This season, Chris Matz debuts a 1972 Dodge Demon in the Upper Midwest Vintage Racing Series. What’s even more striking than the unique, vintage ride will be who he’ll put in the car as its driver — Mike Weissman, who’s more than three decades the car’s junior.
The Demon sat in the Mopar fanatic’s garage since 2015.
“I bought a 2005 SRR [Chassis] 112″ GM chassis, with a [Chevrolet] Monte Carlo body hung on it,” Matz, of Farmington, Wisconsin, said. “I ripped that Chevy body off and started putting together a Demon — a car I always liked, and liked its logo even more. It was a back-burner project until this winter, when I finished it. I confess that I had to use a [Plymouth] Duster hood.”
Matz then dropped in a Chrysler 360 engine. However, he needed one more critical component to finish the deal. A driver.
“My stepson Troy’s friend, Mike Weissmann, was hanging around the shop helping me,” said Matz. “[He] confessed that all he wanted to do was drive a stock car. He is 18 and doesn’t have the means to build his own car. I’ve got a car with no one to drive it. I decided to fulfill his fantasy.”
Weissmann, another Mopar aficionado, raced a Dodge Neon in the International class at Jefferson Speedway in Cambridge, Wisconsin, last season. At the end of last year, Matz gave Weissman a trial run in the hobby stock Matz drives.
“He did well, and he’s willing to work for his dream,” Matz said. “He’ll have a very special car to drive this season.”
Chris Matz fields three Mopar race cars. In addition to the Demon, he has a 1972 Plymouth Barracuda, which Bill Bush steers, and a 1977 Dodge Aspen that he drives.
“Mopar cars are special — they stand out in the crowd,” said Matz. “A Chrysler engine has a little more power, but is heavier than the GM engine. Local rules allow Ford- and Chrysler-powered cars to move the engines back 2″ at the first spark plug.”
Matz’s Mopar team plans to run at a wide variety of historic Wisconsin tracks. Those ovals include Jefferson Speedway, Madison International Speedway in Oregon, Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, and Slinger Speedway.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
