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The Pritchett brothers, Nate and Adam, rolled back into Milan Dragway with their Ultimate Outlaw Shootout Series and recorded a best-ever car count and attendance for their events. Several hundred cars poured in on Friday and Saturday for the big race that hosted the Outlaw Drag Radial/Limited Street, X275, and Ultra Street classes. A lot of big names came out to make a run for the cash on Saturday. Kicking off qualifying the numbers were put up fast and the bar was set high.
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Steve Jackson made a blazing 4.48-second pass and put everyone on notice with nearly a three-tenths gap in front of the Outlaw Drag Radial pack. Kevin Fiscus looked to be a serious contender as well, posting up speeds at or above 180 mph on every one of his passes. There were several other runs in the 4.5-4.8-second range by the 34 other cars, with the lower half of the group in the low to mid five-second range through qualifying. Dave Hinzman closed the gap between Jackson and the rest of the field, as he later jumped to the second spot with a 4.69.
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In X275, Rich Bruder uncorked a 4.74 from his F-1X-powered mustang. But not to be taken lightly were the passes made by Martin Connelly with a 4.78 and Dean Marinis with a 4.79. These were followed up by seven other high four-second passes, leaving the rest of the 27 car field playing catch up. Despite that, some great side-by-side racing occurred in eliminations.
[6]Bruder reset low elapsed time with a 4.64 and followed it up with a 4.60. Although Connelly and Marinis both ran in the 70’s, Bruder was largely unchallenged. But there was quite a fight going on mid-field with Justin Johnson posting a 4.80, Dan Kroll running a couple 4.89’s, Tom Olsen with a 4.89, Trace Meyer with a 4.84, Darren Hilterbran with a 4.83, and Jason Lee with a 4.89.
The spectacular racing had the crowd in a frenzy as Ultra Street rolled in. Marc McCloud in his N/A big block-powered Monte Carlo SS laid down a record-setting 5.17 shortly to be followed up by a 5.16 the next round, putting him well out ahead of the rest of the racers. Though the smallest of the classes with 13 cars, it was quite a battle. Then Butch Kemp put the word out when he lit the boards up through the eliminations with a record breaking 5.14 then again with a 5.11 which had gotten the attention of not just the Ultra Street racers.
Unfortunately with the unexpected car count the race ran well into the night, with the final not decided until after 3 a.m. The dew was setting in and the track was deemed to unsafe to run on at this point and the final rounds were pushed to Sunday. Time wasn’t on the Pritchett’s side, however, as many racers had to pack up and leave, and it was ultimately decided that the remaining combatants would split the pot and the call the event. Ultra Street was split up between Dave Ginter and Ben Mens, X275 between Bruder, Hilterbran, Connelly, and Marinis, and Outlaw Drag Radial was between Fiscus, Scotty G, Ray Royer Jr., Mark Woodruff, and Keith Szabo.
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In speaking with Nate Pritchett (of PINKS and PINKS: All Out fame), he would like to extend a huge thank you to all the sponsors that help bring this race to the various tracks around the country. This race made Ultimate Outlaw Shootout history with a car count just over 300 and a huge crowd of over 4,000 people that came out to watch. The series is ever growing and plans are already in the works to make this event bigger and even better next year.
Nate said without the hard work of people like Mike Panetta, Butch Kemp, and Kevin Keller in the months prior to the event, this event couldn’t continue on. Special thanks goes out to Deneen Baxter and the crew at Milan for keeping the show going and keeping the track working for the racers. The thanks in support also extends out to Dave Hance, Monty Mikho, Donald Long, and all the media sources who are helping put the word out and bring in the racers. He says stay tuned for event news that will for sure delight the racers next year.
Check out the photo gallery from Milan after the break…