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SHORT TRACK MODELS by Tom Faletti John Anderson's 1974 Season Stan Yee Camaro

decals by BULLRING GRAPHIX!

Story from Tom:
"John Anderson was inducted into the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. Originally form the Detroit, MI area, John was an avid drag racing enthusiast until he and his friend Jerry Makara visited Flat Rock Speedway one night after the drag races were rained out. From there John started his oval racing career in the figure 8 division at Flat Rock Speedway in 1965. Two years later he won the Michigan State Figure 8 championship.

In 1968 John started driving late models and won the ARCA and MARC Times "Rookie of the Year" award. From 1969 through 1972 he won a total of 34 features at tracks throughout Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. He also won his first track championship in '69 at Baer Field in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

In 1973 John teamed up with car owner Stan Yee after Stan and previous driver Joe Ruttman parted ways. They rolled out this brand new Yee built Camaro and went on to a dominating season on the local ARCA short tracks. However it was in the season-ending special shows where they really shined. They won the Export "A' 200 at Cayuga Speedway in Canada, the Midwest 300 at Salem, IN, and the Graduation 300 at Hartford, MI. These wins were especially impressive because most of the weekly tracks around the country were closed for the winter, and these year-end shows delivered very large fields of the very best drivers from most of the country as well as Canada.

In 1974 the duo returned to have an equally impressive season stringing together five 100 lap special event victories. 1975 was also a success in the yellow Camaro, but John and Stan amicably parted and went their separate ways near the end of the season.

1976 saw John have a very successful season with 29 wins, including two ASA victories and a track championship at Indianapolis Raceway Park, (his fourth overall). In 1977 John moved on to open wheel racing, driving USAC sprint cars and midgets. He won three midget features, and then sat on the pole for a NASCAR modified race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

In 1978 John moved to Ohio and went to work for John Draime, building, driving and selling race cars. During this period he won 22 additional features including four more ASA wins. During the '78-79 seasons he won poles for NASCAR modified races at Daytona, and won a NASCAR modified race at Talladega. His first NASCAR Winston Cup race saw John finish an impressive fifth at Michigan Int'l Speedway. From 1979 to 1981 John ran as many Winston Cup races as his owners' budgets allowed, however in his Twin 125 qualifier at Daytona in 1981, he had a nasty flip while running third and pressing for the lead. The accident ultimately ended his career as a driver.

John ended his career with over 200 feature victories in the various divisions of oval track competition. At one time or another, he defeated the very best late model drivers that ever turned a wheel. John continued working as a welder and fabricator until he was tragically killed in a highway accident in August, 1986.

Now the Model shown here. First, I'd like to thank Jim Hehl and Brian Norton for providing the outstanding information and reference pictures for this build, and Rod and Les for the fantastic decals. For this build I started with the 1970-1/2 AMT Baldwin Motion Camaro. I then went about making the various body mods required to transform it into a short tracker. I removed the drip rails and door trim, the door handles and the parking lights. Also drilled out the fender running lights and cut the ends off of the rear spoiler to match the one on the actual car. After cutting the hole in the right door for the exhaust, I added sheet metal (sheet styrene) covers to the headlight openings, door handles, and surrounding the exhaust opening, and then added the styrene strip rub rails to to the sides.

After making sure the body wheel openings matched the chassis I planned to use, I hogged them out and added slight fender flares. In addition, I extended the rocker panels and the quarter panels lower to improve the stance of the car and more accurately match the real car. I used the rear bumper from the kit and a full width front bumper from a resin kit purchased on ebay. The flat hood is from my parts box. I added the hood scoop to match the real car.

I know the AMT cup chassis is very popular for short track stock cars, so I thought I'd try one for this build. I first reconfigured the rear section to fit the Camaro and allow for the short track fuel cell (FC-07) from Fred's Resin Workshop. I then separated the main cage from the front firewall/engine bay section. The main cage location is actually good for the Camaro body, but the cage uppers had to be remade for the roof line and the top door bar on each side removed for the body to sit lower. I then added and relocated various cage bars to match the actual car. The engine bay bars are scratchbuilt and the firewall was reconfigured and lowered to accomodate lowering the body. The interior tin was reconfigured with Evergreen sheet styrene to fit the Camaro body contours and the rear window.

The only suspension modifications were to make shorter shocks and move the rear end housing back about 1/8". The long truck arm rear suspension was unchanged, even though I'm certain it's incorrect for this car. The engine and transmission are from the kit. The carb is from Fred's Resin Workshop too. I also added plug wires and an overflow tank. A new drive shaft was fabricated from aluminum tubing as well as the steering shaft from aluminum tubing.

Other interior and detail items are reconfigured pedals, a scratchbuilt tachometer, and fabricated sheetmetal pieces for the dash and exhaust area. The front scoop was fabricated and flex straws were used for the cooling ducts in the scoop.

The radiator was reduced in height to fit in the lower chassis. The headers and exhaust pipes are from the Revell ASA kit with the exhaust pipes reconfigured to match the real car. The seat is from Fred's Resin Workshop with seat belts made from Tamiya masking tape and photo-etch hardware. I added photo-etch bolts and nuts to enhance the detail throughout. Most of the "metal" interior was done with Alcad II over gloss black base, and SnJ polishing powder to enhance the metal look. Bare Metal Foil is used for the radiator shroud, windshield trim, the front scoop and the exterior metal pieces. The wheels are from Fred, but I made them shallower to match the look of the car. The rear tires are from the cup kit, and to fit the fenders better, the front tires are the rears from an AMT PC-6 indy car kit.

After trying two Tamiya colors, I finally settled on Rustoleum Summer Squash for the paint with Tamiya TS-13 clear. The decals were easily applied with no trouble and another coat of clear TS-13 was applied over them. There you have it, my tribute to John Anderson and Stan Yee! "

Note - Tom placed second in class with this model at an IPMS show in Richmond, VA recently - not too shabby!!

Items Tom listed for me from Fred:

Wheels Carb
Seat
Fuel cell
Wire mesh
Pre-wired Distributor
Window net material