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Legends of the Quarter-Mile |
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Presented by The Drag Racing Heritage Foundation |
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Roy Steffey & Jim Marsh |
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Logghe,
Marsh & Steffey and Beyond The next car was the one that brought the Logghe, Marsh and Steffey team into the drag racing headlines. The car, known as the "Slot Racer" was unique in many ways with so many innovations that is hard to point them all out. The car was a lightweight design and while it was not the lightest car out there, the 140” wheelbase and a dry weight of 870# made for a very quick combo. The engine was again a small block Chevy but by punching the bore to 4 1/16” and stretching the stroke to 3 ¾”, Roy was able to make 389 cubic inches, making it one of the “biggest” little Chevy’s out there. The ¾” stroker crank was just one of the unique things about this Roy Steffey built Chevy. It was a Moldex forged crank made by the Dearborn Crankshaft Co. in Dearborn, MI. The advantages of a forged crank over the more conventional “welded” stroker’s are lightweight and strength. The crank was held in place by special Logghe built main caps and while running 12:1 piston on 90% nitro, the bottom end needs all the support it can get. Another unique innovation for a dragster at the time was the dry sump oiling system. The system used a Cummings Tri-Drive from the Sprint Car ranks, mounted on the front of the engine not only to drive the two oil pumps but also the fuel pump and the mount for the magneto to keep it out of the drivers line of sight. Roy went with an Isky cam and springs but used Pete Robinson rockers. Toped off with some very special Mondello heads and stainless steel headers, this is just a few of the innovations that earned the car the title of the “Worlds Quickest & Fastest Chevy in 1964. The new "Slot Racer" outside the Logghe offices While virtually unknown on the West Coast, the team was making headline with the unblown Chevy in their area with time and speeds in the 8.13 range and 185+ mph. The West Coast racers dismissed the times as not being accurate but after backing them up at West Salem, Ohio they were entered into the 1320 official records. While most of the West Coast guys were still non-believers, they were about to be proven wrong. The "Slot Racer" in a photo shoot for a magazine while on the west coast
Just one of the unique
innovations on this car was the tri-drive that ran the fuel pump, oil pump
for
In February of 1964 the team loaded up and headed west for the annual march Meet at Bakersfield where hundreds of dragsters would be on hand from around the country. They wanted to get there a few weeks early to shake the winter cobwebs from the car that had been parked during the cold Michigan winter. Their first stop was at Long Beach, but with a track so slick that no one, including Don Garlits could get a bite of it, they were not able to do much more than impress everyone with the way the little Chevy could smoke the tires. (Editors Note; Wayne King who was racing on the So-Cal. tracks at the time told me that people would say, “that thing even smokes the front tires”
The "Slot Racer" making one of
it's first runs on the west coast with the scoop that didn't
You will notice that Roy
tried a number of configurations on the injector tubes to try and get The next weekend they showed up at Pomona and proceeded to drop some jaws, when the fist run off the trailer was a scorching 8.17 / 183.66. On the next run the car slowed both in speed and e.t. The problem was traced to the newly designed scoop atop the injectors that Pete Jackson at Enderle had warned them would not work. After removing the scoop and reinstalling the ram tubes the last run of the day was an 8.19 @ 180. The next weekend was the March Meet and Jim Marsh qualified the car well up in the 32 car field for Top Eliminator with an 8.14 @ 185.05. They were the only C/Fuel Dragster to qualify against a field of 165 A & B/Fuel cars. The "Slot Racer" on a qualifying run at Bakersfield
Working to repair the timing key problem at Bakersfield
On Sunday morning with temps dipping into the high 30’s, they proceeded to warm the engine but with 70wt oil and an oiling system driven off the timing chain, the timing key in the crank failed. Not enough time was left to make repairs and they had to drop from competition. Later in the day after repairs were completed, they made an exhibition run and were awarded the coveted “Top Performance Award” for their qualifying run. The following week the big meet at Fremont is traditionally ran after the Bakersfield race and they were ready. The car made it’s best runs ever and on Sunday turned a 7.92 @ 187.10 and by the time it was all said and done they had won the meet defeating some of the top teams including, Masters & Richter; Fuller & Moody; Greer, Black and Prudhomme. Nick Arias was known to say “It made such a name for it’s self that they would never need to run the car again. Later in the year after returning from the west coast the Logghe, Marsh and Steffey team traveled to U.S. 30 Dragway in Gary, Indiana to compete in a match race with Don Garlits in his Chrysler powered dragster. You can bet there was no “arranged” outcome to this match race as is said to be a common practice in those days. The L-M-S car was loaded with 98% and 65 degrees of lead in the magneto for a “go or blow” scenario and came out with two straight wins much to Garlits dismay. While thinking back to suggesting the injected nitro set-up, Garlits was heard to say “my God, I have created a monster”. With both Gene and Ron Logghe in attendance as well as a number of Logghe employees, it was one of Roy and Jim’s most unforgettable days.
Jim Marsh put the hole shot on "Big Daddy"
The "Slot Racer" against Eddie Hill's "Double Dragon" was always a popular match race Roy Steffey points out that the main reason the little injected Chevy could out run the blown Chrysler’s was that the car was very light so it could come out of the hole very quickly. That the tire technology being what it was at the time, the big Chrysler’s would over power the tires trying to catch them. But tire technology was changing rapidly at this point and soon the advantage was gone. In a rematch of the match race mentioned above, Garlits proved this point by scheduling the race at Cecil County Dragway in Maryland. The track had just been resurfaced and had fantastic bite. While the little Chevy could not stay with the Chrysler when it got traction, the L-M-S team still laid down a losing 8.00 and 8.03 to back up the 7.92 they ran earlier in the year at Fremont and take home the 1320 record for C/Fuel. The consistency of the Chevy fueler was unheard of and later at Capitol Raceway Park the car ran an astounding 7.96, 7.98 and a 8.03 to dispel any non-believers that was left. The team or Roy Steffey and Jim Marsh were a great combo for drag racing. Jim Marsh once said that he had figured out how to make the car run like it did. All he had to do was on the next to last yellow light was put his foot to the floor and never lift. Of course all Roy had to do was keep the engine alive through this. Simple? Sure, maybe for him, but not many others could do it. Roy won the coveted "Mechanic of the Year" Award in 1965 CONTINUE to Chapter Three
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