This Is For Mark Yacavone!

[Frank Castros]

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

[MR DERBY CITY]

Originally Posted by 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...

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 ….

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by MR DERBY CITY

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 ….

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.

[Bob Don]

How about this one?

[Mike Schwartz]

Originally Posted by 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...

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.

[Frank Castros]

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

[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...

[BigBlockBill]

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.

[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.

[Henrys Toy]

Originally Posted by 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.

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