Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

[min301]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Cool stuff...

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Here are some pics of the first season I was serious about racing, this is with the then fresh motor. Notice the old Bandimere tower/starting line etc. The track was rebuilt starting in 1987 and comlpeted in 1988...




Man look how young I am there....in the satin bball jacket. Thats my oldest brother and my nephew with me.

[milner351]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

did everybody have a mustache in the late 80's?

Bandimere is a cool track. A friend of mine went to college out there and I spent a few nights there. He had a friend that raced there a lot - his car was lettered "grandma's nova" 'cause it was his grandma's car before he turned it into a drag car. I also remember seeing the "horny toad" green gremlin drag car out there that same night. Good times....

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

I don't recall that nova, but the "horny toad" is still around. It was tubbed/lowered/infused with big power a while ago, but I haven't seen it at the track in the last few years.

[milner351]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

the nova was a disco era, square headlights I think, and it was a dark red / maroon / burgundy color as I recall....

I probably have a picture of it somewhere - but it would take me forever to dig it up.

hijack over - thanks for sharing the memories of your chevelle!

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Now we have moved to the year 1988. I was too old to race the high school series, plus I was out of school for two years at this point. My good friend, probably best friend, Jason was two years behind me in school (this was his senior year). I decided to have him race the chevelle.

The chevelle was deadly consistent running mid 14s on the motor.... this was either his first or second time ever down the track:




He was a natural at bracket racing, several rounds of competition resulted in this:




Thats probably the most ink my chevelle has ever had...as proof of Jason's bracket racing abilities, he usually makes the Bandimere team for the division 5 finals every year. Here is a pic of the chevelles brother, Jason's GTO:

[milner351]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Man what a great story - no wonder you've kept the old girl all these years! Way to go cataloging all that - and being able to find it still 20 years later. Nice work!

[Nik]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Dan, that is some cool stuff right there. Glad to see you kept all of the clippings and pics from back in the day. The only time I made the paper was in the "police beat" and the pics were mug shots. LOL

Nik

[rack4u]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Very Cool !

Next ?

[MadmanMark]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Dan - totally cool stuff! Thanks for sharing. The pics and articles are awesome.

Does Jason still have the car bug? I wonder what ride(s) he ended up with or is he just waiting for you to give him your Chevelle? ;D

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Dan - totally cool stuff! Thanks for sharing. The pics and articles are awesome.

Does Jason still have the car bug? I wonder what ride(s) he ended up with or is he just waiting for you to give him your Chevelle? ;D

Hell he's worse than me with this addiction. He still has his GTO, and he races 2-3 points series in the summer.

Get this, he has an '05 GTO carbon fiber body in his garage and a tube chassis being built by Sean Kennedy (Kennedy Racecars in Englewood, CO). He already has most parts to put a 555 together, with a whiff of nitrous it should be in the mid sevens, at this altitude.

When he really gets things rolling, I'll be there as much as possible with camera in hand......

[MadmanMark]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Sounds like you passed the car junkie bug down pretty good. It's a little scary thinking about the next generation and what Jason's kids might get into! ;)

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

So after a few years of racing/abusing the chevelle, Jason and I decided to paint it again. It was 1991, I was a newlywed and he had just landed his first real job working in a bodyshop. What more did we need, I had a new house with a huge garage and he had "skills". Here we are prepping the car for paint, in my driveway:







That's Jason sitting there in the lawn chair.

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

This was the worst of the body rot on the car:



Believe it or not, we rebuilt the wheel well opening with fiberglass and filler. We both realized that is wasn't the right way to do it, but this was a down and dirty low $$$$ re-paint. This little patch job is still holding together after all these years.....

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

This is the result of our little fiberglass fender fix: