Dave Mullin

 I’ve worked in the car industry since 1968 when I got my first job in a Ford Dealership hiking cars after school.  Cars are my life and I have been a Gasser fan since 1967.  The model car club I belonged to went to Oswego to see a Gasser meet.  All of the heroes from the past were there; Ohio George, Stone Woods and Cook, Big John Mazmanian, and KS Pitman.  It rained out that day but I got to help Montgomery’s crew put the nose on the powder blue`33 Willys.  I was hooked.   The Club evolved and we built and raced a `60 Valiant with a slant six. 

I raced streetcars at the Big O, The Grove and 30 throughout the early 70’s.  The fastest was a 12 second LT 1 powered `69 Nova, and I had a cool channeled 35 Ford Pick Up with a dual quad caddy, but my favorite was my high school car, a poppy red `65 Ford Galaxy 500 XL convertible with a big block and a factory four speed.  

My first real racecar was a 1968 Cougar funny car that was originally built by Sontag Speed Shop, in Joliet.  I was 21 and just married, with a partner in the car.  The marriage stuck but not the partnership.  Ultimately, we never raced it and I traded it off for another street Nova, and then turned it into a low 11-second bracket car.  I named it MOON SHOT.   It was Black with Purple Murano Flames, and won it’s share of indoor car shows.  I raced it on occasion at Great Lakes and primarily at Byron, for about 3 seasons. 

Since then I’ve raised a family of four, and have 5 grandchildren and another on the way.  Like many of us, when the kids came priorities changed.  Coaching youth baseball and football filled my free time for 18 years, and the racecar was sold in favor of a number of Corvettes.  The road back to drag racing started at Goodguys Indy around 1998.  My wife and I decided to get into the street rod scene, and bought a `40 Chevy Coupe.   We still own it and have put over 25 K on it.  A few years ago my buddy Tom put me onto the current racecar, my `37 Chevy Coupe.  It was just a rolling chassis, (built by Bill Lucky), and was on it’s 2^nd owner, (neither of which ever put a motor or trans in it).   

Now nearly 25 years since my last real racecar I’ve got the fever.  Both of my grown sons and my future son in-law have pitched in to get it going this year. I couldn’t have done it without their help.  My 4-year-old grandsons come to the track just as my oldest son did.  There’s one other guy who I need to thank, the guy who started the car club in Oak Park.  His name is Dave Howell.  He didn’t just start a model car club, bring a bunch of kids to Oswego, and let us drive his red `65 Barracuda at the Grove, he gave this kid with no dad a future. So thanks Dave.