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SHORT TRACK MODELS by MR NASCAR Alan Kulwicki's 1982 ASA Firebird

decals by BULLRING GRAPHIX!

Alan Kulwicki grew up in Greenfield, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, near the Milwaukee Mile racetrack . He received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1977. His knowledge of engineering has been cited as a contributing factor to his success as a driver, as it helped him better understand the physics of a racecar. He first raced on local racetracks as an amateur while in college before becoming a full-time professional racer in 1980. He started racing in NASCAR in 1984 in the Busch Series. In his first Busch race, appropriately at his home town track, the Milwaukee Mile, he qualified second and finished second.

Enticed by an owner who'd watched him race, Alan packed up everything and moved to Charlotte to compete in the WINSTON CUP Series in 1985. After a short time, the team folded, and Alan ended up fielding his own car, which due to his "loner" nature appeared to suit him just fine. Over the next several years he progressed, gaining credibility as he did so. Northerners with Engineering degrees were not common in NASCAR in that era... His career culminated in winning the Championshio in 1992.

Alan is best remembered for that NASCAR WINSTON CUP Championship win in 1992, driving the famous Hooters "Underbird" T-bird. The name was a play on the fact that Kulwicki was an owner/driver with pockets much less deep than typical teams of the time. What he lacked in financial resources he made up for in innovative and engineering-oriented approaches to the art of building and driving stock cars. He also indroduced the "Polish Victory Lap" after his first win in 1988.

Less well-known is Alan's early career as he worked his way up the ranks through local races to the highly competitive ASA series, where he ran against the likes of Dick Trickle, Bob Senneker, Junior Hanley, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin.... all formidable competitors. His best points finish in ASA was third, in 1982 and 1985.

The model shown here is his 1982 ASA Firebird. Alan was one of the first to see the potential for this new GM body, and working with veteran builder Dennis Frings and owner Jim Braun, developed it into a highly potent race car. Starting point for the model was a Revell Senneker ASA kit from the 80's. To match references, I reworked the wheelwells, and built a new front nose and hood. I'd picked up an AMT Firebird 20th Anniversary Firebird GTA, but only could use the top half of the nosecone, as there is a lot of deviation between the street and ASA versions of the car, so the bottom half of the nose was built up from sheet plastic and putty..

Once bodywork was done, body was primed with PlastiKote white primer, then shot with Duplicolor Ford Chrome Yellow. Decals were designed by Rod McLeod, and printed on my ALPS printer (fingers crossed...).

Chassis was built box stock from the ASA kit; these are very well designed, and represent the then state of the art Howe chassis. Once decals were dried for a couple days, I cleacoated the body with Tamiya TS13, and polished it with turtle wax. Ended up with a very pretty model with lots of "gotcha factor".

Tragically, Alan's career was cut short, when the Hooter's corporate plane he was on crashed in April 1993, just outside Bristol before the spring race. Three other people, including the sone of the owner of the HOOTER'S chain, were also killed in the crash. 1993 was a bad year for NASCAR, as Davey Allison was also killed, in a helicopter crash, that year. One wonders what the next few years would have looked like if those two talents had still been around to do battle with Dale and Jeff, doesn't one?