EVENT NOTEBOOK EVENT PHOTO GALLERY
Gillig,
Ulsch, Berney, and Keenan Collect Championships in Orlando
300
cars, 21,000 spectators, and the best - bar none - heads-up, street-legal doorslammer
racing in the world. That in a nutshell is a recap of the just-completed event
simply known as “Orlando.”
Technically
it’s called the Real World Street Nationals, and this year’s version, the 14th
annual, was an unqualified success. Well, the racers who crashed, broke, or failed
to qualify may have a problem with that assessment, but the vast majority of
fans and racers who jammed the tight confines of Orlando Speed World Dragway
likely have a positive response if asked to evaluate the event.
The
number of race vehicles on hand is even more impressive considering that there
are only four classes – Super Pro Street, Outlaw 10.5, Heavy Street, and Radial
Tires.
In
Super Pro Street,
the premier class of the RWSN, 2003 winner Tony Gillig returned to the winner’s
circle at the expense of fellow Illinois
resident Chuck Samuel, himself a former winner in Orlando.
Gillig,
who is stepping away from his team’s 2004 Mustang after this weekend, took the
win when Samuel got out of the groove and lifted.
In
Outlaw 10.5, consistency won the weekend for Maryland’s Chuck Ulsch, who parlayed a
string of 6.90s into a trip to the final and a classic Ford versus Chevy
confrontation with Brad Brand.
Ulsch
lined his 2002 Camaro up beside Brand’s 1992 Mustang in the final stanza, which
came to a sudden end when Brand pulled the trigger way too early and left a
glowing red bulb in his wake.
