Seeing double! After LOTS of begging it’s owner I was finally able to purchase the other Jon Gooding Mountain Dew car – Roush chassis 029- to reunite it with chassis 030. 029 was restored by Dan Binks in 1998 at Roush and then given to Gooding by Jack Roush. It literally hasn’t been started since. A virtual time capsule. Drink coolers, original data system, cool suit system- it’s all there.
A little bonus was getting Gooding’s drivers suit, helmet, gloves, and an assortment of team shirts as well. Plus the Roush wheel gun, Exide battery charger, “touché” paint and even Jon’s lucky Beanie Baby “Speedy the Turtle” that is still zip-tied to the dash.
There were just 6 of these Roush SN95 / Championship cars built: (3) All Sport cars for Tommy Kendall (chassis #s 28,32,33), (2) Mountain Dew cars for Jon Gooding (29 and 30), and (1) driven by Boris Said (chassis 31).
For 1997, the final and most successful year for the program, TK would drive chassis 33 (and win the championship) and Gooding drove this car, chassis 29. He was 2nd in points until missing a race to attend his father’s funeral which put him back to 3rd for the 1997 series. According to Dan Binks chassis 29 and 33 had “every trick in the book” thrown at them for 1997. Magnesium inner panels, three-link rears with a “pogo stick,” special front suspension, floor mounted pedals and masters to get the GG down, and tons of other tricks. Binks says “It was our last year, we knew we weren’t coming back, and we put those cars on kill to win!” And, obviously, the plan worked! Chassis 33 resides in the personal collection of Jack Roush and now Chassis 29 looks on from our garage as its older sibling Chassis 30 continues to do battle in vintage racing today. Maybe someday we’ll get this old time capsule fired up to get a few side-by-side Mountain Dew parade laps, but for now we’re just feel pretty damn lucky to have these two rascals back together again.
