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SHORT TRACK MODELS by MR NASCAR Stewart Friesen's 2010 PIZZA LOG SuperDirt Modified Canadian "PROTEST CAR"

decals by BULLRING GRAPHIX!

There was a thread back in the fall of 2010 in the RACING NEWS section of Fred's Forum about a "Canadian Protest" at Orange County Fair Speedway in New Jersey in October 2010. A link led to the following story from dirttrackdigest,com:

October 24, 2010: MIDDLETOWN, NEW YORK – Stewart Friesen got screwed at Orange County Fair Speedway Sunday in the Eastern States 200 modified championship. The burning question is whether officials are to blame, or is Friesen to blame? Friesen was a dominant force with laps winding down in the fall classic. A yellow flag flew, and things went haywire for Friesen. Officials called for Friesen to restart second. Friesen refused to give up the lead of the race for the restart, and officials black-flagged Friesen to the pits. What followed will go down as one of dirt modified racing’s most infamous moments

Friesen staged an on-track protest that delayed the race for a lengthy spell, led to physical altercations, caused the track owner to allegedly intervene, and ultimately confused most fans following the story. After coming perilously close to contacting the pace car Friesen elected to stage his protest on the front stretch. He first stopped his car near the flagstand, and then emerged to approach the flagman. He later sat on his roof in protest and what followed was a series of conversations both in front of spectators and behind the scenes.After the lengthy delay, Friesen returned to the racing surface to restart at the tail end of the field. The race was won by Tim McCreadie, but most fans will remember the 2010 Eastern States Modified Championship for Friesen’s run-in with the officials."

Soon as I saw this thread, I thought "How typically Canadian... passive aggressiveness at its best..." (I can say that ... being Canadian and all...) and then it occurred to me it would make a great build subject! I'd had a TJ's Custom Dirt Modified resin piece for a year or so that I hadn't figgered out what to do with - and this seemed a natural!

The resin piece was pretty good, but needed a LOT of cleanup, plus the body would require heavy mods to resemble Friesen's car, so I ended up using the resin piece as a guide to do my own body and chassis. Turned out it was a lot simpler to paint the body in pieces, then assemble it. Some of TJ's parts got used - the hood scoop (with mods), wheels, tires, interior shell etc... I built the chassis out of evergreen plastic rod, using TJ's piece as a guide....trickiest part was trying to sort out how to mount the suspension bits. In an unexplainable fit of masochism, I decided to include poseable front wheels... what fun... Engine and some other parts parts came from an old Monogram Kinser Sprint Car kit.

I designed the decals and AMERICAN RACER tire decals in parallel with the building. Body parts were painted prior to assembly, which made clean break lines on the interior shell much simpler... but its always nerve-wracking gluing together painted parts ("where's that stray drip of glue gonna land??")