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Southwest Division SCCA Formula B 1977

It was all too easy for Sandy Shepard in 1977. He was four seconds a lap faster than his closest competitor at Greater Southwest Raceway in June. His closest competition came at Texas World Speedway in July when Southern Californian Sam Nicolosi was entered, and was just 0.7s slower than Shepard in practice.

Second in the Division was Warren Pauge, who was really a member of Cal Club, but his official region was now West Texas Region, which placed him and his ex-F2 Brabham BT38 in SWDiv. However, his points were picked up almost everywhere else: two at Riverside in California in May, nine for a win at Ponca City, Oklahoma, in July; six for second place at Pueblo, Colorado in July; and then four at Phoenix International Raceway, Arizona, in September.

Price Cobb, a Texas Region member, won two Nationals somewhere in the country in his new 77B, but focused on the Pro series. The Division was bolstered by the transfer of Arkansas Region from Midwest Division, which meant that the Grand Prairie Grand Prix at Stuttgart now formed part of the SWDiv schedule. Arkansas's three FB regulars, Porter Brownlee, Barry Findley and David Pence, all appeared in 1977. Brownlee returned for the Stuttgart National at the beginning of the season in his ex-James King March 73B, scoring six points for second place, and Findley took the same position in Texas Region's Sunburn Nationals at Greater Southwest Raceway in his ex-Tom Outcault March 74B in June.

Final standings

1. Sandy Shepard Lola T460 Texas 45 pts
2. Warren Pauge Brabham [BT38] West Texas 22 pts
3. Price Cobb March [77B] Texas 18 pts
4. David Pence Merlyn [Mk 21] Arkansas 7 pts
5. Porter Brownlee March [73B] Arkansas 6 pts
6. Barry Findley March [74B] Texas 6 pts

Formula C

There was very little Formula C activity in the Division, the leading car being David Williams' Chevron, thought to be a brand new Chevron B38.

Final standings

1. David G WilliamsChevronHouston18 pts 
2. Jim BoylesLolaSW Louisiana4 pts 

Southwest Division SCCA Nationals in 1977

27 Feb 1977Greater Southwest RacewayTexas Region
20 Mar 1977Texas World SpeedwayHouston Region
15 May 1977Stuttgart AirportArkansas Region
29 May 1977Chennault Field (Lake Charles Airfield)Southwest Louisiana Region
19 Jun 1977Greater Southwest RacewayTexas Region
10 Jul 1977Texas World SpeedwayHouston Region
07 Aug 1977Greater Southwest RacewayTexas Region
04 Sep 1977Texas World SpeedwayHouston Region
18 Sep 1977Greater Southwest RacewayTexas Region

Southwest Division SCCA Regionals in 1977

13 Feb 1977Texas World SpeedwayHouston Region
20 Mar 1977Texas World SpeedwayHouston Region
01 May 1977Greater Southwest RacewayTexas Region
14 May 1977Stuttgart AirportArkansas Region
09 Jul 1977Texas World SpeedwayHouston Region
06 Aug 1977Greater Southwest RacewayTexas Region
21 Aug 1977Baton RougeCentral Louisiana Region
03 Sep 1977Texas World SpeedwayHouston Region
18 Sep 1977Greater Southwest RacewayTexas Region
11 Dec 1977Greater Southwest RacewayTexas Region

Southwest Division sources

Coverage of SWDiv was much slimmer in Competition Press & Autoweek than for other Divisions. To make the historian's life even more difficult, a couple of the Regions that organised National events do not appear to have had their own newsletters for much of this period: Alamo Region in Texas and Central Louisiana Region in Louisiana. The known Regional publications are:

  • Deltagram (Delta Region)
  • Journal (San Jacinto Region)
  • Lone Star Draft (Lone Star Region) - from 1979
  • Roundup (Texas Region)
  • Spinout (Southwest Louisiana Region) - from 1978
  • Border Bulletin (South Texas Border Region)

For much of the 1960s, the most important publication for this area was Southwest Racing News, published from 1963 onwards by Bill Gay from Dallas and running on until at least 1974. We are exceedingly keen to acquire copies of any of these.

We are also keen to get scans of entry lists from all SCCA Nationals and Regionals in this Division.