Less than a year ago, we were lauding the revival of the once-vibrant Outlaw 10.5 class that really spawned the outlaw doorslammer scene that exists today, and although the sky is nowhere near falling, the loss of a few of the big hitters in 10.5W racing is a certain blow to the class.
Just a few weeks ago, class frontunner Jason Enos placed his jow-droppingly gorgeous 1967 Ford Mustang for sale, just a year and a half after it was completed and made its on-track debut, with plans to move up to the big-tire Pro Modified world with a new second-gen Corvette out of his own Victory Race Cars shop. But Enos isn’t alone.
A couple of hard-to-miss listings on the Racing Junk classifieds over the last few weeks have been the two Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels-backed Ford Mustangs out of the Gil Christy Motorsports camp in New Jersey: the silver ’06 driven by Tom Kasper, and the undeniably historic black ’04 driven by T.J. Kasper and formerly campaigned by the one and only Tim Lynch and Steve Petty duo.
Like in the case of Enos, Outlaw 10.5’s loss is rumored to be Pro Modifieds’ gain, as the Kasper’s reportedly have a new Ford Mustang entry under construction at the K&K Advanced Door Car Technology shop in Pennsylvania. Considering their success with the big block, twin-turbo combination, we can presume they will remain in the turbo camp, but time will tell.
There’s no doubt that the East coast Pro Modified scene is gaining an immediate contender, but we certainly hate to see the loss of a couple of true leaders in the Outlaw 10.5 game who have helped to put butts in the seats at venues in the Northeast.