Jack began his association with "Freddy", after a long time friend, Fred Champion, passed away in 1992. Fred used to run this '68 Sonett V4 in local Northwest hillclimb events, so Freddy already had a bit of racing spirit in him. When I turned 16, we decided it was time for the two of us to take up autocrossing at our local club. Basically stock except for a tuned exhaust, Koni shocks, and 195/60-15 Yokohama Y352's, we competed and won the E-Stock championship. If you look closely, I was so fresh at this sport, I hadn't even taken the little red price tag off my helmet yet!

During my senior year of high school, we converted Freddy over to Fast Freddy in order to compete in Street Prepared Classes. The original low mileage 1500 was pulled in favor of a bored 1700 with fully balanced internals, big valve/port heads, Weber 32/36 carb and manifold, Isky F66 cam, super light flywheel, needle bearing rocker arms and various other bits. We lowered the car about 1 inch, added a Fiat 124 Spider 3/4 inch front anti-roll bar, and fitted 6 inch wide rims with 205/50-15 Yokohama A008RS's. The car had about 130 horsepower and was the terror of DSP. We took the class championship two years in a row. The left photo shows a '69 Blue Sonett V4 that I began to run in E stock after the fourth year. We had figured on dominating both classes, instead of competing against each other. I ran "Blue Homer" for three races, before switching over to my then new-to-me Yugo.

These two photos show Fast Freddy at Agate Raceway in White City Oregon, our local 1 mile road course/Kart track. 70mph could be reached at the end of the straight, which led into a 2^nd gear banked right hand sweeper. It was a common sight to see Jack and Fast Freddy sideways clear through the sweeper. At this point we had plenty of horsepower (Almost too much for the traction) and extremely neutral handling. Notice the almost lack of body roll in the left photo.

After two years of Jack running Freddy in DSP and me running my Yugo in H-Stock, we both jumped up a class. I had modified the Yugo enough to start competing in DSP, so we decided to develop Freddy for Over Street Prepared, sort of a catch all class for cheaters that must run on DOT race tires. No Slicks allowed. The plan was simple. Increase handling, braking, and power, while decreasing weight. Handling improvements consisted of 3 degrees negative front camber, "Gronched" rear axle giving 2 degrees negative camber, 8 inch wide rims with 225/50-15 Yokohama A-008RS2's, and firewall to shock tower stiffening kit. We upped power to 150 by modifying the cylinder heads and intake manifold further, ram air intake scoop on the new hood, and running a sewer pipe 3 inch side exit exhaust. Besides the tires, the biggest benefit came from a 225 pound diet. An aluminum 900 Turbo radiator, lightweight heater core, aluminum gas tank, stripped interior, lightweight racing seats, and the new lightweight composite hood and air dam brought about most of the weight reduction. Freddy now tipped the scales just under 1,500 pounds.

In order to fit the wide rims and tires, we needed to flare the fenders. Jack pulled out an old hood and front fenders that had been on a roll-over car. It was already torn up, so we didn't mind modifying it. Besides the flairs, Jack also incorporated a NACA duct in the leading edge of the hood bulge. This device ram fed air directly into the carburetor top. We also made the composite front air dam and "grille", the lower portion incorporating a downforce generating upside down airfoil, weighing in at only 8 pounds complete! The 900 Turbo Radiator also reduced the weight on the extreme front of the car by over 26 pounds! It also makes it possible to run in 100+ degree heat without drama. Notice the Koni's, special springs, frame stiffening kit, and highly detailed engine. This motor is now in its 8^th season, only having come out once, to do a little more cylinder porting!

Fast Freddy has remained idle for this past year, having clinched its final championship. Half the fun of racing over the past eight years, was doing it with Jack, together. Whether it be in the shop plotting and scheming about more negative camber or even wider tires, or out chasing cones, battling for thousandths of a second, Fast Freddy gave us both an opportunity to spend countless hours together. So since last June, when I moved down to LA, Fast Freddy has been living in the heated shop, awaiting a transformation back to the street. Jack hasn't raced, instead opting to terrorize the neighbors driving my Yugo to Rotary, while I have been running a couple road course play days in Southern California with brother Mark Ashcraft and his CRX Si. Right now, we're out in the shop, trying to decide what color to paint him, and what the best exhaust would be for the street, and...