# maybe O/T: ever hear of Blunderbust Class? (long story)



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

A story before my question...

I grew up on Long Island, and for a little while when I was in college there I raced 1/25 scale slot cars. Thursday night was "hard body" night at Islip Miniature Speedway... there were about 5 different classes of cars. You started with a Parma Womp and cut it in half and used metal tubing or rod to stretch the wheelbase to fit whatever 1/25 scale model kit body you wanted to use. I remember that Late Model class was ponycar size... Mustangs, Camaros, Cudas, and so on. (I still have my JoHan AMX  ) Charger class was mid-size cars like Malibus and Torinos, and then there was a class for full-size cars called Blunderbust. In Blunderbust, I had a Hasegawa Cadillac, and I remember seeing a couple of Impalas and Galaxies and someone had a JoHan Eldorado.

Different classes allowed for different chassis construction and motors. Late Model was the fastest,and you could do the most with the chassis: removing weight, using flexible stuff like piano wire to give the car "suspension", and some other little tricks. I think the hot motor for Late Model was called a Super Wasp. Charger class was more restrictive--you could only remove a limited amount of chassis material and not as much flex was allowed. Motor was a hopped-up 16D. Finally, Blunderbust had to be like a "showroom stock" car... one cut to the chassis to stretch it, no additional material removed, and you used huge brass tubing with no flex whatsoever for frame rails. These used a stock 16D motor, which is kinda like the 350 2-bbl of large-scale slots.

Now with the introduction of the JL Bowties, I was thinking that the '59 and '62 on stock Aurora chassis would make perfect Blunderbust racers, so I did a Google search on Blunderbust to find out what kinds of rules the 1:1 class has. I assumed that since Late Model is a real class anywhere that 1:1 stock cars are raced, then Blunderbust must be real also. Well, now I'm not sure, and that's what my question is finally getting to. The only 1:1 racing references that Google turned up were connected with Riverhead Raceway on Long Island, near where I grew up. Here's my question, and it's for people in places other than New York: Is Blunderbust a real 1:1 class anywhere other than Riverhead Raceway?

thanks for the read--

--rick


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## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

Well man, I'm not gonna claim to be the ultimate stock car guru. Having said that, I think I'm pretty well versed in the sport, and I have NEVER heard of a class like that. Not in roundy-round racing anyway.

I remember once watching an episode of an old TV show (It may have been the Dukes of Hazzard, but I'm not sure) where a bunch of richie rich businessmen had a full contact stock car race driving nothing but brand new Caddies, Rolls, Benz, etc. as some sort of charity thing.

That's as close as I've ever come to what you're talking about.

Maybe CircleTracDac or Pairadice can help. They're circle track guys too.

But it's slots. Who cares if it actually existed? Sounds like fun. :hat:

Trev


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

There used to be a class at Dorsey Speedway called Street Stocks.
358 cid, 2 bbl carb, cast iron manifolds, stock suspensions.
It was pretty much ruled by Chevelles early on to be replaced later by Novas and Camaros because they were smaller and lighter..
I have heard of classes for full sized boats (Michigan maybe?) called the Bomber Division...
--rick, you may want to have a look at http://www.racingweb.com/index.html

Scott


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

ok then... apparently Islip Miniature Speedway modeled its racing classes on the local racing scene. Now i get it.

just so i don't look TOO crazy... and because you guys might get a kick out of this...

http://www.riverheadraceway.com/rrblunderw.html (Check out the link to the Rollover Contest. I watched one there once. Now THAT'S a trip...)

http://www.bobcris.com/87bb2.htm

http://www.longislandjam.com/Nostalgia/Riverhead/drivers/vanness.htm

http://www.bobcris.com/profile2.htm

looks like fun, no? 

--rick


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## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

Hey I checked out those links. Looks like a fun division to watch. I don't know if that'd fly around here, as most of the big old cars have been used up in endurance racing and demolition derbies. The one thing it leaves me curious about is where they came up with the name.

Street stocks, bombers, Thunder cars, etc are all pretty much the same thing. Most tracks have their own rules variants, but its essentially older cars, mostly stock, and usually meant as a lower cost undercard division for weekly racing. Funny though, a lot of the time they'll put on a better show than the featured divisions.


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