This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

I Think this was at the '86 Sports Nats in Bowling Green!
Attachment 61088

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

Thanks , Bill

Probably should be in the Nostalgia section,...or the Has Been file

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

Hey Mark, I'm just curious. How many different makes & models have you driven in a race ? :confused:

Note: I'm sure nobody will be surprised if I say I love that McKinney Bird ! :)

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

Oh well, not counting street racing in my teens and 20's..still a lot.
I'll start a list and just include Divs and Nats. This might take a while. Bear with me.

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

Good morning Mark,
I've seen your name pop up many times over the past, and i'm curious as well as to how many cars you've raced. I'd also like to hear if there was a favorite car for what ever reason. Also when the cars and rules were more rudimentary and nice examples were easier to get, was it any easier to build a particular car?
Somehow I've had a tendency to hold on to my toys for a while. That may or may not be a good thing - just me. If you have the time I'd really like to see that list.

Respectfully
Henry Kunz 1534 H/SA

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

I saw Mark race in one of the Bob Johnson cars at Connecticut Dragway when I was a little boy.

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

Even the rednecks from Texas have followed Mark's racing career!

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

hi
is this the same Mark that raced at Connecticut dragway? i was friends with the fitts's and raced a green dart in pro
gary castagna

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

Growing up in Ct., I remember those Bob Johnson cars. Always ran good. More of those cars in the parking lot, than on the track back then, lol.
I remember the Fitts`, as well, very successful.

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

I'll start this list off and pause for one of my favorites, for now.

63 Pontiac GP, J/S .G/S. No NHRA but first towed race car.

61 Corvette, (Joe Santangelo's ) L/SA 283

1959 Impala conv. ( mine and Joe's) 283 FI O/SA

61 Impala SS/X 283

69 Chevelle wagon (Joe's ) SS/PA

68 Chevy II (Bob Johnson's) 350 SS/JA

70 Camaro (Johnson's) SS/FA

71 ? Mustang (Johnson's trade in) 351 C D/S ?

66 Impala 4 dr. 283 SS/R .
I built this car after seeing Jimmy Parker's at Gainesville.
It looked great on paper. Apparently everybody else thought this too.
Joe DeLorenzo (unofficial team captain) came up with some old 283 Forgedtrue Jr Stock pistons. I had John Hoffman cut a narrow top ring groove for a 2 ringer with 4 grooves. Tony Feil did the heads and block. Added a TM 1 box stock intake and one of Mark's Cam Dynamics flat tappets. Full size 12 bolt , and a slick shifted 2.52 Muncie from Joe D. A brand new 4 GC for $ 32.50 ! No roll bar required

First week out, it ran 12.89 on a 13.00 record at Ct, which was a slow track.
A few weeks later some good ol' boys down at Suffolk battled the record down to 12.70.. Now I had to get to work. By mid year, I could barely run on the new record and managed a few wins, locally.

Dwight Cox won Indy with a 2 dr. HT, lowering the record some more.
For 1974, I decided to modernize this combo with a roller cam, prepped crank and rods, etc.
Now, being able to safely run on the record, I won a bunch of eliminators in the Northeast..CD, Lebanon, Island, Dover, Atco , Englishtown.

This all was in reach for a working, single guy, with an open homemade trailer at that time, if you knew the right people.
NHRA put an end to this in 75 with the "par" system so I had to go another direction, but easily one of my favorite cars.
To be continued...

https://i.postimg.cc/wjRD8BgD/417829...137216-nxx.jpg

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

Joe Santangelo and Joe Delorenzo were definitely the right people to know.

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

I believe Jimmy Parker told me he set the SS/R record but on the same weekend Bobby Wilkinson set it a little bit quicker at a different track ….

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

I believe it was Richard James who walked away with it that year at Suffolk...then Cal set it a few hun. more for the points, at that time.

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

How about this one?

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

Are you familiar with the Drag List site? You can enter year-by-year information and photos on all of the cars that you have raced.

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

It took over fifty years for Mark to become a living legend!

