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Vic Miller Racing

Hi-Performance Cars Magazine September 1972

If you believe, for one minute that running an unblown funny car is easy, just ask Ken Veney. Ken has his injected, Vega-bodied funny car run the So-Cal Funny Car Association circuit. All of the cars are unblown and all run straight alcohol; the competition is certainly fierce. "You have to beat 'um with your head as well as with your foot," quips Ken.

The 1320 record, emphatically shows that Ken Veney must be using both. On his first outing with his brand new car, Ken set the track record for his class at Fresno Raceway; he then proceeded to win the entire meet. The following weekend at Lions Dragstrip (Long Beach, Calif.) Ken proved his performance was no fluky by turning the lowest time ever for a funny car on straight alcohol: an 8.39 et. And again, that same night, Ken won the whole shootin' match. Two times out and two track records-plus two consecutive wins aren't bad for a beginner!

The car is built on an 118-inch Ken Cox chassis. All of the chromemoly tubing has been heliarc. The front suspension system is effectively mounted, incorporating coil/over Koni shocks. The steering and the front spindles are from P&S. The remainder of the running gear includes a Pontiac rear (with a 4.56 ratio); a B&M turbo-clutch transmission with a Hays clutch; Henry's Machine axles; and Hurst/Airheart disc brakes.

For a record-setting performance you need horsepower and Ken Veney gets what he needs from a big-block Chevy Rat. The stock bore and stroke dimensions have been opened to 481 cubic inches. The heads are iron '68 L-88's. Pistons are supplied by Arias while the rods are Howard's aluminum items. Valley Head Service ported and polished the heads and a Sig Erson 3000X cam pushes the valves. A Spalding distributor provides the spark and a set of Jackson injectors gulps the straight alcohol fuel; owner Veney built the 2 1/4-inch headers himself.

Topping the strong engine/chassis combination is a '72 Vega body. "Chris" sprayed the classic red paint-no special effects, just flawless workmanship. The owner displayed his talents again in the form of the car's beautiful interior. The gifted fingers of the artist Kenny Youngblood brushed the gold lettering.

For grabbing those quick et's, Ken chose a set of 16.85x16-inch Goodyear tires mounted on 13-inch wide Halibrand polished magnesium wheels for the rear. Polished American spokes grace the front with 4.50x15 Goodyear rubber.

Safety man, Bill Simpson supplies all of the safety equipment for the car; his label appears on the chute, fire extinguishers and driver's firesuit.

At a cost of nearly $8000, it took only 11 weeks to complete the car. It took owner / driver Ken Veney only one week to turn the car's best et (8.39) and top speed (161.79 mph).

Both tasks must represent some kind of record.

Original Owner Ken Veney and his brand new Injected 1972 Chevy Vega funny car aka "Veneys Vega" would be the 1st of 4 Veneys Vega`s to tear up the tracks thru-out the 70`s.

This is the 1972 Veneys Vega funny car. It ran in the So-Cal injected Funny Car circuit out of California, on its first outing at Fresno Raceway the Veneys Vega set Fresno's track record for his class and then went on to win the entire event.

The very next weekend at Lions Dragstrip, (Long Beach) Calif. Ken Veney and his injected Veneys Vega funny car produced the lowest time ever for a funny car on straight Alcohol by running an elapsed time of 8.39 seconds for the quarter mile; and again the Veneys Vega won the whole event. One brand new car, 2 wins at its first 2 events, would prove to be a dominance thru out the 1972 season for Veney. Among the other notable wins and record setting ET`s and Mph`s, Ken Veney went on to win the race at Sacramento with a 8.62 with a top speed of the meet of 164.84 mph, The win at Irwindale running his fastest time to that date of 8.28 seconds would then be further benchmarked with another win at Orange County with a new record E.T. time of 8.26 @ 163.93 mph.

The 1972 Veneys Vega was a feared Funny car in the Injected circuit and the dominance showed and would last the whole year. With a Best E.T. on record for the 1972 Veneys Vega of a 8.03 @ 164 mph on Alcohol, Ken Veney would finish off the 1972 season with winning the famous "Last Race" at Lions DragStrip Nov,2 1972 with this Veneys Vega.

The Veneys Vega was sold after the 1972 season as Ken Veney took delivery of his 2nd Veneys Vega Injected Funny car.

The 1972 Veneys Vega was sold to Hawaiian native Jack (the QaurterBender) Cambra, but the car was short lived and parked. It would remain in Hawaii for nearly 36 years.

This car managed to be sold about 6 times and only saw the track a handful of times, and most notably by Tyler Taba who ran the car in Super Pro with a mild carbureted BBC and powerglide.

I found the car on RacingJunk.com on December 24th 2006 at 9:04 pm and called the owner and said I will take it. I had the car shipped overseas to Seattle and after 2 weeks of Research discovered the original owner of the car to be Ken Veney. I sent Ken pictures and Ken confirmed it to be his 1972 Vega. After several pictures and emails, I was the luckiest guy in the world due to the fact that this car still had about 75% of the original equipment still in perfect intact condition, and so after two and a half years of Resurrecting the car and preserving the past of our great Nostalgia funny cars and drivers, I am proud to have been the one to have found this car and done the right thing,..Veneys Vega Lives Again.