Quote: The Super Stock & Drag Illistrated magazine contest give-away car
I wonder who won that?
A guy by the name of John Zibor, but in reality, it was Pete Tritak. Say what, you're saying? Here's the inside story from another forum:
Originally Posted by colesy
Speaking of John Zibor, this has got to be his biggest claim to fame. It's not everyday that someone wins a Tritak & Morgan prepped SS/DA Cuda. Some of you no doubt remember this contest SS&DI magazine put together back in the day. To win, you had to sell SS&DI subscriptions. They followed the whole build process and after a season or so of racing they picked a lucky winner.
Dom replied:
OK NOW IT IS TIME FOR THE REST OF THE STORY!
Thought some of you would like to know the real story of John Zibor and the Tritak/Morgan Cuda. First of all, going back to 1963 Pete Tritak and I were both working at Tri Town Motors Chrysler Plymouth in Clifton NJ. I was parts manager and he was a mechanic. I use to pick him up in Passaic on my way to work from Hoboken.
I had met George Trifoli owner of Tri Town at Island Dragway. Pete use to drive Tri Towns 63 plymouth 426 max wedge car. Eventually George offered me a job and I went to work in the parts dept. Pete had some family problems and stopped driving the car and I took over.
Pete and I started a small business on the side right around the corner from the dealership. We built max wedge cars and did manual shift torqueflites and general repair, still working during the day in the dealership. Eventually Pete and I both went to work for Arrow Motors Dodge in West New York NJ. We still had the shop in Passaic.
Finally I was getting married and we continued in the shop after work in Passaic but I moved further south to Woodbridge and he went in to business as Tritak Performance in Clifton. I still worked at Arrow and moved to Irvington Dodge as service director and eventually to Knoblock Dodge in South River and I started Rinaldi Automotive out of my shop at my house in Woodbridge.
For those of you that have read all the previous posts, I won't go into it again in detail but.........I supplied to Pete the '63 Plymouth wagon that became the "War Wagon",and paid for the Jenkins motor that was in it. I was reimbursed by Pete for everything I paid out as we were still good friends and I had the $$$ to help him. He had much success with the wagon and got the deal with Super Stock magazine.
From the onset the deal was going to be a giveaway of the Cuda at the end of the race year. The decision was that Super Stock magazine would have a contest and that the person selling the most subscriptions for the magazine would win the car.
{I have never seen this mentioned before and hope that I don't piss off some people}, but Pete really wanted to keep the car. Enter John Zibor a policeman in Clifton where Pete's shop was . It was decided that John would be the front man for the contest and would be the winner!! Everybody that came through the door of Pete's shop got a subscription to Super Stock,{including me}. Pete paid for the subscriptions and they were all sent in with John Zibor as the salesman.
I don't remember the exact number of how many were sold but it far out distanced anyone else. There was a $$$ amount that took place between John and Pete but I was never told how much Pete paid him for being the front man. The car never left Pete's shop and the story that got around was that he bought it from John after he won it.
