Retirees won’t slow down

Earl Blake and Doug Davenport are retired, but that hasn't slowed them down one bit.

Blake and Davenport, both from Las Vegas, competed in this past weekend's Rockabilly Rod Reunion and National Hot Rod Association Heritage Series drag racing event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Blake drives his 1968 Plymouth Barracuda in the Stock Eliminator class, while Davenport pilots a Top Fuel-classed replica of the 1969 California Charger, originally run by the California-based team of John Keeling and Jerry Clayton.

Why a replicar? Well, Davenport came across a 1/24th scale model of the front-engined dragster about six years ago and that inspired his quest to custom build a copy of the car he worked on as a teenager and drag racing champion Rick Ramsey drove over 200 mph in the 1970s.

"I took the model to a chassis shop and they copied it with some added safety items," said Davenport, who's a retired builder and now devotes his time to racing and motorsports consulting. "The aesthetics are dead on, right down to the paint and decals."

Blake, on the other hand, retired from the Air Force's intelligence department in 1987, but has been a MOPAR man since he learned to drive on his father's 1955 Plymouth station wagon. Now, he literally collects Chrysler products to keep his fleet of street and drag cars running.

For the Stock Eliminator class, however, Blake is required to use actual old parts, which are becoming difficult to locate. "It's a lot of junk yard hunting and searching on the Internet," Blake said. "There are things we can do internally to the engine, but most of it is stock."

The track's popular quarter-mile drag course, known as The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, hosted its now-annual heritage drag race, car show, vendor midway, swap meet and nostalgia-related contests throughout the weekend, attracting nearly 200 racing entries.

For thousands of fans, though, it was a great way to spend the Memorial Day holiday. Held at both The Strip and the Neon Garage (in the superspeedway's infield), the sun-drenched weekend was also packed with cool cars, 18 live bands and rockabilly celebrities.

In the popular Nitro Nostalgia Funny Car class, 21 entries were expected and a record 25 showed up. Tim Boychuk, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, won over Steve Macklyn of Bountiful, Utah, by qualifying fourth in a field of 25 entries to make the eight-car cutoff. Boychuk blazed the quarter mile in the first round of eliminations running 5.777 seconds for 247.20 mph.

Running in NHRA's Nostalgia Eliminator 2 (NE/2) class, Davenport sat atop the early qualifying sheet with an elapsed time of 8.750 seconds that was preceded by a reaction time of 0.003 seconds.

"I just wanted to cut a light," Davenport said, which translates into practicing reaction times.

Unfortunately, Davenport red-lighted (left the starting line early) in the second round of competition and was eliminated for the weekend's finale.

"The car was perfect," said Davenport, who, with two events remaining, is 10 points out of first place in the class's championship standings. "I just got over anxious."

Jay Huckleberry of Porterville, Calif., eventually scored the NE/2 trophy over Henderson's Dick Krieger.

Likewise, Blake red-lighted, but in the first round of eliminations. This was unusual for the local bracket race winner and 2007's MOPAR at The Strip Stock/Super Stock class winner who can easily run just over 11 seconds for the quarter mile with his 340 cubic-inch small block.

"It'll lift the front end up a little bit," Blake said, referring to the 450 horsepower, Carter AVS carbureted powerplant and Hoosier drag slicks he uses to leave the starting line in a cyclone of tire smoke.

Davenport, who is the NHRA's defending Heritage Series NE/2 champion, can also spin some impressive burn-outs with his Universal Automotive-built 454 cubic-inch Chevy engine that produces about 780 horsepower with its four-barrel Holley carburetor and B&N manual transmission.

"We just have a lot of fun," said Davenport, who got a helping hand this weekend from friend Ron Stone. "I've met some great people throughout the years," said the former Masters class champion from the Speedway's Legends class that runs at The Bullring (the 3/8th-mile short track).

For more information about NHRA's Heritage Series, visit www.nhrahotrodheritage.com.

The Rockabilly Rod Reunion can be accessed at www.Rock-abillyRodReunion.com. For information about upcoming events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, call 644-4444 or visit www.LVMS.com.