Over the years it’s been fun watching Zap Rowsdower race in The 24 Hours of Lemons. If you have not seen the Checker perform, check out the video below.
The Checker had been up for sale for some time, it was not clear where it ended up. Thankfully, Zap recently let this writer know that the racing Checker is now in the hands of racer Kevin Madsen of the Kevin Madsen Racing Team!
Who’s Kevin Maden? He’s an eight-time road race champion, two-time rallycross champion, movie stunt car driver, and TV race car host! Not too shabby. Here’s a link to Kevin’s promotional video.
This weekend Kevin is taking the Checker to MSR Houston to dial-in and prepare the Checker for racing. According to Facebook posts a lot has been done to the Checker.
About 400 pounds of weight has been reduced. The weight reduction has not changed the appearance of the Checker
significantly, it appears that the center pillars have been removed and the door window frames have been eliminated. According to Zap, it appears “ by the look of the shifter location, the motor was moved almost a foot back, and with all that wheel, I’m sure the front brakes are enormous”. Zap added “Other than the skin, I don’t think there’s a whole lot of Kalamazoo left. They also managed to get the race weight to under 3500lb”.
Congratulations to Zap on the sale of the Checker. This writer is looking forward to tracking the performance of the Checker in next season of The 24 Hours of Lemons. Good luck to Kevin Madsen, you are doing Checker fans proud.
Photos by Kevin Madsen © 2022
