Jim McKee is the older gent in this photo, with son Chad, who scored a clean sweep of the Twin 20s races at the 2002 B&M Million, then won again on Friday of the 2003 Twin 20s go. The family's '87 Camaro is an ex-Comp Eliminator car that with small block Chevy power can run a variety of classes.

Jim McKee raced a small block Chevy in his '55 Chevy E/Gasser way, way back. Hence his love of the mouse motor, which has successfully been passed on to son Chad, a truck rental company mechanic whose other bracket bomber was a Monza powered by a -- you guessed it -- small block. Fact is, when the McKees first got the Camaro home, they pulled the engine out of the Monza and dropped it into the Camaro and went racing. Chad says that his winnings with the Camaro over the years have paid for the car several times over.

Surprisingly, too, in this story of surprises, Jim the dispatcher is the main wrench on the Camaro, while Chad the mechanic is the driver. "We both work on it if there's something major, but I just get in it and drive," Chad said.

At this past Million, the car was going 5.37 and 5.38 all through the Friday Twin 20 go. The engine, McKee admits, is not inexpensive, and there is a lot of planning that goes into it.

It sports a set of Brodix "18-X" cylinder heads with matching intake, a single 1050 George Rupert alcohol carburetor with a Comp Cams roller, a set of 14:1 JE Pistons and Oliver rods, a Callies crankshaft with a four-inch stroke and a standard 400 bore. The oil pan is a Moroso that holds six quarts, "but it looks like you put a wheelbarrow under the motor," Chad says, and the headers are Davis step headers. Ignition is all MSD, and gauges are Auto Meter. The Powerglide was built by Kendall Lankford locally, and the converter is a PTC that stalls at 6,000 rpm. Rear end is a Strange 9-incher with 4.88 gearing. Slicks are 32x16x15 Goodyears mounted on Weld AlumaStar wheels. The candy apple red paint is 10 years old and came on the Camaro.

Who the car came from is now lost in the McKee's memories -- after all, they've had it for the past 10 years -- but they found it through a racing newspaper ad placed out of Virginia.

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It was sold as a rolling Super Gasser/Super Comper that was built by Pro Star Race Cars as an altered for a man in Louisiana.

"I just liked the looks of the car," Chad said. "At that time, it was as nice a car as I'd ever seen." Plus, their '78 Monza wouldn't certify and the McKees were thinking of racing Super Gas and needed a mount that could certify NHRA tech.

The 400 engine that was in the Camaro came with the deal, but it had a broken rod. It sported a good set of Pontiac-style heads and a Hogan sheet metal intake. The seller was going 8.40s at 160 mph in the quarter-mile at the time, plenty stout for IHRA Quick Rod. It was set up for a powerglide, but the car still had the clutch pedal in it, plus all the sheet metal and mounts to accept a Lenco. The chassis is a four-link, with Koni shocks all the way around and a strut front end.

"The car just seems to work well," Chad says. "It doesn't matter where we are. It works best at 5.50s, 5.40s." Without him behind the wheel, the car scales out at 2,070 pounds. "We could probably get it under 2,000 if we took one battery out of it, and the alternator and the vacuum pump."

The first weekend out, with the motor out of the Monza and placed in between the Camaro's frame rails, Chad got a runner-up at Middle Tennessee Dragway in Buffalo Valley. Since then, they kept on racing, changing this and that until they hit on a good combination that they have stayed with. "At that time, we had a little 383-inch motor that took it to 6.15s. When we stepped it up (in the power department), we found out that it liked to be hit hard on the track. It likes to run a 1.18 60-foot. It will be real consistent with that," Chad said.