Let me first introduce myself, my name is Phil Veldheer and I have been drag racing for just about 33 of my 50 years on this planet. I took a few years off in the early 80's but have been back at it since 1985 with a vengence. Presently I am racing three Oldsmobiles just about every weekend at Martin US 131 Dragway in Martin Michigan. We also get to Mid-Michigan Motorplex in Stanton, Michigan, Thunderbird Dragstrip in Muskegon and Northern Michigan Dragway. If you look at photo 1A

you will see the fruits of many hours of labor, my three Bracket cars. You can see all you want to know about those three at www.442.com/veldheer.html

I have a real love for NHRA and IHRA "stock and super stockers" I raced at the INDY US Nationals from 1967 to 1980. I raced everything from N/S to SS/MA. Most of those were with Chevelles. Watching the different racing papers, and the internet I found a 69 Chevy Camaro that was competitive and seemed to be priced fair. I was bracket racing the three Olds up at Mid-Michigan at the DRAG NEWS Bracket Racing Championships (we won best engineered race car(s)). So I had future stocker driver Tony Goodman slip down to Martin Michigan where they were holding the NHRA Federal Mogul event and the Camaro would be racing there. He watched it race and talked to a few other drivers and liked the race car. I slipped down to Martin and talked to the owner and ended up writing him a check. He would drop it off after racing the next day. Suddenly I owned 4 race cars. I told my wife the night before what I might be doing the next day, she just shook her head. The car, in photo 2A

shows us leaving the line at Thunderbird slipping badly. It wasn't the cars fault as the car really hooks. But you can see what the car looks like before and in about 6 months we'll show you the finished product. We are going to be using every company that we presently use in racing our Oldsmobiles. We have secured many sponsors to help in the racing of this Camaro. As insurance, entry fees, fuel, pistons, etc. can really add up. The car is going to be painted white with gold Z-28 stripes, as we are going to be adding a Classic Industries genuine spoiler. The reason for the white/gold look is because our major sponsors' semi trucks are white with gold lettering.
Photo 3A

shows just one load from the UPS truck. The first thing I did when I purchased this Camaro was to look in a few Super Chevy Magazines and order every Camaro Parts book that was in there. After closely looking at about five or six different companys it was an easy choice. Classic Industries has everything and their prices are right. Plus they have the best and most complete book. They located in Huntington Beach, CA. and because you are reading this on the internet, their website address is www.classicindustries.com You can also order toll free at 18008541280 . Tell them you heard about them in my column. I am going to be telling you the names and companies that I have been using for years. I guarantee you will save a lot of time and money picking the correct source the first time.
In photo 4A

we see one of CHASSIS ENGINEERING's NHRA and IHRA legal 6-point roll bar. We didn't like the roll bar that was in the race car, so we cut it out and this one fit good. You can reach CHASSIS ENGINEERING at 18003279402 ask them for their free 68 page color catalog. This bar was 1 3/4" by .134" mild steel.

In photo 5A

we see the cutting and grinding just about finished as the two side bars aren't installed yet. Tony Goodman did a great job of cutting and grinding and came up with perfect fits. All we did was tack the bar in place so we could get former drag racer, now motorcrosser, Kevin Ten Brink to do the finish job and weld the bars in solidly.

Photo 6A

shows Kevin doing a number on the roll bar. He did a great job, make sure you stop by us in the pits and look next summer.

We have a lot of things planned for this race car and we plan on racing the wheels off it . Several things we've learned from our many race cars will be used in this race car.

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me at 455@i2k.com thanks Phil

>> Part 2