The Late Model Race Cars Gallery

After succesful collaberation with Roy Cobden in the running of a sportsman class car at Penticton Speedway, the desire to
"move up" to faster, and more competitive racing led to the building of a late model to compete in the Budweiser All Star touring
series that was popular in the Pacific NW at the time.

Decisions were made, plans drawn up, and the genesis of the next racecar took place. Pacesetter racing in Washington state
were contacted to build a new chassis utilizing and unusal front suspension design based closely on a design used by the AMC
car company. Although considered a "stock clip", it bore a strong resemblance to the suspension design used by many top
NASCAR Northwest Tour car designs. A few other cars had been built with this clip already, and had enjoyed some success
in the previous race season. It seemed like a good idea at the time. And so it happened.

Not the ubiquitus Camaro front clip. This is much lighter and based on an AMC design. We didn't know what we were in for at the time, or we would have stayed with the tried and true stuff that almost everyone else was using. Pictures taken at the Pacesetter shop in Auburn WA. As it turned out, this was the very last chassis built at the Auburn location. A new owner closed the location down to focus on the main location in
Yakima, WA.

Front view of the chassis. The kickout of the "passenger side" frame rail is what makes this a "perimeter frame" chassis. The
main front cross member is very lightweight compared to a traditional camaro type front clip. The concept was to build a car 
with good suspension geometry and a very lightweight front end that would result in an overall lighter and better balanced car.
It sounded good at the time, but didn't work out very well.

A final view of the Pacesetter/AMC front end clip. Look closely, because you will NEVER, ever, see another one like it.

A few months later it was had a Chevrolet Camaro body on it and looked like this:

This was our very first ever event with this car. In a leap of faith it was also the very first time this car was ever on the track. 
No shakedown sessions, no dedicated practice sessions, nothing... Scary!

Andy Dunseith's #31 behind Roy Cobden. Andy was now the ex-owner of Penticton Speedway. He'd sold the property to a
church that had plans to develop a bible camp on the property. The racing Gods did not like those plans and a forest fire burned
the area around the racetrack resulting in building code changes that ended the church's plans. The church sold the property
to Johnny Aantjes, who has been operating Penticton Speedway for nearly 15 years now. It was just meant to be a race track!

Beautiful Saturday morning as we travel light to Penticton Speedway for a test 'n tune session. Rob Kroker, following in his Iroc Z, came with us
to monitor the engine and make sure our recently modified engine was in tune & running right. Picture taken on Hwy 97 near Antler Beach in Peachland, looking back toward Kelowna.

By now the race car had been re-clipped front and rear by Dennis Ford of Procraft Motorsports in Graham WA, effectively
transforming it into a Procraft chassis. Gone was the funky AMC derived clip, replaced with a tried and true Chev Camaro
clip. Fitting, considering the Camaro bodywork. The chassis became much faster, more consistent, predictable and tuneable,
and taught Darren and the team a lot about race car handling. John & Dennis Ford closed Procraft down in October '03, so
that should make this decal a collectible now?

Rene Patik, friend of crewchief Roy Cobden looks on in disappointment. A parts failure prevented racing that night.

Fast Food, anybody? Cars are lined up to go onto the track.

More coming.