Steve Morris Brings Boostmaster to Sick Week, Finds Zero Oil Pressure and Thrashes to Fix It, Finishes Malibu for Wife and Becomes Husband of the Year
After a frustrating 2023 season on the drag-and-drive front, Steve Morris rolled into Orlando ‘Sick’ World Dragway looking to turn the tables and get back to his 6-second performances and score a class win.
But 2024 would bring about a new challenge, in the form of another family member joining the drag-and-drive world with a car of their own.
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In 2023, son Kyle joined Steve as a competitor at Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive with his 1996 Mustang, and completed with week with a slew of low 8-second performances leading to a top ten finish in the Super Street class with an 8.11 average.
For Sick Week 2024, Kyle will switch roles to co-pilot and crew for Valerie Morris, and Steve’s wife will be behind the wheel of a 1980 Chevy Malibu known as ‘Sugar Mamma.’
“She was my customer 25 years ago, and she had a 7-second drag car back then,” Steve said about Valerie. “She has thousands of laps in a race car.”
When Steve and Valerie got married and had kids, Valerie stepped out of the seat for a while. “When I found the Malibu, I told her we could get it and build it into something for her to enjoy.”
Doing an origin story on YouTube was the key to the Malibu’s new identity. “Kyle was interviewing me, and we talked about my start building engines,” said Steve. “When I got started, I had nothing, and we were living off my wife’s income trying to get the shop up and rolling. Kyle quipped ‘Oh, so she was your sugar mamma?’ And it stuck.”
The goals for the Malibu are to run 8.50s without breaking a sweat, and to get the all-steel G-body to that mark, Steve decided to employ a unique supercharger system. “The Malibu came with a 454 cubic inch big block,” said Steve. “I rebuilt it, and added a pair of TorqStorm superchargers on it.”
The twin-supercharger system works with a FuelTech EFI system, and is backed with a Turbo 400 transmission, 9-inch rear end and stock-style suspension.
As they were getting the Malibu lined out, Steve was also reflecting on his popular station wagon and what changes to make for 2024. “All last year it seems we were breaking chassis parts,” said Steve. “At Sick Summer we added engine woes to that with a broken spark plug, which in turn hurt that cylinder. I decided I was just going to try and finish rather than worry about fixing it, and afterwards I wished I really could’ve fixed it.”
The fix was just a four-hour drive from the Sick Summer tour for Steve, but he went for the ‘finish the week’ mentality, which will change in 2024.
“Currently I’m on the mindset of I’m going to win Sick Week and go really fast, or I’m going home broken,” Steve admitted. “I’ve finished a bunch; I want to focus more of winning.”
Steve rolled into Orlando ‘Sick’ World Dragway earlier this week to test both vehicles, and has found some speed bumps. The Turbo 400 transmission that came with the Malibu gave up the ghost, so Steve found a replacement transmission and his spare wagon converter, but testing the combination revealed the converter is likely too tight to get her the desired 8.50-second passes. “We’re trying to make the most of it,” said Steve.
The wagon has been a bit touchy as well for Steve, as tire shake has plagued the team in search of their optimal tune-up with the wagon’s increased power over 2023.
As we reported on Wednesday, the wagon made not one, but two passes without oil pressure after it was discovered the oil pump belt had come off. “Because we had been making bad runs with shake and letting off early, I hadn’t looked at data, didn’t remove the hood,” Steve admitted.
After changing his mind from being upset to ‘how bad is it’, Steve dug in. “We pulled the pan and it looked good,” said Steve. “I decided we had to at least make an attempt to fix it.”
Just a couple miles away from the track, Advanced Cylinder Heads offered Steve the use of their shop, so the wagon was open trailered over and torn apart. “They are great a great group of people, and helped us so much,’ Steve praised.
“The rear bearing had welded itself to the crankshaft,” Steve continued. Once he separated them, Steve found that the crankshaft needed a tiny bit of polishing. Everything else was checked, and, while everything else checked out okay.
“Nothing else was damaged,” said Steve. A line hone was performance and came back clean, and the engine was put back together on Friday. Just after dinner time, the Boostmaster wagon was buttoned up and ready for action today, the final day of Cadillac Attack.
Even with getting two cars ready for Sick Week, as well as some last-minute parts fixes and thrashing, Steve is still focused on improving his performance from 2023, and that carries over to engaging in a challenge with fellow 6-second competitor Alex Taylor in her ’55 Chevy. Team Morris and Team Taylor shirts will be available at each track, so you can support your favorite driver.
The video below explains it all:
Steve Morris will join other drag-and-drive personalities at Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, including PFI Speed, Derek from Vice Grip Garage, Alex Taylor, BoostedBoiz, Kevin Smith of KSR, and over 300 more drag-and-drive competitors looking to enjoy a week in Florida. Also, we’ll have a large group of people in the Sick Ward portion of Sick Week, literally a rolling car show! For more details, a schedule and how to get your advance tickets, visit https://www.sickthemagazine.com/sick-week
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Isky Cams and Steve Morris.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com