Click here for catalog! SHORT TRACK MODELS by MR NASCAR
John Benson Sr's 1964 Chevelle Sportsman
Click here for catalog!
John Benson Sr's 1964 Chevelle Sportsman
decals by BULLRING GRAPHIX!
Click here for catalog! | John Benson Sr's 1964 Chevelle Sportsman |
decals by BULLRING GRAPHIX!
What better time to build a John Benson Sr car than now, after his son, Johnny Benson Jr, just wrapped up the NASCAR Truck Series Championship? The idea for this project, plus most of the references, came from Mark Seiler of Western Michigan, home turf to John Sr, and Johnny Jr's early career.
John Sr's career started at the Grand Rapids Speedrome back in 1956 with the jalopy class. His first season went well enough to win him the Rookie of the Year title. By '58 John had won 12 features at the Drome and won the track championship. His career covered a span of thirty years; he retired while competing at Berlin Raceway. Although there were several offers for him to move on to the big leagues through the years, he made the decision to stay in West Michigan for his family's sake and remain a Saturday night racer.
Around 1966, Michigan tracks dropped supermodifieds and late models were the top class. Benson made the transition very smoothly and, at one track alone, Berlin Raceway, John won the '69, '71, '72, '73. '76, '77, '78 season point championships. John went on to become the only racer to ever win in excess of 50 features at Berlin Raceway against the top runners in the region.
Benson was one of the most knowledgeable racers in the industry and, after retiring from racing himself in 1980, became a car owner, and passed his knowledge on to many drivers, including his son, Johnny. He owns and operates Benson Speed Equipment. John keeps busy building racing components for racers and his success there is very evident when you begin to notice the Benson Equipment name on the side of most of Michigan's better racers. After retirement, he owned a race team for son Johnny during his dirt, asphalt and ASA years from 1981 – 1993, and still does some spotting for him. John is said to be a mechanical genius, and there are certainly unique features on all the cars he raced.
That uniqueness was the first thing I noticed about John Sr's rides. Huge openings for wheels and exhausts in some cases, mismatched sheetmetal, and other things, according to Mark, kept his competitors in a constant state of agitation. Obviously, based on his career record, they worked...
The '64 featured here is one of the most bizarre short track concoctions I've ever seen. Huge wheel openings, the exhausts through the fenders, zero front grille and a "roll cage" that looks to be built out of straight lengths of steel pipe, welded at the corners, with only a small gusset in each corner as a concession to triangulating the cage for strength. Add in the cut off windshield posts pointing proudly skyward. and the cut off top, and I couldn't resist a go at this one!
My original plan was to use a resin 1964 body I'd picked up on a visit to Southern Motorsports Hobbies last year, but upon comparing it with the Model King 1965 Chevelle short Track reissue, I decided it would be more interesting to convert that '65 kit to a 1964 model. After all, John had butchered the original car so bad there were only a few features that needed reworking. It was a simple matter to reshape the leading edge of the front fenders to look like the '64 version, and some effort with some sheet plastic, using the hood from the resin '64 as a guide, yielded me a convincing 1964 hood. I happened to have a Modelhaus 1964 combined front bumper and grille piece; I separated the bumper from the grille, painted it silver and it became the front bumper on this build.
Another part of my plan had been to use the Chevelle chassis, but I had a partly cannibalized chassis from the GTO Super Stocker rerelease that looked like it might be useful here. (I had no references for the interior of the car, so I just went with what seemed logical for the period.) Once again, I relied on Fred at Fred's Resin Workshop for expert advice on period-correct rims and tires. Fred came though with a gorgeous set of his R-018 finned rims, and a set of Plastic Performance Products' #LMSF Firestone Late Model Tires. While awaiting the wheel/tire set, I reworked the chassis. The rear coil spring suspension was tossed in favour of a set of leaf springs, and a rollcage was built out of Evergreen 0.10 plastic rod, to try and duplicate the cage on the real car. I even added the small triangular gussets, as they are an obvious feature on the actual car.
Before I could finalize the cage dimensions, I needed to chop off the roof , leaving the windshield posts behind, of course. Filler panels were made for the rear seat area, and a dashboard was fabricated. I modified the front hoop around the engine compartment to ensure it wasn't too long for the slightly shorter Chevelle hood, and tied into my new rollcage; and modified the firewall, to get rid of the "through the passenger compartment" exhaust openings. I used the Super Stocker front suspension, drilling locating holes to allow me to pin the resin wheels to the front and rear axle assemblies for extra strength.
Further body mods consisted of openings in the front fenders for the exhaust dumps, and in the rear fender for the gas filler.
The engine and tranny came from the GTO kit as well. I added plug wires, and an air filter from an early 80's NASCAR kit, that had a sufficiently low profile to fit under the hood. I was not able to bend the headers until I had all other components finished and ready to be assembled. One thing I have learned is NOT to hog out the wheel wells until the chassis is complete, and you can position the body on it, and center the cutouts around the wheels.
Once I had that done to my satisfaction, and a filler panel put in where the trim and tail lights had been I was ready to apply paint and decals, which I had been developing in conjunction with the build-up. I was also able to bend the exhausts to a reasonable shape to allow me to insert dumps through the fender holes and actually HOOK THEM UP with the exhaust pipes! (That had been one of my major concerns in this project, this was my first "thru-the-fender-exhaust" car!) It took a bit of jigging with the chassis to get the body to sit as low as I wanted it. A bit of wire screen was attached to the front, a gas filler cap was installed, and the rear bumper from the Model King Chevelle kit (painted silver to match the front bumper...) was installed, and the build was complete.
I was very happy with this one. Thanks, Mark, for the inspiration and reference material. The sheet I put together also has options for another version of this '64 Chevelle. As Mark told me, the markings almost seemed to change weekly, as John barnstormed around Western Michigan back then. Below are pics of John Sr's actual car that Mark sent me, plus a shot of another version that can be built. PS - we have a couple more projects in the works - stay tuned!
Here are some more of John Sr's Career Highlights:
A COUPLE SHOTS OF JOHN SR's INFAMOUS '64:
These decals are now available from BULLRING GRAPHIX - Click Here!" Fred has a 1964 Chevelle body that could be easily adapted for this car, if you don't want to cut up, or cannot find, the plastic kit. This and many of the products mentioned can be obtained from Fred's Resin Workshop.
Click here to access Fred's site! Then click on "Bodies" to check for the Chevelle body.
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