Wed, 21 May 2003, 07:47 PM Pass The Chicken Wing, Please!!

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2003 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Tim Abbazia launches hard.

Joe and Tim Abbazia are brothers who share a common passion…cars. Race cars, mostly, but they like cars of all sorts. So when there dad used to tell them about the 1962 Corvette that he had and raced, the boys listened intently and they dreamed of days when they might race a car just like their dad did. “Dad bought the car back in 1962 and it was a brand new Corvette with the 340 horse power configuration engine,” Tim said. “Joe and I loved it and dad used to tell us about how he raced it in the “A” sports car class at Dover Drag Strip. Those were some great stories.” When their dad passed away fifteen years ago the boys decided that they would honor his memory by finding a Corvette just like the one he had.

Saying that you’re going to get a ’62 ‘Vette is one thing, finding a 1962 Corvette is something else all together, and finding one that was just like their dad’s would prove to be even tougher. The boys checked out all of the Corvette books, web sites and literature that they could and they just couldn’t locate the right car. Then they talked to another racer, John Gunn, who just happened to own a 1962 Corvette, but he wasn’t in a real hurry to sell it. “John’s car was in like mint condition and it had very few miles on it,” Tim said. “He didn’t want to sell it but he did help us track down the car we eventually bought.” When I asked Tim about the condition of their ’62 pride and joy when they found it, he just smiled and said that, “It was like a chicken wing. You know, it had been all picked over.” Apparently it had enough left on it that the boys decided to buy it and begin the long restoration process. “It took about three years and a lot of work,” Tim said, “but we finally got it ready for the track.” The car made its debut last year and is currently racing in the F/Stock class.

When you look at this car in the staging lanes you know right away that something’s different about it. First of all, how many 1962 Corvettes are there racing today in Stock Eliminator? Second, how many Stock Eliminator cars do you see with hardly a single decal on them? And third, how many fawn beige Chevrolet Corvettes have you seen anywhere? “This is the same color that dad’s car was, and very few people know what the color is.” Tim was quick to add that the first time that NHRA announcer Lewis Bloom saw the car last year at Cecil Country Dragway he said that, “here comes a fawn on fawn ’62 Corvette.” Tim said that he and his brother just turned and looked at the announcer’s booth in the timing tower and gave Lewis the thumbs up. “Not many people know the color but Lewis hit it right on.”

Joe Abbazia

The car, which is currently running in the G/S class, has a 327 cubic inch engine with a single Carter AFB four-barrel carburetor. With a change of motors to one with a little higher compression and an aluminum intake manifold it fits into the F/S class. “The ‘F’ motor is rated at 270 horsepower which puts it in the higher class,” Tim added. In the faster trim it has gone 11.20’s.while as a ‘G’ car we’ve gone about 11.40.” He also admitted that they are still in the feeling-out stage and that they have a lot of work to do on the suspension of the car before they feel that it is actually competitive. Red Goldstein, an engine builder who works for Scott Shafiroff, helped with the engine and Gunn himself added his expertise on some of the Corvette parts. “Ed Nelson, who has a shop in Greenwich, Connecticut, did some of the restoration and he and my brother, Joe, actually painted in it in Ed’s garage.”

Since Joe is the younger brother and it was his idea originally to get the car, Joe was scheduled to be the driver, and that’s why I wanted to know how Tim got the gig. “Well, that’s an interesting story,” Tim said with a Cheshire-cat like grin on his face. “Joe’s a big guy and when we were restoring the car we had to take all of the seats out of it. And then when we put it back together and Joe got in to drive it, he put his helmet on and his head hit the roof of the car. And when he took his foot off the gas pedal he hit shifter and he knew that he wouldn’t be comfortable racing it so I got the call.” Wow, I’ll bet that made little brother happy!!

Tim Abbazia has been racing for about fifteen years and has participated in the Stock Eliminator class for about the past three years. His familiar 1967 Chevy II has been a fixture on the Division 1 circuit for several years and it actually began life as a bracket car about fifteen years ago. Brother Joe also raced, but his car of choice was a Ford that held the L/Stock Automatic national record a few years ago. Tim, who works as a sprinkler technician for the Summer Rain Sprinkler Company in Greenwich, Connecticut, is racing the Corvette in Stock while still driving his ’67 car in the Super Stock class. “It’s been a challenge to get the ‘62 car running, but we’re confident that we can do it,” And if it doesn’t pan out as a race car, brother Joe’s wife Kim, who loves the car, plans to take it to car shows and drive it on the street. “With a milder engine, it would be very capable of being driven on the street,” Tim said. “All the lights work and it starts off the key so it may end up as a street car someday.” Where ever it ends up and in whatever form the boys leave it, they’ve done something that a lot of kids would like to do, they’ve created something that would honor their parents and give them something back for introducing the kids to cars…and drag racing.