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Featured Racers:
Andy Mears
Kenneth
Rierson |
Featured Racer
Every month or so we
are going to have an article on one of our racers in the SWSC. Some
of you may remember when we did this before. We have found out over
the last couple of years that we have ALOT of people following our
humble website. We have also gained new race teams! This gives
everyone a look at who we compete with all season long and maybe a
little insight for those that follow the SWSC!
Racers, this is your notice
that I will be contacting you for a bio and team photo!
Jack and Amy Chapman's
"Hoopie"
Crew – Karl and Linda Matthews
 
The
sidewalk in front of my Lubbock home when I was in grade school
indicated the “bug “at an early age. It was scored with skid marks
and burnout marks from my lawnmower that I had modified to pull a
wagon that was my first race car. After I advanced to my Stingray
Deluxe (purple with a silver metal flake seat), My pal Karl, who is
my crew chief on the “Hoopie” to this day. He had built a replica of
a stop light for a shop project that functioned as our first
Christmas Tree. My first experience with a burnout took place in my
brothers 58 Chevy Delray while he was in the navy. I had found a
spare key and when my mom was at the beauty parlor on Wed.
afternoons I would open his “dumps” fire that 283 up and back to the
middle of the street. After bringing the “Sun” tach up to 4500 RPM I
would sidestep the clutch and light the right tire for about 100
feet. This lasted until I tore 1st, 2nd and
Reverse out of the transmission. What happened after that is another
story altogether.
I had
always enjoyed reading my brothers car magazines, including National
Dragster (wish I still had those) and tinkering with the mower and
listening to the 33 LP of “The Big sounds of the Drags” while
building models. My 1st car was a 1967 Plymouth Sports
Fury with a 383. I worked at a local HVAC distributor and saved
enough money to buy a set of Keystone wheels and glasspacks for it.
I used to take it to Amarillo Dragway and for the short time the
class existed, I dominated J/Pure Stock Automatic winning several
class trophy. I had to hide them in the trunk of the car for at
least 2 weeks thinking I was fooling my dad, because he did not want
me racing the car. Little did I know after every time I went to the
drags he would take his spare keys and look in the trunk and see how
I did. He would then brag to his buddies, but ground me for a
weekend.
After
graduation from Monterey High School in 1971 I was able to acquire
an ownership interest with my brother in a 1933 Plymouth Coupe with
a 440 and a Torqueflite. The picture shown here is after the car was
sold to some guys from Jal,NM who painted the Orange coupe, blue and
named it the Widow Maker. That name was very appropriate for that
car as it handled and stopped like crap! Ah, youth it’s a great
thing!
After I married, my brother and I again
partnered up on a real front engined dragster. It was bought from
Charles Pope in Lubbock who had campaigned it as an A/Fueler. We
attempted one weekend of that and decided we better convert it to
run in the new A-Econo Dragster class. We built a 461 and put a John
McDowell clutch-flite in it and headed towards Amarillo Dragway to
run at the Texas – California race. Unfortunately we never got it
started because of a warped flywheel and bad pressure plate (this
was back before starters were required) and we were too broke to fix
it. I did get the car running (I bought my brother out when he was
accepted to law school) and the first weekend I raced it, I dropped
a valve in it because I had forgotten to check the timing. It was
time for that to go and it did, I took the money and bought a
Kawasaki 900 and without killing or crashing; rode for a couple of
years.
In 1978 my brother who had moved
to Midland, Tx, as a landman for Tom Brown, Inc. urged me to move
there and open up a Speed Shop as there was not one there at the
time. With the assistance of a friend in Lubbock who had gone to
work with Raymond Beadle and opened the Blue Max Performance Center
in Dallas. We became the first and only Blue Max Performance Center
franchise in Midland, Texas. The pictures here show the store at
4404 West Illinois in Midland, The rear engined dragster I ran at
that time and a photo I took of Beadle at Seattle International
Raceway in 1981 when he won his 3rd and Final World
Championship. The guys under the flopper are Dale Emery and Dee
Gant, what a fun trip that was!!! 
We opened a 2nd Blue
Max Performance Center in Odessa in the end of 1981 and about that
time the oil business crashed yet again and the Midland store could
not sustain both operations. I closed both stores in 1983 and moved
back to Lubbock and at that time got into the Real Estate business
specializing with my father in Commercial real estate. My
grandfather had founded JW Chapman and Sons REALTORS in 1943, which
my father and uncle continued. However, due to my uncle’s
insistence, unless one of his son’s joined none of my dad’s sons
could work for them. Because of that they closed their office in
1981 and my dad became a solo Broker. We worked together until his
death in 1983. Previously when I was between my own cars I drove
for both Milton Montgomery and Byron Nicholson. (Byron’s Beretta is
pictured here) Byron’s car ran a big block with an injector hat on
Alcohol, which must have burned a spot in my brain.
Mike Carpenter Race Cars, in
Lubbock, built the “Hoopie” in 1998 for me. I had always loved the
look of the Aero Roadster and bought the last one made by Harwood
Industries off of the showroom floor in Tyler, Texas. I originally
was going to run brackets and did so. I went through the disease
that strikes so many drag racers, divorce, and for about 2 years the
car sat stagnant. I then decided to resurrect the car to run the
9.90 class in both IHRA and NHRA (went to the 4th round
in Super Gas at Ennis in 2003). This was the best showing, but the
best thing was getting married to Amy in 2002. We ran the car off
and on until 2005 when after going to the 6th round at a
local race track and a 12 Hour day and not finishing in the money, I
decided the fun was no longer there. I offered the car for sale but
no one wanted to pay what the car was worth. During this off period
my pal Mike Jones had built a blown motor for his car “Voodo Child”
and joined the SWSC and we would watch him when he raced locally and
kept up with him. He and I visited off and on and to make a long
story short. I decided that looked like a lot of fun and built the
present Blower motor for “the Hoopie” and joined SWSC at the 1st
Denton race in 2007. Although a lot of people thought a Left hand
steer roadster with a 115” wheelbase would not work! The capable
conversion done by Mike Carpenter silenced the critics. With the
assistance and support of my crew chief – Karl Matthes, (that’s a
picture of his old Barracuda he raced) and his wife, Linda (she’s
our videographer) and of course the amazing Amy we have attended
most of the SWSC races this year and had a blast!!!!!! THE FUN IS
BACK!!!!!! We look forward to many more races with the SWSC and
look to improve upon our 8th Place in Points for the
year 2008.
Thanks for a great year and all of the
members help!!!!!!
Jack, Amy, Karl, Linda
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