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This was at the Hemi Reunion, after Bob Fredrick owned it the story goes that Benny Bertock found it in a barn with no glass and no motor. He bought the car for $900.00. He raced it at Quaker City for years under the Buckeye Brawler name. He quit racing it in the mid 80's after deciding that it was too valuable to have anything happen to it, he then ended up selling it a few years after that. I grew up in the same town as Bertock's and they had a barn full of Hemi cars. Dad bought his 65 Coronet off of them. I never knew who bought it until we were at the Reunion.




The car was raced as the Hustlin' Hemi by Bertok. I have a picture of when Snyder bought it somewhere at home. It was blue/silver with a red interior.

The Buckeye Brawler was a red/black '65 Plymouth hardtop.

Ben Bertok also bought Carlon Hine's original Chargin' Hemi. That car was destroyed in a freak accident at Quaker when Ben was staging the car, The guy behind him started doing a burnout and the car let go running into the Charger.




The Buckeye Brawler still is red and black and is sitting in my older brother's trailer. We had found out a couple of years ago a lot of the cars history from one of the past owners, Jack Aekin (spelling?) He actually painted the car red and named it the Buckeye Brawler in the winter of 75-6. The black was later added. The car before that was Bullet Bob Reed's Locomotion. Not an original hemi car, but it had been converted in the late 60's to a hemi 4 speed and held some kind of ahra record (I think that is the right sanctioning body).

My brother was told that the guy who wrecked into Ben's Chargin hemi actually bought the Buckeye Brawler and gave it to Ben. He was also told that he (Ben)didn't like the car and it didn't work as well as his old car and was never really pleased with it. Any one know how to get ahold of Ben Bertok? Maybe my brother or I could verify this. We have kind of enjoyed hearing all the tails of this car. Thanks, John




Yes, you are right... I remember Ben Sr. telling us that they guy who wrecked into Benny bought him the Brawler. And yes, I remember Benny saying that he didn't care for the car.