Well doesn’t this suck? I mean I think we all saw this coming when radial tires were allowed in Outlaw 10.5, but it appears that Outlaw 10.5 is officially dead.

In a Facebook post made by the owner of Cecil County Dragway, Jim Halsey, it was announced this evening that Cecil County would be moving forward in 2021 without Outlaw 10.5. Jim stated the following:

Since there has been a little buzz about the future of Outlaw 10.5 at Cecil County Dragway we feel we owe it to everyone to know where we are headed with the class. First of all, we want to thank the racers, crew, fans and sponsors for your support past, present and future, without all of you we would not be successful. Everyone knows Outlaw 10.5 has been a premier class at our Strange Engineering Outlaw Street Car Shootout Series for 22 years and in the recent past it has struggled to get racer support. We have tried many things in an effort to pick-up additional participation but it seems as if nothing has worked. Due to these circumstances we are going to replace the Outlaw 10.5 program with something similar to the Pro 275 class that has been contested at several events this past year. We are currently working on rules and will post them as soon as we are finished. One thing we know for sure is that we will allow all brands of 275 radials in the class. We realize that this is a big change for some and wanted to get the word out as soon as we possible to give everyone that wants to run the class time to make changes to their cars. Our sponsors are VERY SUPPORTIVE of the change as they see the value in this new and exciting class. Thanks again for everyone’s support and let’s all hope for a better 2021 racing season.

While I am sure there will be plenty of discussion on what was the final nail in the coffin, in my opinion, it was the surge in popularity of the Pro 275 radial class. Pro 275 rules pretty closely mirror the rules that Outlaw 10.5 follows. The first nail in that coffin was when the radial tire was even allowed. Now I know that there are plenty of people that will tell me the class needed progression and allowing the radial was that progression because the class got stale. Be that as it may, I still think there is a need for a big tire slicks class in heads up racing that isn’t just Pro Mod.

What’s left for big tire cars in the heads up world? That’s the million-dollar question at this point. In reality, there isn’t much left for big tire cars with the exception of Pro Mod. We in the industry have gotten people to believe that all that matters is dick-swinging, jaw-dropping numbers. If it doesn’t run 3’s in LDR, Pro 275, RvW, etc. people are bored because they have become spoiled. If X275 cars don’t drop low 4.20’s people are bored because that’s what they seem to think is normal and expected.

There is plenty of “blame” to go around when it comes to the death of long time classes that a lot of us love. 2021 will certainly be an interesting year when it comes to drag racing. I don’t think that radial racing is a fad, but at the same time, there are plenty of racers who have no interest in slapping on radials and having a dick measuring/wallet measuring contest, which is exactly what a lot of racing has turned into. Obviously, I will continue to report on everything drag racing and will continue to give you my unfiltered and unabashed opinion on what is happening in our industry.