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Mega Mopar Action Series 2012 – Extra Coverage
The MegaMoparAction Series 2012 season closer at Virginia Motorsports Park.
By Bill Woods
Photos by TheBruntBros
The Mega Mopar Action Series closed the 2012 season with the Mopar Madness show at the Virginia Motorsports Park Sept. 22-23. The event, though, was kicked off by the Modern Hemi shootout on Friday, with the curtain rising on the all-Mopar car show and drags on Saturday, and Mopar vs. the World (cars from India declined to attend) on Sunday. Weather for the show was perfect and brought out over 120 cars and trucks to the show field and over 80 Mopes to the staging lanes. A tough economy was blamed for keeping some MoÂ’fans from joining the party.
The Mopar Madness event has been humming along since 1987, and has been put on by the Tidewater Mopar Club. They do an outstanding job of organizing the event and keeping things running smoothly. Virginia Motorsports Park is a great venue for the event with a well-prepped track. Tons of room and no-hassle traffic in and out.
Modern Street Hemi
Shootout Results
Race Results
Car Show winners
Peoples Choice Awards
Absent this year were usually regular Mopar Madness attractions Bunny Burkett and her funny car and Nostalgia Drag Racing notable Ed Miller and his ’70 Hemi Duster. 1967 NHRA Super Stock World Champion A cool display of three nostalgia strip warriors—Ron Lyles/Mutt Brothers’ original restored ’73 Pro Stock Duster, Steve Moth’s Bad News’65 Coronet AF/Xer and Fran Olsen’s recreated Hurri-Caine II funny car (featured in our Oct. 2012 issue.) Bad news for Bad News as Moths had blown his motor a week or so before the event and did not have time for repairs or replacement. It was bad news also for Olsen who made a partial pass but a pushrod problem ended up with his having metal in the motor and dropped the curtain on any further Hurri-Caine II action.
‘Course the fun part of any Mopar show is walking around, checking out the show cars and feeling comfortable in the fact that you didn’t have to get down on your hands and needs with Q-tips to polish up all those nooks and crannies, and sitting in the stand and inhaling your fill of tire smoke blowing your way from the starting line. So if you couldn’t make it this year, here is some of what you missed.
Late models made a healthy showing on the track as well as the showfield.
Mopes ranged from the ‘50s thru current year models, with many standout stockers and modifieds..
Carl Swanson bought his Â’69 440 gold with green interior Daytona brand new when he was a junior officer in flight school in Pensacola, FL. He subsequently flew A6s in Viet Nam. His car was hit in the front some years back and the damage was painstakingly repaired to factory appearance. CarlÂ’s Daytona is a survivor. Many notables, including Chrysler aerodynamicist Gary Romberg signed his air cleaner.
Our personal favorite was Mike AustinÂ’s 1956 Dodge Coronet powered by a 1958 392 Chrysler Hemi packing an 8-71 Dyers blower. backed by a TKO 5-speed. Originally a Texas Rangers police car owned by a Texas Ranger, It changed hands two years ago when Mike bought it from the Ranger.
Rex Sigo, from Williamsburg, VA tricked out his ’08 Caliber SRT-4 with all kinds of stuff and showed the trophies to prove it. His 121,000-mile ride is fitted with a Mopar Stage 1 PCM, custom 4” intake and Spectre filter, MPx dual exit exhaust and strut tower bar. That’s just for the performance end of things. Adds the visual and audio goodies and you have a Caliber that someone might actually be interested in. By the way Rex parks it on the street, so maybe the previous sentence doesn’t really apply.
What’s a car show without some cartoon characters? Probably better. Anyway, Dottie Bashlor seems to have a thing for Tweety (we’re partial to Bugs Bunny ourselves and have his foot hanging from our rearview mirror). Not content to prop up a stuffed replica under the hood of her ’06 Top Banana charger which she calls Tweety Bee, Dottie had the “I tawt I taw a pddy tat” canary custom painted on the engine cover of her 5.7 Hemi. Other goodies include MP cold air intake with Borlas cat-back exhaust , slotted and drilled rotors and custom rally stripes and headlights. Sylvester will have a hard time keeping up.
Peter Gaskins’ 2005 Chrysler 300 “Silver Bullet” has been completely reworked by Super auto Works. The tricked out body has Lambo doors, a suicide trunk in case he decides to end it all, Elegante body kit, roof wing and headlight covers, E&G grille, air ride suspension and 22” Bigg rims. And that’s just some of the stuff you see here. ‘Course the engine and interior have done their share in dinging Pete’s Gold Card, too.
Some of the original Ronald Lyles Pro Stock team brought his RonnieÂ’s restored Â’73 Pro Stock duster. It was one several cars on special display that included, Steve MothÂ’s Bad NewsÂ’65 Coronet AF/Xer and Fran OlsenÂ’s recreated Hurri-Caine II funny car.
Beautifully restored 1956 Chrysler New Yorker owned by Anthony Scarpelli of Newport News, VA. It came with the 354 Cube Hemi, Power steering, brakes and seat.
Larry CatlinÂ’s 1980 slant-six Road Runner is one of 500 produced. Larry has hopped up the Super Six to 235 ponies with CliffordÂ’s water-cooled intake performance cam and split header. The Six sucks through a 390 CFM Holley 4-Bbl capped with a K&N filter. Mods also include head work, solid lifers, Flowmaster exhaust, Ram air cold air induction and Mopar triple-fire ignition.
Mopar judged show Saturday winners. (Photo: Ernest Burwell)
Mopar Street winner—Al Horton.
Mopar Super Pro winner (right) Brian Skyles.
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