The “Texas Buick Guru”

       Jim Turner -

Highway Garage

Bronte Texas, 76933

325-473-2501

With a motor built by none other than Jim Turner, David did the Buick community proud by kicking a$$ in the 2008 Drag Week...see the story at the bottom of the page...

Look for more to be added about David and his killer car soon!

Lots of runs and pictures in the “Nationals pages”

GSCA members and staff,

Hot Rod magazine’s Drag Week 2008 has just concluded, and as a participant, I want to let the club members know a little about this event through my eyes and what it took to complete this task. For those not familiar with Drag Week, it is a week of drag racing at five different tracks in which competitors must drive their racing vehicles form track to track with no support vehicles. That means everything you think you’ll need must be carried in the participating vehicle or a small trailer no larger than a 4x8 U-Haul. The drive between tracks this year was between 150 and 400 miles each day. The first event was in 2004, and I have wanted to participate each year.

Things really kicked off with Bob Frazee planting a seed in my head at the 2007 GS Nationals. He had stopped in Memphis to watch the Pump Gas Drags and was convinced that my car would have been accepted. He encouraged me to apply for the 2008 event.

So now it’s 2008, and we (my car and I) are accepted into Pump Gas Drags. Our goal against the power adder cars is to just qualify, which we do in the number 30 spot, not the worst and ahead of a couple cars with power adders.  As a bonus, Bob and Justin Frazee and Jim Turner are there to root for me on their way to the 2008 GS Nationals. The Drag Week schedule is released at the Pump Gas Drags - Bowling Green; Steele, Alabama; Montgomery, Alabama; Memphis, and back to Bowling Green. I can’t conceive a better schedule for my first Drag Week - three of the day’s events within 2 ½ hours of my house! While at the 2008 GS Nationals, Jim and I talk about how my car ran. It was then that Jim suggested a cam change and some head porting since it seemed the cam was too big for my application. After the Nationals and before Hot Rod Power Tour, I pulled the heads and found that the valves and pistons had had a coming together. Jim and I talked about the situation, and it was decided to ship the motor to him to try and make the dead line of September 8 - registration and test and tune for Drag Week. TA Performance was brought in on some of the parts that had to be special ordered. I have to thank Jim for fronting me some of his parts until others came into production and I could replace his. The week prior to Labor Day Jim, Bob and I got the motor installed, but unfortunately the weather prevented us from making it to a track for some shake down runs. So, with one week to go and no miles on the car, I finally got to drive it the Saturday before I left, and the charging system didn’t work! I live in a small town and tracking down parts with no time left just wasn’t working. I finally narrowed it down to a voltage regulator that was available in the next town.

Drag week has finally arrived! I hurry to Beech Bend early on September 8, register, make some test and tune passes and go pick up a U-Haul trailer. The first pass is 11.04 @ 120mph with no tuning but I am hoping for something in the 10’s. Tuesday starts the first day of passes that count. I am up early to get everything out of the tow vehicle and into the U-Haul prior to the 9am drivers meeting, make two passes at 11.09. I have lots of tire shake, and realize in the pits that I have a bad oil leak. It will require the transmission to be pulled. I see this dream slipping away quickly. I talk to Jim, and he wants me to get on with pulling the trans out. I’m thinking of quitting. Mentally, after 3 months of rushing to make the event, I’m just not prepared for this. To make things worse, a fellow competitor is helping swap tires for me and cross threads a rear stud! That’s going to require the axle to be pulled since they are screw in studs! Hot Rod sends some other drivers to convince me to stay in. They’ve even come up with a place to fix the car, Walt’s Allstate Transmission.  Randy Stevenson had used them during the 2008 Nationals, and they are fellow Buick racers and get me right in. The rules allow for getting the car to a shop under its own power. Earl gets the transmission out and replaces a fitting on the rear oil galley and fabricates a suitable stud and lug nut. I’m on the road at about 7pm. I finally stop about 30 miles out of Bowling Green to eat some food for the first time that day. Now the transmission dip stick tube is pouring fluid! That pretty much ruins dinner. I get Jim on the phone again. He’s my crutch. Jim says not to worry about it. So, we hit the road for a long secondary road trip to Gadsden, Alabama. I failed to mention that there are check points along the route that I must find and get a picture of the car with said check point - not an easy task late at night when they’re not illuminated and my eyes are swimming. However, I find them and finally reach a hotel 8 miles from Steele, Alabama at 2am. At 7am, the car is jacked up, and I’m replacing the o-ring on the dip stick tube - finally, no leaks and no breakfast.  I can’t find anyone in the hotel for milk for the complimentary breakfast.

