CLASS RACER FORUM - East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame

THREE MEN AND A CAR
Ewings’ Z28 has driven them into drag racing fame
by Bill Gates
It’s been 50 years since the oldest of the Ewing brothers, Ken,
began drag racing.
So it’s fitting that Ken, Gary and Wayne Ewing celebrate the
family’s golden anniversary in the sport by being inducted into a
Hall of Fame.
The Liberty Parkway natives are among the 2008 class of
inductees for the East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame.
The ceremony is scheduled for Sunday at 12:30 p.m. in
Henderson, N.C.
Ken, who said he “loved high performance cars and racing,”
started in 1958 racing a 1957 Chevy at the now-defunct Aquasco
Raceway in Maryland.
“Wayne began tagging along to learn the drag racing ropes,” said Ken, 69, who still lives on Liberty
Parkway. “Eventually, he got his driver’s license and began racing and became permanently hooked on
speed.”
Wayne, 63 and a resident of New Freedom, Pa., first raced the family’s everyday car, a 1952
Oldsmobile, before buying a 1962 Chevy Impala in 1964 as a street racing car.
Finally, youngest brother Gary, who’s now 57, lives in Bel Air and owns Gary’s Automotive on North
Point Road, joined the team in 1966.
“We would sneak him into the pits in the trunk of the car, since he was under age,” Ken said.
When he was 14, Gary was allowed to warm up the car before time trials.
In 1968 the Ewing brothers acquired the vehicle that has been their trademark for almost 40 years: a
1969 Chevy Camaro Z28.
“The car was driven on the street for two weeks and then converted to a race car,” said Ken, who
ordered the Camaro from a Baltimore dealership. “It has not seen the street since.”
The Camaro made its debut in March 1969 at the Capital Raceway in Crofton.
“We campaigned it as a stock car for a few years,” said Gary, the main driver. “Then we converted it
into a super-stock, and that’s what it’s been since.”
The Camaro gained national prominence re-cently when it was featured on ESPN’s National Hot Rod
Association (NHRA) Sportsman Spotlight.
“You see a lot of very fast cars, and you see a lot of very beautiful cars,” said the segment’s host, Bob
Frey. “But very few can match the dual performance and beauty of the Chevy Camaro of the Ewing
brothers.”
Gary appeared on-camera during the show, describing the origin of the vehicle’s paint job and engine.
“Ken is the crew chief and makes a lot of the tuning decisions for us,” Gary told Frey. “Wayne is our
weather station person, who works on the computer, tells us how the car should perform in changing
weather conditions.”
When the Camaro isn’t racing, it has made appearances at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium and at liquor
stores throughout Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania.
Since a 2005 restoration, the Camaro has not only continued to race, but the Ewings have featured it in
auto shows up and down the East Coast.
“Everyone expects to see cars go fast at an NHRA event,” Frey said during the ESPN segment. “But
[with the Ewing Camaro], it’s like throwing in a car show for no extra charge.”
The car has appeared in the East Coast Indoor Nationals in Timonium and the York US 30 Muscle Car
Madness Show in York, Pa.
It has won numerous plaques and trophies, and had a second feature on ESPN in addition to appearing in
hot rod and drag racing magazines.
The Ewings have had the top-performing car at the Cecil County Dragway (1973), won the Super Stock
Nationals and the Keystone Nationals in 1989, and twice finished second in the Summer Nationals at
Englishtown, N.J.
They have held several national records, with two of the more recent being the SS/IA ET record of 9.79
seconds, set at Montgomery, Ala. in 2003 and the SS/JA ET record of 10.12 at Bradenton, Fla., in 2005.
The only concession to age has been that Gary now does all the driving.
“He’s the youngest and has better reflexes,” Ken said. “Drag racing is all reflexes. That’s what wins
races.”
The Camaro has twice been honored as Best Appearing Car, earning the honor at shows in Englishtown
and Orlando in 2005.
The Ewings will show the Camaro during the Timonium Car Show at the Fairgrounds during the first
weekend of December.
Being enshrined in the Hall of Fame doesn’t mean the Ewings are retired, or even contemplating it.
The team earned another national record last month in Atco, N.J., and was the No. 1 qualifier last week
during an event in Richmond, Va.
If and when the Ewings stop racing, it won’t be because they can no longer compete.
“The price of everything is getting so far out of hand,” Ken said. “We’ve had to cut back. We used to go
to Florida every March and April for races.”
Racing fuel costs $17 a gallon, while oil is $10 per quart - and must be replaced after every eight runs,
Ken said. Keeping an engine in racing condition can run into ten of thousands of dollars. Plus, rear tires
cost $800 per pair and last about a month.
“We get some money from winning and from our sponsor, Speed Dawg,” Ken said. “As long as our
pocketbooks can take it, that’s how long we’ll keep racing.”