The ambitious, still-growing Rocky Mountain Superchargers have laid a solid foundation with a dozen or more seasoned wheelmen (oops, sorry, one is a woman – see related story) who compete regularly on spring and summer Saturdays in as many Mountain and Plains states under the Rocky Mountain Superchargers’ Pro Supercharged Allstars banner. The team boasts mostly the “Go” factor, as is customary on any quarter-mile racing surface.

However, like P.T. Barnum, co-founder of the Greatest Show on Earth, says, that four-letter word, “show,” is the big deal. It is a philosophy preached by RMS founder/owner Edward Arcuri, III, who answers simply to “Ed,” although different friends and associates also refer to him as Colonel, Godfather or just plain, old Boss.

The tracks where Arcuri and the colorful caravan the boss good-naturedly calls “our circus” regularly roll into most weekends between late spring and early fall have included Douglas, Wyo.; Billings, Mont.; Pierre, S. Dak.; Kearney, Neb.; Great Bend, and Wichita, Kan.; and Pueblo, Colo. All told, the team has competed on 11 tracks in eight states in its six-year existence.

Moreover, Pueblo Motorsports Park has achieved more permanent status in the team’s eyes, as the new “home” track, “which means permanent signage and maybe added events,” Ed Arcuri says, hinting that new categories could emerge, including regular brackets. At the end of 2015, the facility still was owned by Colorado Springs entrepreneur Judy Faass and her FAASST Enterprises, Inc., although rumors were afoot that Faass was seeking buyers to take over the complex. The site on Pueblo’s far North Side includes, in addition to the quarter-mile drag strip, a 2.2-mile road course, a quarter midget track, a Colorado Hill Climb Association Rally Course and the FAASST Performance Driving School for drag racing, high-performance driving and road racing.

With the permanent competition home base, a four-pronged regular race calendar was instituted at Pueblo, plus the track also hosted two of four scheduled special events in May and June 2015 – Thunder in the Rockies in May and High Altitude Nationals in June. The southern Colorado track also had been slated to be the site of Texas (Southwest Superchargers) vs. Colorado (Rocky Mountain Superchargers), but that event was “scratched.”

The regular racing card at Pueblo in 2015 included:

• Top Supercharged Thunder: A match race with blown cars (or injected nitro); 6-sec. E.T.’s; 200 mph, plus trap speeds; mostly two-car but some four-car fields.
• Pro Supercharged All Stars: Eight-car qualified field with Chicago-Style eliminator (two rounds, eight cars, all ran both rounds; final round: Two cars closest to 7.50 E.T. (over or under); all cars mechanically driven supercharger or injected nitro. “There’s a lot of flexibility with only two cars,” Arcuri explains.
• AMP Graphics Challenge: Eight-car minimum; included Pro Supercharged non-qualifiers; qualifying E.T.’s set each car’s dial-in; because break-out rule was in effect, drivers could not change dial-in; E.T.’s were one full-tenth below qualifying E.T., with first-round buy-backs/additional fee to get back into an event; all power adders were allowed, provided they were legal.
• Lanier’s Speed Shop Invitational Series, presented by Clear Vue Concepts: Individual match races for small-market tracks, sponsored by the aforementioned Brumfiel, owner of Clear Vue Concepts in Cheyenne, Wyo., which manufactures clear, plastic valve covers; two sites used in 2015 were the 1/8-mile track at the old airport in Julesburg, Colo., in May and the quarter-mile track at Douglas, Wyo., in July, both without traditional retaining walls; all competition was match races.