Team "Check Mate"

[Mike Keener]

Castle5- First of all, thanks for the kind words! Believe it or not they mean everything to old dogs like Merc and me! You are absolutely correct about the special suspension pieces under the Team Checkmate A/S and B/S Camaros. The entire traction bar systems we developed in-house for our cars were definitely three-of-a-kind pieces. However, most of the credit for these unique suspension pieces goes to Tom "Muskie" Stiel who has been racing on and off with our team since 1975. This guy is one hell of a fabricator and was trained in the business by another one of my heroes "Mike Fons?. Eventually, there were serious challenges filed by a disgruntled racer(s) during our one and only trip to the West Coast (Pomona & Phoenix) with the 3 cars in 1998. As a result of the whining, letters and phone calls to the NHRA Tech Department over the months following the two events, the tech ?heavyweights? Danny Gracia and Wesley Roberson were all over, under, around, and through my stuff because they were under serious pressure to do so. Finally, after the traction bar system on my B/S 69 Camaro was ?removed for inspection? at Englishtown later that year, Danny's exact words were "looks exactly like it did when you brought the cars out (1992) originally, go ahead and put it back together."


Scotty-The notch back Vega is another unique story. We acquired this car as a partial trade from a guy in your area by the name of Bob Tidwell. Bob was a body shop owner from your area and was the guy that purchased Merc?s 67 ?flamed? Camaro that he ran in 72-73 before we became partners. The notch back Vega was never worked on or prepared by Team Checkmate and was in fact only a partial race car. The car was sold to a local bracket racer in our area and then we lost track of it. Perhaps if you can find Bob Tidwell he can fill you in a bit more but the only Vega we ever raced, and won a National Event with, is the one pictured that I drove to the Fall Nationals title in 1976.

Hope this helps fill in a few gaps!

[76 RACER]

Bob Tidwell is still alive and well in Dayton,O. Have not talked to him for quite a while and might be able to get his number for you.

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Growing up at Atco Mike Fons was one of the guys you could depend on bringing something out that would run like a scalled dog , does anyone know if he's still in the game.

[76 RACER]

Spoke to Bob today and told me alot about the Vega. Have to call him back thursday and he will give me the rest of the info on that car............