For many years, a preliminary "All-Star" race, The Busch Clash, was held on the Saturday that marked the beginning of Daytona Speedweeks in February. It was largely a made-for-TV event, to get our racin' juices flowing, and it usually worked. Eligeable drivers for this season kick-off included all who had won a pole the previous year, plus one "wild-card" drawn position.
Jeff Gordon won the 1997 Busch Clash in this specially-painted Monte Carlo, in a promotional colour scheme for a high-end line of Dupont Refinish basecoats, called, of course, "ChromaPremiere". Quite a change from the familiar Rainbow livery!
This model was built from the 1997 version of Monogram's Monte Carlo - I believe from the Jurassic Park kit. Decals came from SLIXX, and were very impressive, with good registration and accurate colours. Comparing the sheet to photos of the actual car on the Dupont Refinish calender, and in Winston Cup Illustrated did not reveal any omissions - the car could be decalled exactly as raced. I had to double up the decals (two sets!) to cover the brown/black colour break... kinda pricey, but worth it in the long run...
Along with my usual mods to the chassis and interior - seatbelts, radio coil, oil lines, rear end cooling lines, etc, I added a roofcam from a '94 T-bird, plus a radio antenna, scratch-built from some craft wire and sprue plastic.
I had to deal with a problem caused by the slightly different dimensions of the J-P Monte with Monogram's predecessor M-C's - the hood is slightly larger. This meant that the intricate graphics on the hood did not fully extend to the edges of the hood. Painting this small (less than 1/8th inch) strip with black lacquer, then clearing it, along with the decals, made the gaps un-noticeable.
Paint for this model included black lacquer (Tamiya TS-14) and an MCW aerosol can that was touted as a match to the car, 2508 gold metallic. It produced a very authentic finish in both colour and flake size (one of the problems in using automotive paint is if you're not careful, the flake is way out of scale in the finish.) This colour appears to be a good candidate for Earnhardt's 1998 Winston Bass Pro car as well... will keep you all posted...
After decal application, plus a couple days to dry, Light coats of TAMIYA TS-13 clearcoat was misted on - after being warmed up in hot tap water, for better atomization and smoothness.
This final Clash was a snoozer, as Gordon and Earnhardt, learning from Rusty's strategy in the fall at Suzuka, (hang back and let the field inversion put you in front - don't wear out your tires trying to go from the back to front in each segment) did not assert themselves until the field inversion had them near the front in the final stages.
One of the problems in the race was that this was the first race with newly-mandated cold-air intake boxes on the carbs. These tended to cause the cars to lose power in the draft, and passing was said by the drivers to be nearly impossible. Dire predictions of a processional Daytona 500 the following week-end were made. This did not turn out to be the case, of course, in fact this race will live on beyond many others in fans' memories due to Earnhardt's crash, and the Hendrick cars finishing 1 - 2 - 3!! Shortly into the season, however, the Cold-Air boxes were gone...
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