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SHORT TRACK MODELS by Rod McLeod

J.R. Fitzpatrick's LATTA CRANES CASCAR Monte Carlo

decals by BULLRING GRAPHIX!

Story by Rod:
"J.R. Fitzpatrick was a 16 year-old rookie on the CASCAR Super Series in 2004. The son of driver and championship winning owner John Fitzpatrick, J.R. was scheduled to run a partial season after running Late Models in 2003. He's been wanting to run the Series for several years since outgrowing the CASCAR Juniors, a development class based on full bodied go-kart type cars. At the opening race of 2004, he made a bet with dad that whoever finished higher in the race would get to run the full season.

J.R. made the most of his opportunity by finishing on the lead lap in 11th place in the 250 lap race at Delaware. It was an impressive debut as he was the top finisher among 8 rookies in the 36 car field. Dad had trouble in the race and only completed 205 laps. The younger Fitzpatrick would go on to finish the season in 11th place overall with just a bad pit stop in the final race keeping him from the top ten and the Rookie of the Year title that went to another teenage star, Pete Shepperd III.

The model is based on the Revell 2001 Monte Carlo as the CASCAR Late Models have not yet updated the Performance Fiberglass body styles to reflect the current Monte Carlo. Minor changes were made to the body to remove the roof rails and flaps. A strip was added across the front grille opening with Evergreen plastic. Chrome wheels were run on the car and these were picked up from an old AMT kit. The wheels are not quite accurate but are a closer match than the kit wheels.

Other than that the kit was built from the box. The chassis was painted in black as this is the standard for the Fitzpatrick Motorsports cars. J.R. also drove a white chassis for some of the year as this was a car purchased from former DIRT racer Joe Plazek. The biggest challenge on this one was in reproducing all of the unique CASCAR fender decals. This effort will lead to more CASCARs in the near future.

The model currently resides at Fitzpatrick Motorsports where J.R. was quite surprised and pleased to receive a late Christmas present to commemorate his successful rookie season."

(Note from Mr NASCAR: Rod is a fellow Canuck, short track enthusiast, and one of the NASCARphiles in GROUP 25... He is the "Resident Artiste" for BULLRING GRAPHIX)

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