Diamonds In The Rough: Southwest Superchargers at El Paso Motorplex

© 2014 Bill ‘BADCO’ Ott Saturday June 7, 2014

The air conditioner on the top floor of the timing tower was engaged in battle above and beyond the call as it fought keep the temperature inside liveable. Considering half the walls that make up this top floor are glass and the air temp on the other side of that glass was above the century mark, recommending the A/C for a ‘unit citation’ doesn’t seem too far out there.

El Paso Motorplex race director Ben de La Vega and I were in the process of getting caught up. It has been quite a while since the last time I’ve been here and there have been a whole lot of changes to the place. All for the better. In just the past few months spacious permanent bathrooms with city water have been added. This is always a plus when you’re trying to convince the little woman to attend the races with you for the first time. Now you can tell her “No porta potties, Mama!!!”

A brand new concession stand has been built… a big improvement over the old one that was at the bottom of the track entrance. Before this day was through I’d get to sample both the food and prices. Both were agreeable.

A new section of grandstands have been added and the already existing grandstands recently received a new coat of paint. All of these improvements are aimed at making the facility more family friendly and convenient… and they’re working.

For the racers, additional pit parking has been added and the sand/dust situation in the staging and starting line parking areas has been addressed. They’ll be more paving as time and money permits. And speaking of paving, the track surface has been ground smoother. And money? A little over $300,000.00 in improvements since the start of the season! It all seems to be well spent. Nice job guys.

But alas, as they say “All good things must end” and it’s time for me to go back out into the elements, wander the pit area, see some old friends and make some new ones. The Southwest Superchargers www.southwestsuperchargers.com are putting in an appearance today, and it’s been a while since the last time I saw these guys (and gals) too.

The Southwest Superchargers are composed primarily of racers from the north and west Texas, and eastern New Mexico region. They’ll be racing 1/8th mile today on a 4.70 index. Of course all cars must have a supercharged engine. Fuel injection and methanol alcohol are required. Just about any other combination of chassis, body, engine, transmission are allowed. I bid Ben “au revoir”, armed myself with a bottle of cold water, the obligatory pencil and notepad, wrapped a wet bandana around my neck, and headed towards the far end of the pit area. The Blakely Family Racing Team always sets up camp back there so they were easy to find. Paul Blakely told me not too much has been changed on the 478 inch Chebby block with Pontiac heads combination except for stepping up to a 14:71 hi-helix blower from last season’s 8:71. Brittany’s driving is as sharp as ever and this rear engine dragster still sounds as vicious as ever. It’s also one of the hardest leaving sportsman alcohol diggers I’ve ever witnessed.

Next I found Ray Stringer, another SWSC member I’ve know for a while. Ray’s big (515 inches) Chebby powered, Alamogordo, NM based, Olds bodied funny car was looking good as ever. Gotta love that old ‘DC’ blower. Anyone know more about them? Ray said he’s upped the blower drive ratio for this event. Rumor has it that Olds shell is a former Ed McCulloch Miller Hi-Life body.

Ray’s pit area has become sort of a communication center for me. A lot of the other SWSC members seem to migrate here. I’ve found it a good place to get questions answered or to get pointed to whoever may have the answer. Thanks Ray.

Next up a black T bucket with an abbreviated pick up bed caught my eye. Don’t see too many Ford powered dragsters in these parts but they’re showing up more and more lately. Rickey Weeaks out of Roswell, NM is running a McClintic built 410 incher SRO in his altered. But what really caught my eye? That ingenuous gauge housing mounted to the rear plate of the blower pictured below. Damn near looks like a factory installed option, no? Rickey has been campaigning this beautiful roadster about a year and is still working some of the bugs out. Oh… Rickey and some of the crew are hearing impaired and I communicated with them by way of an interpreter in sign. These guys really know how to have a good time at the races. They kept me laughing through most of my feeble attempts at interviewing them. Another “thanks” is in order.

Another image of the gauge housing. This one up close and personal. Tach, oil pressure, blower boost, shift and ignition lights all in one cool package.

A quick check of the numbers shows there’s sixteen SWSC cars in attendance. Just enough for a full sixteen car field, instead of an eight car field that was originally planned. But Albert and Charlotte Schmidt also showed up to make a pass or two in their beautiful ’57 Chevy sedan delivery Pro Mod. The SWSC folks invited them to join the fun too, even if they’re shifter didn’t meet SWSC specs. So at least one of the cars entered won’t be guaranteed a slot in eliminations. ‘Gonna be an interesting show that’s just about ready to start. First round of qualifying was moved back to 7 PM due to the oppressive heat. It was 103 degrees when I arrived here earlier in the afternoon. It’s time to make the trek back up near the starting line and get a good spot in the shade for watching.

I say watching because I’m still recovering from shoulder surgery and can’t raise my right arm high enough to point and shoot. So my good friends, photographers Gil Cadena and Edward ‘Doobie’ Dubowitz will be allowing me access to their entire library of images after the meet. ‘Doobie’ shot the image below of Charlotte Schmidt lighting up the slicks in the ‘Crazy Al Racing’ shoebox. Unfortunately the Schmidt’s had problems with the 526” Hemi and failed to qualify. But… the Schmidt ’57 looks good, either coming at ‘ya…

or going away

Last night (Friday) the track was open for test and tune. Six SWSC members made passes. What I found interesting was Brian Beasley in the Beasley Racing/Car Quest dragster, Lyle Byrum (El Paso Motorplex owner) in his ‘Mindbender’ funny car, and Joe Navar all ran 4.76’s. Looks like we might be in for some close racing this weekend. John Brown in his BB/FA Fiat Topolino (the only NITRO player in the field) blew a few rods out the bottom of his small Chevy and left behind quite a mess for the clean up crew.

