.557 @160.14

2. Chuck Poindexter 76 Luv 4.620 @143.73

3. Darren Inman 96 Beretta 4.872 @ 143.37

4. Eric Clark 69 Mustang 4.888 @ 104.55

5. Steve Wiley 89 S-10 5.295 @119.92

6. Rodney Whatley 00 Camaro 5.739 @ 96.01

DNQ

Randy Rencher Broke not able to start

Round one began with battle of the the trucks, Steve Wiley Nitrous S-10 going against Chuck Poindexter's Blown Luv. Poindexter's Luv truck was out of the gate first with a .013 light and never looked back for the win 4.72 @ 127.16 while Wiley was having to manhandle the S-10 to a 6.216 @ 76.93 .

Next up was Darren Inman's Blown Beretta versus Rodney Whatley's Nitrous Camaro. Inman put a .027 light on the tree against Whatley's .050 but both lost traction with the Beretta legging it for the win 5.017 @ 136.36 over the Camaro's 7.07 @ 75.87 .

The last pair of round one was number one qualifier Richie Price's Nitrous Camaro versus Eric Clark's Blown 69 Mustang. This one was all over at the start with Clark putting a .044 light on the tree and running the Low Elapsed Time on the night 4.085 @ 172.25, Price had .087 light but fell off to a 5.551 Elapsed Time at 91.77 miles per hour.

With all the Nitrous cars out of the way the blower cars duked it out to see who would be in the finals. Clark Brothers 69 Mustang received the bye for having the low elapsed time and highest mile per hour of the last round leaving the Beretta and Luv to pair up. Poindexter's Luv won the round with a 4.591 @ 147.31 over Inman's Beretta who shook and peddle it to a 4.944 @ 134.67. Clark's Mustang lost traction on the bye run and coasted to 5.881 @ 79.82 .

Final Round

The Finals with Eric Clark defeating Chuck Poindexter

With the temperature dropping to a chilly 51 degrees and the dew setting in victory could either way in this David versus Goliath match up. Poindexter sawed the tree down with a .017 light and was ahead 330 foot mark but the Clark Brother's Mustang motored around for the win with a 4.226 @ 141.74 .

The second of 15 events is in the books for the Texas Automatic Outlaws and the Clark Brothers Mustang showed that they are on pace to take the 2012 series title. The next event will be Saturday, April 4, at Houston Motorsports Park, Houston Texas. The TAO series will then go to North Star Dragway in Denton, Texas following that event on Saturday, April 21 .

Toyse Woody Jr.
Photos by Toyse