So, now we’re at the Alabama International Speedway. I have to unload the car and trailer before resetting the timing, and shocks, and swapping tires, and spark plugs. This process takes about an hour and a half when I arrive at the track and again before I leave. It’s hot and humid and the track will not hook. I get a 1.55 60ft in a 3890 pound car with stock suspension, and it’s going into tire shake. 11.13 is the best we can get. I try timing and carburetor adjustments with no change then reverse everything to get ready for the next leg of the drive, swap tires, spark plugs, shock settings, timing and load it all up. It is supposed to be a short drive today or so I think it will be.  About an hour from Montgomery, the car is losing power and sputtering. It clears up so I continue to Wetumpka Alabama for fuel. The engine will not start. It turns out that the air cleaner is trapping too much heat around the carburetor bowls and fuel is boiling over and fouling out the plugs. I let the engine cool down and leave the air cleaner off. I finally get to Montgomery in time for a meal at Outback. I’m so tense all day driving and busy at the track that I can’t eat, and I’m starting to feel it.

Now it’s the morning of 9/11 and as the country remembers the tragedy of 2001, I’m lost trying to find the track. I find a Lowes and buy some hardware to raise the back of the hood up to get air flow across the carburetor, and finally get decent directions and start my daily ritual of swapping and readjusting. It’s just hotter and more humid here, 92% humidity. The car will only give me 11.17 still with a tire shake at 1.55 60ft. Jim Carswell was spectating in Montgomery and stopped by to chat. The competitor leading me at this point has a car with a lot of parts rattling. I just figure he’ll over night some new parts, and I’ll see him in Memphis. His name is Jay Brown and he’s won this before in another car. This time he has brought a 1964 Galaxie with a 427 SOHC motor. I talk with him and he says that it is burning up rockers. It takes a lot of nerve to do this event with a rare engine.

 Now comes the longest leg of the entire event and with the previous days problems, there is no way I’m going to be able to eat during this 400 mile cruise. Besides, it is like riding in a convection oven. But, it goes uneventful. I arrive in Memphis at 10:30 that night. I’m up early to get to the track, go through the routine and finally get an 11.10. 2 o’clock is coming up fast and no sign of the car leading me. He must be out as all runs have to be made prior to 2 o’clock. Now I’m leading and with the attrition I’ve witnessed, no food again. All I have to do now is make the drive back to Bowling Green and make one decent pass to stay ahead of the Australians - nothing unnerving about that! But the drive again is uneventful until I reach Paris Tennessee, 16 miles from home. I am constantly plotting fuel strategy and fortunately have 7 gallons reserve fuel in the trailer, just in case. Hurricane Ike threw a scare in the fuel supply so all the gas stations shut their pumps off. The ‘just in case fuel’ gets me to Bowling Green, and now I only needed one decent pass. The first pass is an 11.18, not what I want but well enough for the class win! Now I can try some more adjusting. I finally get an 11.09 and I know that I am tired and we have won the Big Block Normally Aspirated class!

I met some true characters on this adventure and also some really good people. Two guys from upper Illinois, Pete Holm and Steve Eden in a 70 Nova, stayed with me during the boiling carburetor incident. The Aussies had trouble on the long drive to Memphis, so I stayed with them, assisting when I could. Everyone helped each other even though they were competitors. It was a remarkable experience that truly tested the competitors ‘determination and perseverance. My mantra was simply ‘How bad do you want it?’ My faith was tested a few times, but I believe God knew how bad I wanted to do this event. Everything worked out and I got a win. I know there are faster cars out there but not many would survive 1072 miles of road duty, pulling a trailer and making the passes each day. People ask me if it was fun - no way! Would I do it again? Absolutely! I will, however, not do this alone again. I’m already making plans even though the route hasn’t been released, and I sleep more now than before.  Then there’s the overwhelming desire to eat. Next year will be more fun. I just hope that I represented the Buick community admirably. I must add that none of this would have been possible without the support of my wife, Elizabeth, or without Jim Turner pushing the engine project through. THANK YOU Jim. I also want to thank Bob Frazee and Al and Debbie Martinez for their moral support during this. Sorry this is so long but I didn’t know what to edit down.

Thanks for reading,

David Paschall

#897

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