Interview with Jack Barfield

An Interview with Superstar Chevy
10.5-Wide Racer Jack Barfield

Words and photos by Ian Tocher

Quite simply, the story of Outlaw 10.5 racing can’t be told without including Jack Barfield, a dedicated Chevy racer out of Pembroke, GA. In addition to being the Atlanta-based Outlaw Racing Street Car Association’s (ORSCA’s) first 10.5 champion in 2004, Barfield owns a piece of ORSCA along with fellow racer Mike Hill and sanctioning body president Johnny Fenn. At the halfway point of the 2007 season, Barfield and his nitrous-fed 870ci (!) 2002 Camaro were sitting 10th in ORSCA points with four races to go.

The 40-year-old construction company owner cut his racing teeth at the now-defunct Savannah Dragway while still in high school, running a 1975 Chevelle that started out with a 350, but seven engine swaps later hosted a full-out 454 beneath the hood. “There was always a motor hanging in the front yard from a shade tree,” Barfield recalls.

Married at 19, straight out of school in 1985, the demands of family life and the somewhat nomadic lifestyle of living wherever the next construction job cropped up took Barfield out of the sport for several years. In ’94, however, he “came home” and within a year established Atlantic Underground Utilities, which prepares raw land for new subdivisions before home construction begins.

The new business venture provided the time and wherewithal for Barfield to return to his drag racing roots, this time with a ’67 Chevelle that he entered in Fastest Street Car Shootouts, a precursor of the Outlaw 10.5 class. Though he loved the Chevelle, it proved too heavy for what Barfield was asking of it so within a year or so he bought a ’68 Camaro that he raced well into the 2005 season.

That’s when Barfield debuted a stunning Sheppard Race Cars-built ’69 Camaro that helped take Outlaw 10.5 to a new level of performance and professionalism. Midway through last season, though, Barfield parked the ’69 in favor of his current ride, purchased after it won the ’05 ORSCA championship with Terry Robbins at the wheel.  

A fan favorite and feared competitor at the track, Barfield recently sat down with MacChevy.com to discuss his career and role with ORSCA.

What’s one of your earliest memories of driving a high-performance car?

Barfield: All my parents ever had were Chevys, so that’s what I had, too, but I remember my next-door neighbor was a die-hard Mopar man and he had this Super Bee that my best friend actually bought from him for I think it was less than a thousand dollars, and he was even able to pay weekly for it.
I remember that car, how fast it was, and back then whenever we had a drag race in his car or any of my friends’ cars, I always had the driving duties. Well, my car had a limited-slip rearend in it, but my buddy Keith’s, that Mopar, it had a posi unit in it. Anyway, we were going to a drag race, I was driving, and when we left my house we turned on to another road and I got in the gas. You know, with my car it would slip one tire going around the curve, but when I shot the gas to it that posi took hold and shot us off about 100 feet into the marsh. We had to get towed out, but it taught me a little about what positive traction does for you.  

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What was the first big step you took to advance your racing career?

Local heroes Barfield (near lane) and Craig Miller staged countless battles over the years at Savannah Dragway. They’re shown here in a non-sanctioned Outlaw 10.5 final in April 2004 at the now-closed strip that Barfield won with a holeshot. This is the same ’68 Camaro that earned him the inaugural ORSCA 10.5 championship that year.

Barfield: Well, I was the first one that left Savannah and the reason being there was just no competition anymore. When we first started racing there we were the underdog, but it got to the point where we won pretty much every single race and then, instead of people liking you they pretty much started hated you. It got to the point where the only way I didn’t win was if I broke or just made a stupid mistake.

Boy, that was the big thing, I can remember coming back down the return road in Savannah, and the return road was right there in front of the spectators, and if I won I could hear them booing, but if I lost they just went crazy. I remember doing something stupid one night racing Craig Miller [another current ORSCA Outlaw 10.5 star]; I went and got out ahead of him and kind of whomped the gas and it let him pass me by.

I didn’t want to come back down that return road, I can tell you that. But there wasn’t anywhere to hide and boy, did they let me hear about it. I’ll never forget that.   

