Wayne Swafford-HE JUST WASN'T DONE RACING
Quain Stott | Published on 6/3/2020
Wayne Swofford figured out at 59 years old he still had racing in his blood. Wayne dabbled in street racing as most old hot rodders have done in their younger years. As he got older he got involved in Mud Bogging and became the 1985 and 86 North and South Carolina State Champion. Then he decided to try his hand in round track racing so Go Karts was next. Then in 1992 he went local Dirt Track Racing. His final hurrah was in the late 90's when he was involved in NASCAR Sportsman and Hooters Pro Cup asphalt racing. After that Wayne hung up his helmet to concentrate more on his now very successful Welding / Fabrication business that he had built from scratch over many years.
About a year and 1/2 ago Wayne noticed an old 66 Chevy 2 that had been setting behind his building. The old car was not worth saving so he junked it 8 years ago. While looking at the old car he got to thinking about how most of his old racing friends had got involved in the crazy new deal called the Southeast Gassers Association. Before he could come to his senses he had the old car drug out and was gutting it out to make a B/Gasser.
Wayne contacted long time friend Billy Edwards and had Billy draw out the chassis design so Wayne could build the chassis rails, brackets and a lot of the parts right in his fab shop. While this was going on Billy was bending tubing for the roll cage and building the old school suspension. Wayne not being one to half-ass things contacted engine guru Gene Fulton and instructed him to build a budget 306 SBC engine. I say budget because they built the engine out of mostly used parts but Fulton was still able to add his years of experience in the details that made him famous building SBC in the early 1970's. The carbs went to Carburetor Bob for his tricks. Next the car went to Lil Dave (Dave Scruggs) for paint. Good friend Brian Harris did the finishing touches like wiring, brakes and final assembly.
Wayne's final word was if not for the support of his wife Vivian over the years he would have never been able to afford his big comeback into the racing world.
Early testing showed very impressive speeds so Wayne took the car to a legal SEGA exhibition race just to test and ended up number one qualifier in B/Gas. As a matter of fact he ran so good he got pulled and checked by the SEGA tech staff. Wayne's SEGA debut will be this Saturday June 6th at London Dragway in London Kentucky