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Mike Keener · 11-26-2007, 02:40 PM

Bill...The Vega ran D/G (8.5#) with motors from 287-292 cu in so the car weighed between 2440-2482 including the driver. This was a very light (entire body acid dipped) car built by SRD and had about 300 pounds of ballast in it (a lot of it mounted forward) when we ran it. The tunnel ram was an Edelbrock TR-1Y with 660 cfm center squirter carbs that were converted to dual feed float bowls. Our engines in that day made about 2.1 HP per cu in which was pretty stout back then.

Mark...Good eye on the Sportster! I not sure if Merc still has it or not....

The partial photo of the 5,000 sq ft shop was shot by Carol Arons and we were fortunate to have shared it with Wally Booth during his AMC days. Immediately to the right of the Camaro in the back of the shop is where the dyno room was which was quite rare for drag race teams to have in those days, but AMC paid for it so...hey never look a gift horse in the mouth! Hard to believe there were only 8-10 National events in those days and of coarse we ran them all.

The Vega was a really great race car and remains my favorite Team Checkmate car to this day although I'm having fun getting used to my GT/A Cavalier. It was the second SRD car built for Carmen Rotunda and modified by Mike Fons from a Jenkins designed 3 link with under the bumper wheelie bars to a more more modern style ladder bar system with current Pro Stock type wheelie bars used in the 75-76 era.

The car ran some high 9.20's and low 30's on good tracks in decent air at 145-146 mph. It was a really fun car to drive with the Chrysler 4 speed trans and a real H pattern shifter. In 77 we put a 5 speed Nash in it with an inline shifter which may have been a tad quicker but I'm not so sure. These were the days when the Modifieds left the starting line at 9,500 RPM and were shifted right about 9200. What a rush to drive!

If anyone has any other questions about any of the Detroit Gang or the Pro Stock/ Modified/Comp days of yesteryear...feel free to ask. If I can't answer them I can usually tap another racers memory bank that can and pass it along!

Thanks to all that viewed my pass down memory lane and especially to Bob Rice for putting this together. I promised to send Bob more photos from the old days so now I just have to find them all. OK Merc...I guess I'm coming over for Christmas to look through your collection. This guy has everything stashed away for sure and stuff I probably didn't even know he had!

MK

11-26-2007, 02:40 PM	#8
Mike Keener Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 294 Likes: 102 Liked 24 Times in 13 Posts	Re: Team "Check Mate" Bill...The Vega ran D/G (8.5#) with motors from 287-292 cu in so the car weighed between 2440-2482 including the driver. This was a very light (entire body acid dipped) car built by SRD and had about 300 pounds of ballast in it (a lot of it mounted forward) when we ran it. The tunnel ram was an Edelbrock TR-1Y with 660 cfm center squirter carbs that were converted to dual feed float bowls. Our engines in that day made about 2.1 HP per cu in which was pretty stout back then. Mark...Good eye on the Sportster! I not sure if Merc still has it or not.... The partial photo of the 5,000 sq ft shop was shot by Carol Arons and we were fortunate to have shared it with Wally Booth during his AMC days. Immediately to the right of the Camaro in the back of the shop is where the dyno room was which was quite rare for drag race teams to have in those days, but AMC paid for it so...hey never look a gift horse in the mouth! Hard to believe there were only 8-10 National events in those days and of coarse we ran them all. The Vega was a really great race car and remains my favorite Team Checkmate car to this day although I'm having fun getting used to my GT/A Cavalier. It was the second SRD car built for Carmen Rotunda and modified by Mike Fons from a Jenkins designed 3 link with under the bumper wheelie bars to a more more modern style ladder bar system with current Pro Stock type wheelie bars used in the 75-76 era. The car ran some high 9.20's and low 30's on good tracks in decent air at 145-146 mph. It was a really fun car to drive with the Chrysler 4 speed trans and a real H pattern shifter. In 77 we put a 5 speed Nash in it with an inline shifter which may have been a tad quicker but I'm not so sure. These were the days when the Modifieds left the starting line at 9,500 RPM and were shifted right about 9200. What a rush to drive! If anyone has any other questions about any of the Detroit Gang or the Pro Stock/ Modified/Comp days of yesteryear...feel free to ask. If I can't answer them I can usually tap another racers memory bank that can and pass it along! Thanks to all that viewed my pass down memory lane and especially to Bob Rice for putting this together. I promised to send Bob more photos from the old days so now I just have to find them all. OK Merc...I guess I'm coming over for Christmas to look through your collection. This guy has everything stashed away for sure and stuff I probably didn't even know he had! MK __________________ Mike Keener A/S B/S C/SM Last edited by Mike Keener; 11-26-2007 at 02:51 PM.