Do you have a favorite year from your career?
Barfield: Well, the year we won the ORSCA championship (2004) we were actually the number-one qualifier at 14 races and we were number one at nine races in a row. That was definitely a highlight year for us and I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to repeat it. I wish that everybody that races could have the opportunity to have that kind of a year because it makes it all worth it. Even if you never do it again, it makes it all worth it. Everywhere we went we just knew we could win the race. In fact, I can remember going to the first $20,000-to win race at Shadyside Dragway [NC] and pretty much from round to round and through qualifying we had the field covered by nearly two tenths. That was pretty amazing.  

How did your relationship with your crew chief, Randy Conner, come about?
Barfield: I’ve known Randy since about ’97. We met at the dragstrip, he’s always been bit by the racing bug, too, and we started fooling with these cars together. At that time Randy had a company of his own that did work on heavy equipment, so we started doing some work together in conjunction with the construction company and then he actually came to work with my company and since that time we’ve been racing together pretty much every weekend.

Does Randy still work for you in the construction business?
Barfield: Yeah, he still works for Atlantic Underground, but he and I have got B&C Powerhouse on the side, which builds racing engines, and Randy on his own does some converter stuff, too.

You had a two-car team last year, you planned to have a three-car team this year, but you’re a one-car team now. What’s going on?
Barfield: A two- or three-car team definitely is a benefit if the cars are set up alike. Right now, though, we’re working on a twin-turbo set-up, so sharing information between the two cars won’t work near as well. Last year with two nitrous cars, every time we made a qualifying pass we got twice the information and it was very helpful to be able to share that information.

That begs the question, why is there not a second car in your pit right now?
Barfield: Well, there should have been. We had some issues with one thing or another, but we really should have another car there by the end of the year.

You mentioned a turbo program. What’s the deal there?
Barfield: We actually took the ’69 Camaro and converted it over to twin turbos on alcohol, big-block. It will remake its racing debut at the Huntsville race (Sep. 21-23); that’s where it debuted as a new car to begin with and its very first pass down the track was a competition run, it didn’t make a qualifying pass or even a test run before that.

When Terry Robbins won the 2005 ORSCA 10-wide title with this ’02 Camaro it carried a silver and black livery, but after purchasing it in 2006 Barfield had it repainted in his familiar yellow hue late this spring.

Who built the new turbo engine?
Barfield: Randy built it, the first big turbo engine he’s built and we’re working with Steve Petty on all the turbo stuff and fuel injection. We want to get this thing sorted out and we think we’ve put a pretty good team together. We’re looking forward to a really big year, next year especially.

There were rumors at one time that you might put together an ADRL Extreme 10.5 effort. Any truth to that?
Barfield: You know, I thought about it, but we’re so busy with ORSCA and concentrating on Outlaw 10.5 that I really doubt it. I like their racing and wouldn’t mind even taking the ’69 over there and trying it out with it. We could get it down to about 2,800 (pounds) or something along about there and I think it could be competitive there. 

Are you satisfied with ORSCA’s progress in its fourth season?
Barfield: Well, I think if you’re completely happy you get complacent. I think there’s a lot of room for improvement, but I also think we’ve made great strides this year. And we’re already working on next year, trying to figure out ways to have even bigger and better events, but also at bigger and better tracks.
If you try to compare ORSCA to NHRA or IHRA, well, there’s no comparison, we’ve got a long way to go, but we do try to emulate them any way we can.

What are some of the bigger issues ORSCA has to address right now?
Barfield: We’ve really struggled a bit with setting rules and making sure that everybody abides by the rules, but you know, some of the problem is that every time someone brings out a new car there’s always going to be some issues with it. Especially a new model car because there are no guidelines to go by and when you go out there and you check, let’s say wheelbase, it’s dead on or very close to it. You know, there’s been some things moved on these cars, but the first time a tech man goes around with a tape measure he’s just told to check wheelbase, overall dimensions and that type of thing. He’s not told to find out if they slid the whole chassis forward like they did on the old Funny Cars.

That’s what everybody is griping about, that we’re not doing a thorough enough job of teching, but when you have a car like that there’s just no guidelines to start from. So there are some issues we’re trying to work out.    

Over the weekend [Atlanta Dragway, July 6-8] we did some measuring on not every car, but probably 80 percent of the cars out there, to see how far things have been stretched and to try and figure out a way to set the rules and guidelines to where everybody can abide by them.

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