Thanks again Qwik426. .. some of the cars pictured are still around.... two of the Super Stockers are but haven't been raced in years... from the Island pictures I have raced there for over 30 years and know most of the Mopars ... the burgundy Road Runner was owned by the Scerbo brothers from the Poconos.. the brother that drove the Road Runner passed away a few years ago.. the car is still around repainted orange and was racing at Island a few years ago owned by someone else.. the maroon Super Bee was actually owned by the then track operator , Tony Demarcky and driven by a friend off his.. Tony passed away a few years ago also and his daughter and son in law are the current owners / operators of Island I believe the Super Bee is still around... Bill Hejnars Dart was powered by a small block , he sold it a long time ago and the new owner put a big block in it I haven't seen it in years.. Bill went on to race a small block Daytona in Super Gas and was pretty successful until a giant wheel stand damaged the car and I believe he sold it right afterwards .. he was a good guy I bought a set of headers from him as well as an 8 inch 904 converter I still have today. Jerry Stein actually lives about a 1/2 mile from me and still has the Teachers Pet as well as a few other cars...Al Ruths Gertrude is still around also as a matter of fact I bought a set of Weld Wheels off the front of Gertrude two years ago and they are on my Dart now. Gertrude was in Hi Performance Magazine along with my Dart in an article about 10 second Mopars back in 1988.. The War Wagon has been resurrected and was at a Nostalgia race at Island last year.. Greg Van ess is the owner of the silver early Barracuda it had a small block he also still has it but hasn't raced it in years...Bob Favers 70 Cuda is also still around I talked to him at Atco last year and it has been turned into a street car. The Mopar Atlantic Nats were always so much fun we always had a good time .. Budman ( also in your pictures ) used to sell some of my spare parts for me and I actually made a few bucks sometimes ... Everybody still says Vinny and Richard are rolling over in their graves knowing what happened to their beloved track.
You're welcome! And thank you for giving me some history and updates that I was not aware of such as Tony's passing .
I know Bud Man pretty well. I haven't talked to him in about 15 years though. The first time I seen the Bud Man and his red '65 Plymouth was one Wednesday evening at Raceway Park in 1984 or 1985. "Hmmm...never seen that Mopar before", so I went right over to Bud in the staging lanes and began a conversation. We became Mopar buddies from that point. Seen Bud race many times at RP as he and his brother Rich were Raceway Park regulars and in the points chase. Bud was kind enough to gave me some space at his spot a couple of times in the 1990s during the Fall swap meet at Englishtown so I could sell some of my Mopar parts. I can never say anything except something good about him.
The first time I met Al Ruth was via a phone call he made to me sometime in 1986. He got my number from Jim Koziol (Jack's Auto Parts) who knew I had a 1968 B-body 8 & 3/4 rear for sale. Al was interested in buying it to install in Gertrude which he described to me over the phone and was in the process of transforming from its bone stock state (Slant Six car originally--I think). We couldn't agree upon a price but became friends from that point.
The first time I saw Gertrude was at RP in the late-1980s; it was sporting steel rims on all four corners, faded paint, very nondescript, i.e., a grandma's car (hence the nickname I surmise) and ran low 13-second quarters. Gradually Al made upgrades and worked his way up to some serious horsepower under the hood sometime in the mid-1990s.
Yes, you are correct, Vinny and Richard Napp would not approve. Had they still been alive Raceway Park would still be open for drag racing. I worked at Raceway Park full-time during the week from 1992-1996 and got to know them pretty well, especially Vinny, so I had a pretty good idea of how he and Richard thought and that's why I stated and stand behind what I said.
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