MONTGOMERY AIRPORT

[dinoKeymaster]

Montgomery IS KEY to the inspiration, For not only Dover to be built, But also Conn. Dragway. This is outlined in Chapter 1 on our history page. Run on a airport by a club, and hosted other forms of racing – Nascar & sporty car types. If “Smokey” hadn’t taken Chet to it …their might have never been a Dover Drag Strip. IT could BE that Mr. Mastrianni IS the one man that was responsible for DOVER not only happening BUT also the one man that kept the Memories alive by Him and Grover running the reunions…getting Brian fired up ….AND Brian Getting ME fired up to do this website …Hmmmmmm….Is “Smokey ” Dover’s …’grand-daddy ???….ONE Hot Rodder can do a lot !

[bobby-s]

Mr. M still is the MAN

Thank you for EVERYTHING
THAN & NOW

let’s not forget his “LIL BUDDY” 😆
Grover

[dinoKeymaster]

Heres a link to a recent Newspaper Article about Montgomery:

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081012/SPORTS/810120334/-1/LIFE02

[dinoKeymaster]

Heres the Alley-Oop dragster of the Danbury Modifiers running at Montgomery….Photos from Bob Swain’s Fantastic collection .

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[billy-casey]

I went to Mongomory in 1958 with some friends of mine from yonkers . I was only 12 years old .. I saw Bert Melody from yonkers beat Don Garlits … Bert and my brother in law Joe Palmieri were best friends in high school . thats is probably the day i got hooked on drag racing …My favorite was the gassers and i knew thats what i was going to do 😛 😛 Billy

[dinoKeymaster]

Just got this From Bobby Laganas Personal Photo Album…signed By GARLITS!

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[dinoKeymaster]

This Results list Was stapled to the Program …I am guess it’s from Montgomery? no date- BUT LOOK at the names !
Gommi with a “Hillman” …Hertel..Joe Jacono…Lagana…Bill Barnett….will confirm details with Bobby L.

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[dinoKeymaster]

Just got some more Info being sent to me About club that worked the track ,as far back as 55 !

[masoParticipant]

quote Billy Casey:

I went to Mongomory in 1958 with some friends of mine from yonkers … I saw Bert Melody from Yonkers beat Don Garlits … Bert and my brother in law Joe Palmieri were best friends in high school … Billy

Here is a link to an interesting thread about Bert Melody that I found on another web site.

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/old-rodders-56266.html

It was started by Chud Barbieri. He is Dennis Barbieri’s brother and did a lot of work on the engine for my brother’s dragster back in ’66 at B&L Automotive in the Bronx. They are still in business.

I would like to learn a lot more if I could about the Montgomery Air Field strip. Pictures too.

[masoParticipant]

quote dinotheweirdo:

This Results list Was stapled to the Program …I am guess it’s from Montgomery? no date- BUT LOOK at the names !
Gommi with a “Hillman” …Hertel..Joe Jacono…Lagana…Bill Barnett….will confirm details with Bobby L.

Bruce Hertel, who’s name is on that list confirms for me that it is in fact from the Montgomery drag strip and for the weekend of July 4th in 1960. He still has his own copy of the same “Result List”. Bruce is very good about hanging on to stuff like that.

I think that if you’re going to research and compile a “History” of the Dover Drag Strip… it has to start with Montgomery for two reasons. 1). The owner’s initiation there and 2). The simple fact that several of the Dover “Hot Shots” started racing there and carried over to Dover after it closed down.

It is also worth noting that Garlits got beat there by a local with a ( get this… ) rear engined dragster after setting the NHRA record there too. And then eventually made the RED work out for everybody.

[dinoKeymaster]

See Paul Gommi…Driving a “Hillman’ ? 😯

[masoParticipant]

Here I go again with that book that I bought from Pat Garlits at the museun gift shop. Big Daddy… A Career Pictorial; Vol. I; Page 33. … and my scanner.

I have to acknowlage credit here to keep Dino out of lawyer trouble… huh…?!

Now… if we could just find a picture of the rig that Bert Melody ran against him with, that would be “bitchin”… eh…?! Anybody…?

Question: Did Bob Swain and William Scott know each other… and can they lead us to more Montgomery photographs…???

[dinoKeymaster]

NICE MASO….I’ll get in touch with Bob and Dick Donofrio

[pacers-auto-incParticipant]

The Pacers ran many times at Montgomery.
The Pacers first B/D dragster was built from a Scotty Fenn Chassis kit and was powered by a 354 cubic inch Chrysler with 6 Stromberg carbs (Pictured below). It crashed during one of its runs at a NASCAR sanctioned meet on Sunday, June 15th, 1959 severely injuring driver, George Snizek, with a broken back, fractured skull and lacerations on his face. It was determined that one of the rear tires had clipped one of the timing lights at the finish line which sent it end over end like a flicked cigarette. While Snizek recovered, partner, Charlie Dodge, drove The Pacers roadster for the remainder of the 1959 season. Charlie & George then shared driving duties during the 1960 season in both their new bantam roadster and their new B/D dragster (which sometimes also ran with a SIMCA body). They later switched back to George as driver and Charlie as tuner.

[masoParticipant]

454 CI…?! or did you mean 354…? Those front wheels in the top picture are very unusual.

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