Words by Jeff Burk
Photos by James Drew and Ron Lewis
5/8/06
Almost anybody involved in the sport of drag racing has heard of the Lenco transmission and probably the owner of the company, Gary Sumek. What you may not know is that Gary and his son David also are racers and that they race a style of car that represents everything that attracted many young men and women to the sport of drag racing in the first place…an open wheeled, supercharged, short-wheelbase “altered."
No, it doesn’t burn nitro in the tank; the fuel they use (unfortunately) is methanol, but the car still is Ford-bodied, supercharged, hemi-powered, and altered, and that made it worthy of being this month’s DRO feature car.
According to Gary, “It was David’s idea to have an altered. He talked me into building one.” That was the easy part Sumek said. They had three guys actually work and build the car, a local guy named Rick Jones (not the Pro Stock driver and chassis builder) started it and then when he couldn’t finish it we took it to Hanson's and they did a little more, and then Bob Moyer finished the car. "We say it is an RJHansonMoyer chassis," Sumek said laughing. "We ended up with a good car and we’re still on good terms with all of those guys."
The race team is a family affair as Gary’s other son, Jon, is part of the crew, as is Karen MacDonald. The crew chief and the guy responsible for getting the car ready to race is Gary’s long-time friend John Gullotto. Gary does the tuning.