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

Some more, while I've got a few minutes...

64 Chevy II station wagon, SS/O 283

66 Impala convertible P/S 283

66 Impala wagon Q/S, R/S, and R/SA when owned by Frank Tantillo.

64 Chevy II 2 dr. SS/K, SS/LA (partner, Whitey Russell)

66 Bel Aire SS/O 283 (Bill Shurla's )

68 Camaro 327 , G/S

tbc...

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

I remember reading an article in either Hot Rod or Car Craft about 97.6 years ago called "paper tigers" where they looked at different off the wall combos. One of them was a '65 four door Impala on a 7" slick. The next year I saw 3 or 4 such cars running at Milan Dragway in Michigan and they were pretty good.

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

Okay, these were supposed to be in chronological order..and I missed one..actually two..These fall in right before the 66 Impala convertible..

66 Chevy II , SS/N (my engine..Joe's hardtop car)

69 Camaro convertible I/Stock ( Jimmy Roberts' car.) Three races, two wins.

Now, after the 68 Camaro,

84 Citation AF/SA ,BF/SA , X/SA

84 Citation X-11 , BF/SA (customer's )

82 Escort H/FS ? (Bill Shurla's)

86 Cimarron CF/S ,DF/S (Mike Senia's) (Later Earl Smith from Ga.)

88 Cimarron AF/S , AF/SA (Mike Senia)

78 Firebird Formula 400 J/S , L/S, L/SA, M/SA

84 Sunbird HF/SA ( Billy Nees')

81 Firebird turbo..I was the crew chief on this one ( Neil Smedley's )

86 Omega N/SA, O/SA (ex wife driver, also Tibor Kadar, Leroy Duran)

80 Mustang 140 T , T/S, U/S, U/SA

77 Firebird 350P L/SA ( Tibor's )

If I haven't missed any more, we're caught up to present.

96 Escort EF/S Haven't run any NHRA, and no immediate plans to.. but you never know.

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

Good morning Mark,
That 283 engine combo , was that the 283 / 220 Horse power 4GC engine? Seems to me that was a GOOD engine in both Stock and Super Stock at the time. They were plentiful as well. They also could use the 520 casting cylinder head? If you can get a cup of coffee and think about the past for a bit, could you possibly fill in a few more blanks? Its the end of the season and I've got a little time now. Thank you in advance.

Respectfully,
Henry Kunz 1534 H/SA:)

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

GM, Henry
Yes , all the 66 stuff was 520 head, big 283 4 GC's ..Even the early stuff was 520 headed. Only one that wasn't is the 283 ,2bbl. SS/X car.
The 61 Vette was either 1 or two WCFBs , and the 59 was a superceded 62 fuelie unit.
Ask away,...while I can still remember this stuff.

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

mark .. i also remember the rage for a while was finding 520 heads with the optional 'T" on the end of the 520 casting that was used in truck applications with supposedly better flow ... in the late 70.s i went looking for some 'T' 520 castings to try on my record holding 283 ss/ma chevelle but ran outa hours of my life to ever find any

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

They are still all over as far as I know. I didn't have any problems finding any when I built the last 283 5 years ago

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

mark ... do you have any data on what power the ' T' heads gave over non 'T' heads back in the days you could not touch ports ?

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

No, I don't. Flow benches and dynos were a bit rarer than they are today.I don't think I used T heads in the 70's .I just used whatever came on the engine cores.
I remember hearing that Jerry McClanahan had a 520 on one side ,and an 896 on the other, and he was the R/SA record holder.
Today when building a 283, you throw away most of it... You might use the block in a low budget operation..Maybe the crank for a core.. Don't need anything else..Truck heads, 327 intake , any venturi clusters in the carb, etc. ;-)

Re: This Is For Mark Yacavone!
 

That combo still is good today. I ran the 283/220 with the 4GC in my 66 Chevy II in SS/K it was a hell of a lot of fun! It had the 520’s on it too. Most guys now use the dart aftermarket head in super stock.