Swill Racing evolved back in the fall of 1999.  That was when many nights of swilling beer and bench racing developed into an aspiring race team that is now in its second season in the EFI/Renegade class of the NMRA.  Dale George, Pat Carroll, and Scott Lovell make up the Swill Racing team.  Pat and Scott have always been into Fords and late model Mustangs.  Dale was originally a hardcore Chevy guy, but Pat and Scott have successfully converted him to the Blue Oval side.  The Swill team is one of the only teams that completely built their race car by themselves and not by a race shop.  With the knowledge of Dale, who is an bodyman/mechanic, along with the help of Scott, Pat, and many friends, they started with a 1989 LX coupe 4 banger donor car.  After beating the heck out of the car, it was then completely stripped down to the bones, and built into the monster that you see on the track these days.  The only work that has been taken to another shop is the precision machining of the block and other engine components.  All of the assembly work was not completed in a race car shop, but in the garage of Dale George. 

The engine package starts with a Ford Motorsports A-351 block that yields 357CID .  The engine is topped with a Trick Flow Specialties R-351 intake and AFR’s 205 aluminum heads that have been treated to a full porting job by Total Engine Airflow.  The Swill team relies on a Dynamic Racing Mighty Mite C-4 and TCT converter to transfer the power to a modified Ford 9 inch rear end.  The computer of choice for this machine is a Ford Motorsports EPEC.  The combination that lights off the compressed mixture is an MSD 6AL ignition and an HVC coil.  The start of the season saw

the power of choice being nitrous oxide.  This is the second season that nitrous has been used to add the extra horsepower.  After two seasons of breaking pistons and blowing heads gaskets, the team decided that a switch in the power adder field was needed.  What came next was a surprise.  After talking with many other Renegade racers, and then forging a relationship with Ricky Best of Vortech Engineering, the Swill team decided that a Vortech YS trim supercharger was what the team needed to become more competitive.    What started off as a team that was just trying to make the 16 car field, has turned into a team that is starting to become a major contender.  The 2002 racing season has seen many positive results for the Swill team.  At NMRA Columbus 2002, the Swillers qualified in the number 6 spot with a 9.27 @ 147 MPH blast.  This run was with the nitrous and at a race weight of 3150 lbs.  The Norwalk FFW race has been the best race to date.  At the Norwalk race, the car was able to weight 200 pounds lighter than the NMRA weight of 3500 lbs.  Scott’s personal best E.T. and MPH were run during qualifying for this race.  Scott qualified the car in the third spot with a 9.27 @ 147 MPH run.  This is more impressive than the nitrous pass, that was the exact same, because the car was still able to be raced after qualifying, and it was 150 pounds heavier.  Scott, Pat, and Dale were able to make it all the way to the semi-finals  where they were taken out by their good friend Bob Kurgan.  The best NMRA run so far has been a 9.45 @ 145 MPH.  The power is clearly in the motor and the only thing to overcome now is the weight penalty. 

The Swill Racing Team is going to spend the rest of the year to focus on some suspension changes and more refining of the tune up.  This focus will help the team compete for a top 10 position in the season ending points championship.  Next season could see the Swill Team switching to a new Dart block with smaller cubic inches.  After that, it will be testing, more testing, and even more testing in search of the E.T. and speed that it takes to win a championship.  The Swill team has also attended one FFW race and enjoyed some success.  The lighter weight has also proven to produce less parts wear and better times.  The Swill Team is also campaigning the NMRA rules makers for a cut in weight.  Their current combination is the heaviest in the entire class.  The weight penalty for an engine larger than 310CID. does not  warrant the performance gains from the extra size.  The added weight also causes more engine and driveline wear.  The team is hoping for a 100 to 150 lbs. reduction.  This reduction would allow the team to pick up more than a tenth of a second and make them more competitive. 

Another unique aspect about the Swill Racing Team is that Scott Lovell created the only Renegade Only web page.  www.Swillracing.com has many different features, but the 2 biggest draws are the Renegade Race Reports and the “Renegade Only” message board.   Over a two year span the site has been redesigned twice so that it can better serve the Renegade and Mustang drag racing community.  Another aspect that has proven quite a draw is the new Turbo Chip column.  The Renegade Race Report and the Turbo Chip column talk about the happenings and experiences of the Renegade racers and also Chip Havemann, in his newly reconstructed SS/O car.    Over the last 3 months, SwillRacing.com has averaged 10,000 visits and/or 100,000 hits per month and it’s still climbing!!  For all of the rules changes and gossip on the Renegade class, all you have to do is visit the website and you will learn all that you want.

I had the opportunity to hang out with the entire Swill Team at the recent Atco race.  It was a one of a kind experience.  The team usually likes to party after the qualifying is completed.  You can usually find them in their pits partying with the likes of Chip Havemann, Ricky Best, Bob Kurgan, Bob Cook, Bruce Hemminger, and many of the other Renegade racers.  If the Swillers are not at their pits, then they usually can be found at the Saturday night Laskowsky pit party or around the pits trying to start a golf cart race.  If you are ever in the pits on a Saturday night and need a place to party, then stop by the Swill pits and say hello.  They are more than willing to share their beer, and their sheep (inside joke).