But that was last night in the dark. By now the temperature had dropped to a tolerable level and the sun had moved off to the west and was not beating straight down on the track surface anymore.

Some things of note during tonight’s qualifying sessions… Gary Hill ran a perfect 4.70. Brian Beasley ran the event’s quickest qualifying pass with a 4.63 to land the #5 spot while Dell City, TX’s Joe Navar ran a literally off the charts 4.56 that was too quick to qualify, but his 4.66 in the first Saturday session got him in the show. (see below for clarification). The Schmidt’s Chevy Pro Mod broke and bowed out of further competition. Rickey Weeks had steering arms problems (maybe too thin tubing?) and had to call it quits… but not before one extremely exciting burnout. Joe Navar did a smoking half track burnout then got way sideways on his first pass and ran only a 5.01 but still left everyone cheering.

Below… Old school vs. new as Ricky Esparza in his front engine dragster and Buck Woolen Sr. in his contemporary style rear engine dragster complete their burnouts during qualifying. Buck turned a 4.83 while Ricky ran a wheel spinning 4.91. Buck qualified #6. Ricky didn’t make the show.

Now… some info about SWSC’s qualifying rules are in order now (or at least they are for me). It appears the 4.70 is more like a suggestion than an actual index during qualifying. Whoever runs closest to the 4.70 gets the #1 qualifying slot. But you can run quicker than the 4.70 but not by more than a tenth of a second and still qualify. Your qualifying position is determined by how close you ran to 4.70, even if it was quicker. Thus when Saturday’s qualifying was over Gary Hill’s 4.70 still held down the #1 position…

#2 went to Andy Mears 4.69
#3 Lyle Byrum 4.67
#4 Joe Navar 4.66
#5 Brian Beasley 4.63
#6 Buck Woolen Sr. 4.73
#7 Don David 4.75
#8 Ray Stringer 4.91

Earlier in qualifying Buck Woolen Jr. ran a 4.77 in his rear engine dragster that was good for the #8 slot but unfortunately broke and couldn’t return putting Stringer back in via the break rule as he was #9 qualifier… or #1 alternate… take your pick. Incidentally, both Buck Woolen Sr. and Jr. are out of Alamogordo, NM and both run big block Chevy powered rear engine dragsters.

Personally, I feel having alternates fill in for qualifiers that broke… before the start of eliminations of course… is a great way to do things. Leave it to the Pros in the Big Show to figure out a way to abuse that rule many years ago and thus the High Sheriffs of the NHRA had no choice but to do away with it. Regarding the eight car field now, instead of sixteen? A few cars broke during qualifying thinning out the herd considerably to only twelve cars left by the time eliminations rolled around, so an eight car show was once again in order.

Round 1 saw Joe Navar dispose of Brian Beasley’ 4.78 with a quick 4.71. Andy Mears sent Don David back home to Odessa, TX with a nice 4.78 pass. Number 1 seed Gary Hill easily bested Ray Stringer’s troubled 5.01 with a 4.81 while crowd favorite Lyle Byrum’s funny car lost a close one to Buck Woolen Sr.’s 4.79. Then Brittany Blakely and Ricky Esperanza paired off in a ‘bye’. Ricky ran an impressive 4.75 @ 144.28 in the right lane while over in the other lane Brittany ran a troubled 5.01. Team Blakely seem to have some kind of gremlin in their set up. Let’s hope they track it down and get back to running as consistent as they have in the past seasons. I’m sure they will.

Below… A pretty crew member guides Lyle Byrum after his burnout. Lyle qualified #3 but lost to Buck Woolen in the first round of eliminations.

The Semis were run under even cooler conditions. The earlier sweltering heat was now a distant memory. In the first pairing Buck Woolen dropped a close one to Andy Mears. For some unknown reason, yours truly can’t find his notes on this set but trust me, I’m still looking. Next pair saw Gary Hill draw a big red eye handing the automatic win over to Joe Navar who ran a right on the mark 4.70 @ 144.97. Joe would have been tough to beat on that pass anyway.

The Finals were ran right around 1 AM and was well worth staying up late for. 2013 SWSC Rookie Of The Year Joe Navar will meet SWSC veteran Andy Mears in what promises to be a great final round. And it was. Joe’s 4.71 in the last round gave him lane choice and he took the left lane. Andy Mears wasn’t too concerned as both lanes seemed to be more than suitable. When the green came on both left side by side and stayed that way all the way to the stripe. Andy Mears’ 4.78 just barely nosed out Navar’s 4.79 by a whisker. It don’t get too much closer than that! A great final to wrap up a great day at the drag races.

While all of this was going on, the El Paso Motorplex also ran a full program of bracket racing. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the other performers in today’s show.

Street – Crystal ‘Lady Eyes’ Anguiano ’99 Trans Am – 14.25

Motorcycle – Juan Romero 600 c.c. Honda – 12.41 Modified – James McCall – ’72 AMC Gremiln – 11.31 Pro – Danny Dean – Chevy dragster – 8.17

Again, enough can’t be said about the hard work Lyle Byrum, Ben De la Vega, and crew put in both between races and on race day at the Motorplex. And… the entire SWSC crew and teams were more than a pleasure to hang out with. Look for even bigger things down the road for both of these ‘Diamonds In The Rough’.

More Old B.S. Later BADCO

Forward advice, rebuttals, and death threats to badco11

I usually list those who helped out on these projects, but this time there’s just too damn many to list without overlooking someone. So… thanks again to all involved and particularly The Boopster, Fred – The Wonder Puppy, and Lunazul Anejo tequila.