{"id":39894,"date":"2015-01-02T04:43:54","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T04:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owegopennysaver.com\/?p=39894"},"modified":"2015-01-04T04:48:18","modified_gmt":"2015-01-04T04:48:18","slug":"collector-car-corner-fort-dix-n-j-and-drag-racing-willys-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2015\/01\/02\/collector-car-corner-fort-dix-n-j-and-drag-racing-willys-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Collector Car Corner – Fort Dix, N.J. and drag racing Willys Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Collector<\/a>

Here\u2019s a photo of Bob Mendenhall\u2019s beautiful 1940 Willys B\/Gas drag car from back in the 1960s that competed in north and south Jersey and a few tracks in Pennsylvania. (Ulmer Collection)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Collector<\/a>

Dave Strickler and his Old Reliable Chevrolet 409 was a regular at Vineland in 1962 and won many match races. This is a photo from Vineland Speedway. (Complements of Ammon R. Smith Chevrolet).<\/p><\/div>\n

Q: Greg, I really enjoyed your article about the cars from the 1950s.\u00a0I have many great memories of that era.\u00a0My father was a Chevrolet dealer in Canton, Ohio, and I grew up in grease and oil at the garage.\u00a0In 1961, I was in the U.S. Army at Ft. Dix, N.J., and my wife and I were living in Mt Holly.\u00a0We had a 57 Chevy convertible that we had bought used from dad.<\/p>\n

While at Ft. Dix, I met another soldier from Easton, Pa., who had a 40 Willys B\/Gas dragster.\u00a0We would tow the dragster behind the car down to Vineland to race on the weekends when we were not on duty.\u00a0It was painted metallic blue. I have lots of pictures of that car around the house somewhere.\u00a0It was almost more of a show car than a racer.\u00a0The interior was all blue vinyl and stainless steel. Even the roll cage was wrapped and padded with vinyl.\u00a0The owner and driver was SP5 Bob Mendenhall, my friend from Ft. Dix.<\/p>\n

We both worked for the Commanding General in the Post Headquarters Building. Mendenhall moved to California in 1963 and raced it there for quite awhile.\u00a0While we were still in the Army, we also raced at Atco, N.J., and at Pennsylvania tracks in Reading and Lancaster.<\/p>\n

The picture I attached was taken at my parent\u2019s house in September of 1963 when Bob stopped here on his way to California.\u00a0We just washed the car and were getting ready to load it back on the trailer.\u00a0I remembered some more names from Vineland: Big Daddy Don Garlits was there one day with his Swamp Rat against Connie Kalitta\u2019s Bounty Hunter.\u00a0Man, this is really hard digging in my brain from 55 years ago.<\/p>\n

I did manage to locate a few more photos from the 50’s and 60’s cars. I have two more from Vineland but the prints are very poor quality after 50 years\u00a0I may try to load them into Picasa and hopefully refurbish them just a little. I also found some pictures of some of my early car; a mildly customized 54 Chevy,\u00a0one photo of my sister and me in the very first 53 Corvette to come to dad’s dealership, and my 24 Chevrolet Roadster. I also found photos of our 57 Chevy convertible and our 58 Impala hardtop that we owned when we lived in Mt. Holly.\u00a0The best one by far is the picture of my 55 two-tone blue Chevrolet convertible –\u00a0small block V8, 3-speed with Overdrive. As you can see, I’ve been a car nut for a lot of years and really look forward to your column, which I read in the Canton Repository.\u00a0We really loved being in New Jersey and think about it fondly.\u00a0Thanks for refreshing our memory. Dave and Gayle Ulmer, Massillon, Ohio.<\/p>\n

A: Dave thanks so much for your interesting letter about the good old days of cars and drag racing. I appreciate your kind words, too. I spent many a year in south Jersey watching those great races, including the many times my hero Dave Strickler raced at Vineland in his Old Reliable Chevrolets. (See photo)<\/p>\n

(Greg Zyla is a syndicated columnist who welcomes reader input on collector cars and old time racing at 116 Main St., Towanda, Pa. 18848 or email at greg@gregzyla.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: Greg, I really enjoyed your article about the cars from the 1950s.\u00a0I have many great memories of that era.\u00a0My father was a Chevrolet dealer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nCollector Car Corner - Fort Dix, N.J. and drag racing Willys Memories - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2015\/01\/02\/collector-car-corner-fort-dix-n-j-and-drag-racing-willys-memories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Collector Car Corner - 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