History Of the "Demon Datsun"

After winning the 1988 Solo II Nationals, Andy Craig put the car up for sale and it was purchased by Til Chamkis of Austin. Til campaigned the car in 89 and 90 in the Texas area and also took it to Salina for Nationals, finishing mid pack.

While he owned the car Til upgraded the stock front brakes to JFZ mini grand national calipers with 12 x .8 vented rotors, Tilton clutch and brake pedal assembly with adjustable bias dual brake master cylinders.

Sometime around 91, financial difficulties forced Til to mothball the car for a while and later put it up for sale.

In September of 1992 I attended my first Solo II Nationals (after competing at the Regional and Divisional level for over 9 years). Running in F stock, with a bone stock 1990 Camaro IROC Z, I knew I didn’t stand a chance. On the way home, I made one of the bigger rationalizations of my life. "It would sure be easier, more fun and probably cheaper if I had a dedicated race car". What’s even more ridiculous, is I convinced my wife and one of our close friends (Keith Walkup) that this was the thing to do.

Within a few days a deal was struck and the "Demon Datsun" was the property of the Holts and the Walkups.

We immediately went to work cleaning it up and refurbishing some of the worn out parts. The header and exhaust was rusted out from front to rear, so that was all replaced. We rebuilt the carbs, and just generally tuned it up. We worked on it for several weeks and made our maiden voyage at the "South Texas Autocross Championship" in San Antonio. I managed to get TTOD on my final run and even got my picture in North American Pylon. Not bad for first time out! I think this will be fun!

Before the year was over, Keith’s marriage had crashed onto the rocks and he was forced to pull out of the partnership. Another close friend, Steve Willis, was ready and willing to fill the void and bought out Keith’s share. Steve was the reigning Driver of the Year for Texas Spokes, and had the talent to take the car back to the top. To say that Steve’s career got in the way of that, would be a gross understatement. Steve was one of the four ATF agents killed in the Branch Davidian siege at Waco. He died on February 28^th before ever getting a chance to drive the car in competition.

Next in line was Mike Hesse. Another close friend of ours, as well as Steve’s, with talent that could rival Steve. It was mid March when Mike agreed to buy in. We were roughly 6 months into the ownership of this car and were working on our third partner. We warned him that bad things seem to happen to people that joined up with us, but he was undeterred. At our next event, before Mike bought in, Heather had an off course excursion that ended at the base a large tree trunk. The point of impact was basically into the front left tire, resulting in the fender, frame rail, floorpan and suspension suffering substantial damage. The unibody was basically totaled. Heather was shaken but not injured.

That was the last event for the "Demon Datsun"… Its 6 months with us had apparently suffered from some demonic possession. We stripped the car of all of the salvageable parts and took the shell to the scrap yard. Somewhere I have pictures of a forklift doing pushups on the shell. When I dig them up, I will post it here.

Team Japanese Auto Tech 1993

The yellow 24 and black 29 were both totalled, in separate accidents. The remaining 3 cars have all been sold