ULSCH NABS ORLANDO VICTORY -- WITH HELP FROM JOHN DILLINGER

But how many could identify his accomplices? Let's see . . . James Ward, Richard Mauzy, Jeff Weddle, Cody Ulsch, Brian Mobley . . . Oh, and special gang members Brian Weddle, Mike Weddle, J.C. Gloyd, Jim Gloyd, Drew Smith, and Robbie Long.
 
Nah -- we're not talking about the notorious gangster John Dillinger. This is John "Pops" Dillinger. The others were key witnesses and collaborators Sunday as show-stealer Chuck Ulsch stormed into Orlando Speed World Dragway, roughed up the Mickey Thompson Outlaw 10.5 class with a World Street Nationals victory, and made off with more than $10,000.
 
Ulsch, who has made Gil Mobley Motorsports' '02 Camaro just about the Most Wanted ride in street-legal racing, swiped top-qualifier honors, as well, with a 6.450-second elapsed time at 224.62 mph. That stuffed another $1,000 in his pocket. Ulsch raked in an additional $1,000 for the "Celan Sweep Award," for he also set low E.T. with his qualifying time.

OutlawTenFiveFinal
 
Everybody's heard of John Dillinger.
 
ChuckUlschWinnerBut how many could identify his accomplices? Let's see . . . James Ward, Richard Mauzy, Jeff Weddle, Cody Ulsch, Brian Mobley . . . Oh, and special gang members Brian Weddle, Mike Weddle, J.C. Gloyd, Jim Gloyd, Drew Smith, and Robbie Long.
 
Nah -- we're not talking about the notorious gangster John Dillinger. This is John "Pops" Dillinger. The others were key witnesses and collaborators Sunday as show-stealer Chuck Ulsch stormed into Orlando Speed World Dragway, roughed up the Mickey Thompson Outlaw 10.5 class with a World Street Nationals victory, and made off with more than $10,000.
 
Ulsch, who has made Gil Mobley Motorsports' '02 Camaro just about the Most Wanted ride in street-legal racing, swiped top-qualifier honors, as well, with a 6.450-second elapsed time at 224.62 mph. That stuffed another $1,000 in his pocket. Ulsch raked in an additional $1,000 for the "Celan Sweep Award," for he also set low E.T. with his qualifying time.
 
But grabbing all the loot was no breeze for the Clarksville, Md., legend. Part of his concerns were the Lynch Mob -- rival Tim Lynch and his team, who faced him in the final. Although Ulsch ran a stout 6.522-second pass at 223.99, Lynch lost power early and never was a threat in the quarter-mile showdown. His cut of the purse was $3,000, some consolation for his 16.587-second, 47.51-mph showing.
 
"We really worked this weekend. It was a battle," Ulsch said after winning at Orlando for the first time in three final-round appearances. "We did one good pass on Friday night. Everything looked good on the car. Once we came up there Saturday morning, we had the right lane, kind of didn't get down, came back and they made us take the right lane -- we didn't get down. We wanted the left lane. Then we had a problem -- our CO2 bottle went  empty and we didn't get down. (Sunday) we pretty much backed it down, just to get down (the track). We had an issue -- fuel burned the piston up in the first round. We had to put a piston in it after second round, and we had the blower off every round.
 
"All these guys, everybody who's on my crew -- there's about 10 or 12 of us -- every single person did something to get us in that winners circle, whether it became cleaning oil off the back, packing the chutes, helping put the cylinder head on, putting a piston in, going to get parts, whatever," Ulsch said. "We battled. We battled. And we got it done. Every time, we had a reasonable amount of time to get the job done."
 
He said the 32-car ladder played out the way he had expected.
 
"The four fastest cars were in the semis," he said. Because of that, he knew he needed to keep lane choice each round. "The left lane's a good lane here. So we were shooting to have that left lane all day. Once we got back on track, we pretty much set the pace for ourselves."
 
After losing to Bill Futch in last year's final, Ulsch might have wondered if his string of poor luck would continue. "We've always had to fight for it here, because we've always had problems. We've never had an easy day where we can just put the plugs in it and make sure everything's tightened up, make a pass and be done. It's always been a fight. But it makes it good. It makes it real rewarding when you win," he said.
 
"I didn't do this myself," Ulsch said. "I'm the one who gets to drive it down the track. I'm the one who gets to do this right here (speak with reporters), talk to the people. I just want to make sure I tell everybody that John Ferguson and Gil Mobley Sr. and Gil Mobley Jr. own this car. They're the ones who put me in here."
 
Referring to the newly crowned ADRL Battle of the Belts champion Todd Tutterow, he said, "Todd Tutterow tunes this car."           
 
Although Ulsch certainly is aware of Lynch's capabilities, he wasn't overly focused on his opponent in the final. "We were doing our own thing, just make sure we got that lane choice, make sure we got all our Ts crossed and our Is dotted, and do what we had to do. If he could come up and beat us, I'd have dealt with it. You put what you have up on the table. If you win, you win. If you lose, you lose."
 
Ulsch explained his domination by saying, "We have good people and good equipment, and we have a pretty good work ethic. Everybody loves it. We don't do this for money. This is a hobby. It's not a business. Sometimes people think everybody on this teams gets paid for what we do. We do it for the love of this.
 
"We want to win. We want to prove that we can run with the best of them. We want to be the best of them. We want them to want to run with us," he said.
 
After raiding the World Street Nationals, Ulsch and the Mobley Militia are about the most feared hombres in outlaw drag racing.

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