| 03.13.10 |
Greg Chelak |
Bob, Thanks for posting this photo of Jake Ressiga in Mike
Martine's White #770 Coupe. Jake drove for Mike from 1968 through 1972, this
photo of the Martine Coupe shows Jake working the wheel with one of his ever
crude fire suits, a real trade mark.
This particular car was in fact the Black & Yellow #3 That Jackie Evans
drove and was the car in the Blairstown, NJ Diner fire, an event that ended
the cars legacy. They never raced it again after the diner event.
Mike built another Black & Gold Modified # 770 coupe which Jake drove on
occasion but the "Hot Shoe" that really got this mount around was none other
than Mike Grbac, Martine says what a performance difference when Grbac
drove the car. Mike had a "Sister car" to the white # 770 Modified, a white
# 770 sportsman coupe that Dickie Bohm drove to victory for Mike and
campaigned on a regular basis until family issues ended Bohm's driving days.
This car was destroyed when Henry Sharp took the car out at OCFS for Mike
and was Rear Ended, bending the frame beyond repair, Mike being the nice guy
he was, then lent the motor from that car to Dick Yoemans of Liberty, NY and
Dick recorded some of his best race performances at OCFS with Mike's power
plant which he had to wait six months to retrieve from Yoeman's. Dick got a
second in the feature his first time out with the Martine motor. Mike owned
various race cars over the years and one of his greatest accomplishments was
when Jake beat Russ Meyers in the 35 lap Semi - Late Model championship race
Driving Mikes White 1956 Ford, #770, Meyers still wonders what they had
under the hood that night, as he would catch Jake in the corner but half way
thru Jake would throttle down and leave Russ behind!
Mike Martine still attends the races at OCFS and will be at the OCFS
Nostalgia Night on June 5, 2010, stop by the event and say Hello! Or if you
are really lucky you might catch Mike at his office where Nostalgia Reigns
with a good number of old photos from his dad's # 04 cars to Mike's complete
history over the years, some great shots Mike is proud of. |
