Bill Bagshaw's Red Light Bandit 1970 Hemi Challenger former Pro Stock car will debut on August 29 at the NHRA US Nationals and be on display the entire weekend. The car is the real car that was built by Ron Butler and raced by Bagshaw from 1970 to 1973. As an interesting connection with Indy, the Red Light Bandit Challenger won "Best Engineered" at Indy in 1970, and was featured in the November 1970 issue of Hot Rod magazine.

John Gastman came across the car in 1994 in a package deal with a couple of other Mopars. Gastman held on to the car, and quickly connected with Bagshaw to authenticate the car as the one Bill raced in those great early days of Pro Stock.

The Red Light Bandit has been restored to its former glory at Bucky's Ltd by Bucky Hess and his son Travis. As most of us know, Travis Hess is an incredibly talented painter, and pulled off a miracle to get the Bagshaw car back to "as raced" condition. Nelson Grimes lettered the car exactly as it was in 1970. Cole McAllister, Bucky's fabricator, did the metal work.

Bill Bagshaw will be in attendance at the NHRA US Nationals at Indy next week, as will the current owner of the Red Light Bandit, John Gastman. Gastman is the owner of Roanoke Motors Chrysler/Dodge in Roanoke, Illinois. For those of you who do not know him, Bagshaw is a great guy, and served expertly as consultant throughout the entire restoration process.

The 426 Hemi engine was built to 1970 Pro Stock specs by Bill Bagshaw himself over the past winter. Bagshaw's friend, Ron Shaver of Shaver Racing Engines in Torrance, CA allowed Bill use of his shop. When Bill completed the motor, it was installed on Shaver's dyno eventually produced 679 horsepower at 7800 rpm.

Bucky did an awesome job on the car, and sacrificed testing time with his race car in order to get the Red Light Bandit done for Indy. I can't say enough about the hours and incredible job Bucky and Travis did on the car. We hope that those of you who are attending Indy will stop by and check out the newly restored Red Light Bandit Challenger.

Arvid Svendsen
John Gastman

A pic of the Red Light Bandit Challenger from back in the day.

Not sure, but i think I had that model kit, It was awesome!!!

Here is the car as found by John Gastman in 1994.

The car was in pretty rough shape. Bagshaw sold the car in 1973 to Marshall, who used it for a few years, and then the owner history is shaky until 1994.

A few pics to give you an idea of the condition of the car as found.

Dash as found, has been restored with new parts, but more on that later.

The original cage was saved, returned to 1970 specs by removing the second bar in the entry.

These panels were confirmed by Bagshaw as the panels fabricated by Ron Butler who built the chassis in 1970.

MORE, MORE... GIVE US MORE.

Inner fender panels were also fabricated by Ron Butler, and again confirmed by Bagshaw as authentic.

Hinges as modified by Butler/Bagshaw during construction, again confirmed by Bagshaw.

Even though the car was rough, it was remarkable how many parts used by Bagshaw were still there. In the pic is the (believed to be) Vega gas tank modified by a 63-67 Corvette filler neck. That very tank/filler neck was cleaned up by Bucky, and is now on the restored car.

These seats came with the car, but Bagshaw went to Butler last year and discovered brand new seats identical to the ones he used in 1970. Those NOS race seats are now in the restored car that will be at Indy next week.

This hood with snorkel scoop came with the car, but the restored car is sporting an early scoop that Bagshaw developed when he experimented with the Chrysler IR (independent runner) manifold.

May be a better shot

More like this one, not sure of the source of this pic, sorry if it's a problem.

A pile of parts came with the car when purchased, among that pile is the one of the original motors Bagshaw used in 1970, which I believe is the block on the right side of pic. We still don't get the Hemi motor with injection, but it came with the car.

I believe this motor also came with purchase of the car. Again, not definite about which block from these pics is the one that Bagshaw confirmed, but we found it in the pile, and sent it out to Bagshaw for the build. Bagshaw painted all his motors with Krylon "Cherry Red" paint. Bucky started scraping the motors we sent him, and he found the "Cherry Red" Krylon paint that was under the orange engine paint. Bill built that block, it is now in the restored car.