1969 Big Block SS ex Drag Race Camaro

[Riverbud]

Originally Posted by Bill Pritchard

Hayward Wisconsin??? Quite a haul from there to race at Union Grove, but who knows. IIRC there's a Hayward California, too, up in the SF Bay area.

It was originally owned by Vic Hobbs, who raced out of the west coast. He won a Wally in 1984 but I don't think it was with this car. There are a couple of pictures of the car up on a hauler so a trip out to Union Grove is not out of the question.I have found a few references of him racing in the midwest.

Originally Posted by Bill Pritchard

Helmut,

Per the OP's post, that's not the original LB paint....

"It was repainted a generic blue color in the 80’s."

Correct. I am curious if any of the original racing colors lurk under the coating of paint and primer.

[AnthonyS]

Yup, that's my old car, I was the second owner (and so far the second longest only to Vic himself) and it was me that found it in the desert and got it back on the road. That is a shame about the XTs and the 15x10 rears. Vic was a pleasure to chat with and it was hard to get him to let go of it. That was indeed Hayward, CA and I purposely left that fragile sticker on the rear license plate bracket. And an interesting thing about those two XT rims was that the X and T were on either side of the valve stem holes... very curious. And they were undated as I recall. Those are not the XTs in the vintage photos either; he dug those up out of his backyard when I asked about them and they cleaned up. You can see a shot of all the rims that I received with the car. I asked if he had the VE3 jack load rest bracket, but it was stolen he said. I also still have those funky caps that are on the front in those vintage pics too - funny story he told me on those: as you know most tracks made you remove trim rings and caps and what not, but he liked the look of caps on the front so he chose those as they're held on with the lug nuts... he said he used to get a kick out of the tech guys trying to pop them off by hand for him...

Did you get the helmet and the Courtesy Plate frame and the original dealer paper tag that I found in the trunk - and the original lug wrench? The red "sold" tag and the salesman's card? Those were also neat pieces. The keys I received were original too, with the knockouts still on the ring but I re-keyed the locks and used new keys as the code on the Broadcast sheet is out there...

There's a patch panel I put in on the driver's side rear floor pan due to a lost driveshaft during a staging lane "incident". and I patched the transmission tunnel as he had several transmissions in it throughout the years. And yes, those are SuperTraps that he ran on it... have no idea how that'd sound and when I questioned him, he liked that you could "tune it" by adding or removing plates...

The emblem holes were filled for the panel paint job and the original front spoiler with the artist's name stenciled on was gone when I found it.

The last photo is the first day I had it as my place. I put four rollers on it to get it home after digging it out by calling AAA, "my car won't start"...

That car was a pleasure and I'm sure you're going to have fun with it too!

Enjoy,
Anthony

[ELEFUNTMAN]

Raced with Vic many times in division 7. At the time he ran a wagon. Nice guy.

[AnthonyS]

Originally Posted by ELEFUNTMAN

Raced with Vic many times in division 7. At the time he ran a wagon. Nice guy.

He really was, it was surprising that his family called me to tell me the sad news of his passing nearly ten years after he sold me his favorite car.

[Riverbud]

Originally Posted by AnthonyS

Yup, that's my old car, I was the second owner (and so far the second longest only to Vic himself) and it was me that found it in the desert and got it back on the road. That is a shame about the XTs and the 15x10 rears. Vic was a pleasure to chat with and it was hard to get him to let go of it. That was indeed Hayward, CA and I purposely left that fragile sticker on the rear license plate bracket. And an interesting thing about those two XT rims was that the X and T were on either side of the valve stem holes... very curious. And they were undated as I recall. Those are not the XTs in the vintage photos either; he dug those up out of his backyard when I asked about them and they cleaned up. You can see a shot of all the rims that I received with the car. I asked if he had the VE3 jack load rest bracket, but it was stolen he said. I also still have those funky caps that are on the front in those vintage pics too - funny story he told me on those: as you know most tracks made you remove trim rings and caps and what not, but he liked the look of caps on the front so he chose those as they're held on with the lug nuts... he said he used to get a kick out of the tech guys trying to pop them off by hand for him...

Did you get the helmet and the Courtesy Plate frame and the original dealer paper tag that I found in the trunk - and the original lug wrench? The red "sold" tag and the salesman's card? Those were also neat pieces. The keys I received were original too, with the knockouts still on the ring but I re-keyed the locks and used new keys as the code on the Broadcast sheet is out there...

I reached out to Anthony when I was in the process of buying it and he was kind enough to fill in a lot of details that often get lost through the years.

Yes, all that stuff has managed to stay with the car through all the change of hands.

I know you were concerned that the paint might have been clear coated to preserve it's patina, but I'm happy to report that is not the case.

[Riverbud]

Originally Posted by ELEFUNTMAN

Raced with Vic many times in division 7. At the time he ran a wagon. Nice guy.

Originally Posted by AnthonyS

He really was, it was surprising that his family called me to tell me the sad news of his passing nearly ten years after he sold me his favorite car.

There is a pretty nice tribute thread to Vic on the Class Racer forum when he had his cancer diagnosis.

[AnthonyS]

Looks like you got the wheels that Jackie installed after he removed the contingency stickers and buffed it I guess. Someone told me it was cleared, but just polished I guess. Good, that was certainly patina.

[Jonesy]

Great story and docs on that car.

[Riverbud]

[Riverbud]

Originally Posted by AnthonyS

Looks like you got the wheels that Jackie installed after he removed the contingency stickers and buffed it I guess. Someone told me it was cleared, but just polished I guess. Good, that was certainly patina.

I got both the Halibrand replicas that Jackie bought and the Torq-Thrusts that Mike put on. I was pleased to discover that the Jackie that Anthony referenced was actually Jackie Howerton, which only adds to the history. I found Jackie's phone number on an old receipt and gave him a call. He filled in some of the other blanks. He redid the suspension to make it a bit more drivable and added some traction bars off of a 57 Chevy he had and also replaced the exhaust system. There was some damage to the rear passenger floorpan when a driveshaft let loose. It had been patched it up, but Jackie is a perfectionist and it always bugged him knowing that the patch was there. He had so many other projects going on that he couldn't find time to do the repair. He didn't consider himself a Camaro guy and never quite gelled with the car.