Fri, 5 Oct 2001, 07:16 PM
He's Just An Average Joe. I Mean, Wayne!!
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By Bob Frey
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I often write stories about drag racers who have turned in superior, record-breaking
performances. And I love those tales about guys who have overcome great obstacles to
race and win on the national level. But you know, for every one of those stories,
there are, literally, thousands of guys and gals who are just your average people,
working folks who go about their daily lives just waiting for the weekend so they
can race. And, while they may not have that one, spectacular moment in their career
to talk about, they are the folks who make this a great sport. Wayne Meli is just
such a guy.
Wayne Meli
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Wayne Meli is a 47-year-old racer who has been drag racing for most of those years.
"I built my first car when I was 13 years old," he said, "and I’ve
been racing, more or less, ever since." Now I know that I said Wayne is an
average guy, but, when I look at some of the cars that he has raced, there really
isn’t anything "average" about them. "I bought a 1960 Chevy for
about 25 bucks," he said almost apologetically. "Then I junked the car,
took the motor out and put it in a ’55 Chevy that my aunt gave me and went to the
races." The car also had a set of bucket seats from a Pontiac Bonneville,
weighed about 4,000 pounds and fit, neatly into the old Modified Production class.
To quote Wayne, "it was an interesting car." Yeah, a car just like your
average guy would run!
After racing that car for a couple of years at Atco Dragway, and the old Strato-Rods
drag strip that was run by the U.S. Air Force at McGuire Air Force Base in New
Jersey, (and where I once announced), Wayne decided that it was time to step up. So,
he came up with a ’58 Studebaker with a flathead engine and door handles that were
so big they were actually off an old storm door that Wayne just happened to have
handy. Oh, did I mention it was a Studebaker truck? Just another average car. Or, to
quote Wayne, "it was real state-of-the-art." As the years progressed,
Wayne "built a lot of junkers," but he stayed involved in the sport. Then,
as the years progressed, he really did step up, with a 1967 Chevelle SS, with a 396
cubic inch engine and 375 horsepower, that he ran in the bracket classes at both
Atco and McGuire. Plus, it became a fixture at some of the early Super Chevy races
as well as at some of the muscle car events of that era.
In the late ‘80’s, Wayne bought a Chevy Monza that had been run and crashed earlier
in the year. "I spent ten months putting it together and then I raced it in
Super Gas, Super Street and in some bracket classes. I had some success with
it." Which, I believe, brings us up to his present car, a gorgeous 1927 Ford
Roadster that runs in Super Gas. Wayne saw the car advertised in National Dragster
and decided that this would be his next ride. I mean, it’s no Studebaker, but it
would have to do. With its unique, pink and green paint job, it isn’t hard to find
Wayne’s car in the pits. "That’s the color it was when I bought it," he
told me, "and I liked it so I left it alone." In addition to the color,
the car has the best of everything, including a 454 engine, all the electronics, a
beautifully chromed roll cage, and the rest of the stuff that goes into today’s,
average Super Gas car. And Wayne, a self-taught mechanic, does all of the work on
the car himself. "Other than the trans, which Joe "D" built
(referring to New Jersey’s Joe DiPasquale), I do all the work myself It runs well
and I freshen it up every winter."
Wayne, like so many other drag racers, wishes that he had more time to go to the
track, but, right now, he’s happy working as the manager at Morgan’s Tire Service in
Burlington, New Jersey (no exit!), where he has been for about two years, now.
"As much as I’d like to be racing more," he said, "I’m very fortunate
to have a good job. I grew up with Harold and Paul Morgan, we went to school
together, and I’m glad that I can help them out." The Morgan Tire Service, by
the way, is a full service shop that has 13 bays, and handles between fifty and
sixty jobs a day. And, now that he’s working for his old classmates, Wayne realizes
that his dad was right when he said that a good education would, eventually pay off.
Actually, one of Wayne’s best stories is about his days in school. "My sister
was a teacher at the school I was attending, so I told all my buddies to take her
class and that I’d put in a good word for them." Whether he did that, or not,
Wayne never told me, but he day say that his sister flunked him in class. "I
was always day dreaming, thinking about racing, and I just figured she’d give me a
good mark. Well, I was wrong. And when I told my dad that my sister flunked me, he
said, "She didn’t flunk you, you did.’" You gotta love dad’s, don’t you?
Judy giving last minute instructions.
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For a guy who has never won a national event, or made the finals for that matter, I
wondered what attracted Wayne to the sport, and why he has stayed in it so long.
"I love the spirit of the folks, the challenges of the sport and all the
friends that I’ve made over the years. I just love everything about it." Today,
as he sits in the pits at Maple Grove waiting to make another time run in Super Gas,
Wayne tells me that his daughter and his sister will be at the races this weekend.
Yes, the same sister. And his wife, Judy, will be there, as always, on the starting
line, helping him stage and cheering him on. "My daughter wants to race, in
fact, she has two licenses, Super Comp and Gas. Heck, I can remember when she was
learning to ride a bicycle, " he said. "She’s going to college right now,
and I’ll encourage her to race, but she knows that her education comes first."
Like I said, you gotta love dads. I just hope she doesn’t have her aunt for a
teacher!
It will be interesting to see how Wayne does this weekend, but, even if he doesn’t
win, he’ll be there helping his friends, and bench-racing with them. "We have a
lot of fun when we’re at the track, guys like Pete Church, Benny Saia and a few
others," Wayne said, "I love ‘em all. We bust on each other, but these are
my friends." For a guy who sent out "Proud To Be American" buttons to
dozens of his pals last week, I can honestly say that we’re proud to have guys like
Wayne Meli in this sport. Nice, average guys who have contributed so much to the
history of drag racing. "I’ll do it ‘til I can’t do it any more. Being at the
track is the best stress-reliever there is." Hey, for a guy who ran a
Studebaker truck, how much stress can there really be?
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