First Divisional or National event stories

[Bob Don]

Originally Posted by Mike Schwartz

I enjoyed reading the stories. I'll add mine.

It was 1982, when NHRA first allowed FWD cars into Stock. I read an article in one of the magazines on how they built a Daytona (?) for the Winternationals. They seemed to have no problem getting it under the index so I thought I would try. I was working at a Dodge dealer in north Jersey at the time, so I rented a Dodge Aries 4-door sedan off the lot.

I drove the car down to the Division 1 WCS opener at Englishtown. The total modifications to the car that I made on site were: apply stick on numbers and class (Y/SA), remove the hub caps and air cleaner assembly, insert a remote starter switch into the radiator fan wiring so that I could run it at will, and guesstimate advance the distributor.

The car was a dog. It was at least a second off the index. I knew I had no shot in eliminations, but I actually dialed down a tenth to try to throw off my opponents. I deliberately tried to line up against the quickest car I could find, and I succeeded. I had Dave LeBrun's A/SA Camaro in the other lane for Round One. I had hoped that the huge handicap would force him onto a foul, but no luck.

I kept the car for one more week before returning it, and raced it at Island where I made the money rounds in Street Eliminator. A couple of months later a magazine did an article on the variety of cars in Stock and a picture of the car from the WCS race was in it.

I wrote that article for Super Stock (lol).