It’s been a while since we had an update on Racin’ Jason Betwarda’s iconic Mustang, but we’ve confirmed that the car’s current owner and caregiver, Joe Caldwell, finally has the car ready for on-track testing. The Mustang is scheduled to hit the track in March at the Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey — the site of many of Racin’ Jason’s exploits years ago.

The same artist who lettered the car for Racin’ Jason Betwarda and Mike Ragusa back in the day is the same individual who lettered it again for the car’s reintroduction. Greg Rigos did the graphics for the restoration, and hopefully, it’s the last time he’ll have to do them.

In telling us what the car has been going through the past couple months, Caldwell says, “After the dyno session at PSI Speed Solutions, I took it to Vincent Auto Body, where they tore the whole car apart to paint the underside, fix the fiberglass, and install the new glass, among other things.” Kemperle Auto Paint, Body, and Equipment donated all the paint and supplies needed to straighten out and paint the car.

After Vincent’s was done with the paint, Caldwell took the car to C&F Race Cars in New York. where the team installed the parachute, set up the rear end, and went through the entire car to tie up any loose ends.

“We had a couple of water leaks on the dyno, so C&F took care of those while the car was there,” Caldwell says. North Haven, Connecticut’s Extreme Fab did  deadlock conversion on the wheels, and Caldwell bought all new tires for the car. He then took the car home at the end of November, and Kaos Designs’ Greg Rigos, the individual that originally did the lettering on the car, redid all the original graphics and lettering.

Caldwell says Greg’s mother found all the original fonts, so he downloaded them and reapplied them all in the original locations. Troy Baum from RACE Wires did the final wiring on the car, installed the fire system, and set up the Big Stuff3 EFI, among other items needing his attention. Baum was essentially tasked with making sure the car is fully ready to race. “Awesome guy, Troy is,” Caldwell says.

Caldwell says he will be doing some of the testing in the car, but says the majority of the driving chores will be gladly handled by Mike Ragusa. Caldwell has been in the sevens, but knows Ragusa is probably more accustomed to the power the car has been built to produce.

Speaking of being ready to race, Caldwell will be taking the car to PSI Speed Solutions this week for final tuning. He and PSI’s Frank Soldridge want to make sure the Mustang still runs good, fires right up, and ensure everything is still ready to go mechanically.

“A lot of the original people worked on the car for the restoration,” Caldwell says, “and that’s really cool.” Another guy that helped Joe out tremendously was Jason Sabo, who does a lot of work for DMC Racing and for the DeMarco brothers.

As for the car’s initial testing, that will take place at a private test session in Englishtown. Mike Hedenburg from Raceway Park offered up a private session so they can get a few laps on the car. It will then make its public debut at E-Town at the end of March, which also marks the 20th anniversary of when it ran first in the sevens. Per Caldwell, the car was last raced in 1996.

The car’s first major event will be the NMRA Motorsport Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania, on the weekend of April 28th to May 1st. “The car always did well there, so it’s only fitting that the Racin’ Jason car is there,” Caldwell says. A Pro 5.0 reunion at the Motorsport Nationals is gaining traction, and what better place to have Racin’ Jason’s car than at that event.