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| Photo ID # | H12.06.11_292_MIC_HAM_0074U_1 |
| Car #: | #292 |
| Driver (s) : | Al Michalchuk |
| Location: | Hamilton NJ |
| Date: | March 1974 |
| Photographer: | Peggy Michalchuk |
| Photo provided by: | Peggy Michalchuk |
| Comments: |
We added this one to "Under Construction" because we're pretty sure
that this one was taken before the car had ever gone to the track yet.
Al built this car for his 1974 rookie year in Modifieds. I think he
told me that he built the chassis out of 3 X 4 that he got at a metal supply
place, and used the front kick up off of some type of real car or truck
because he thought the rules still called for part of the frame to be from
an real vehicle. The body (only) was from the purple Matt McMann owned #4 sedan that had been driven by Craig McCaughey. The engine was a 427 out of a street car. The car was built kinda as a backup for the '74 season since Al was given the ride in the McMann #4 Gremlin. Good thing that Al had this car as it turned out that he only stayed in the McMann car for about 4 races. I can remember feeling like Matty didn't like that Al would trailer the #292 to the track on the nights that he was scheduled to drive the #4... I guess Matt felt that it was all or nothing, and Al probably felt that it was good to have a back up. The car really looked cool on the track, but Al had a hard time keeping driveshafts in the car probably due to how far back the engine was. After a month or so, Al lowered the car and moved the engine quite a bit forward and the car worked well. Probably the best run he had in the car was leading a modified feature from start to about 2/3rds of the way through before being seriously challenged by Sammy Beavers... Al spun giving it everything he could. A suspension failure would cause a violent wreck on the homestretch, which would end up being the final ride for the sedan. The engine was removed and the rest of the car was scraped. |