Thu, 23 Jun 2011, 09:12 PM Station Wagons Rule

By Bob Frey

Bob Keister

I've always loved station wagons. There, I said it. It's out in the open. One of my great secrets is now public knowledge. While some people like Hemi-powered cars, others like high-winding, small block Chevys and still others like big block Fords, I like station wagons. It really doesn't make any difference what kind of engine it has, if it's a wagon, I like it. I guess that goes back to my childhood days when my dad used to haul our family around in a Rambler station wagon. Honest he did. Or maybe it was those big, wide, long and very heavy Ford station wagons that we had in later years, the ones that weighed about 9,000 pounds, give or take a few. Whatever the case, there has always been something about station wagons that I liked. Even in drag racing the station wagons always stood out. There was Gene Fulton's' classic Chevy wagon that terrorized the IHRA ranks back in the 1970's. Then there was the fleet of Wonder Wagons, station wagons that actually ran in the Funny Car class and were sponsored by Wonder Bread. Ok, so they almost ran, but that's another story for another day. Heck, George Weiler even ran a station wagon in Pro Stock for a while. Others, like Richard Charbonneau, the great Stock Eliminator racer from the 1970's, and Chris Barnes with his "Wagons of Steel" wouldn't run anything but a station wagon. Yeah, I'm a station wagon fan and maybe that's why I have always enjoyed watching Bob Keister race. His wagon, complete with luggage rack or surf board on top, always got my attention. It's quick, fast, colorful, and different and it was a station wagon. What's not to like?

Photo copyright 2011 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Bob Keister is, by his own admission, "living life large these days. Every day is Saturday and there are extra Sundays in every week." That's because after thirty-five years of running his own automotive repair station, Bob has finally retired. So you would think that the avid drag racer would now be planning on attending more drag races than he did during his working years, but that's not the case. "No, these days I pretty much stick to the local racing. I'll go to a couple of divisional races but I've probably been to my last national event." That is, unless the spirit moves him. "I have to work things around my two to three hour lunches and a nap here and there. You know, everything has its priority."

Keister in his Camaro.

Like a lot of other drag racers Bob began racing at a very early age. In 1957 he started out with a classic 1955 Chevrolet that he ran in the D/X class. "It had a 302 cubic inch engine and it ran very well," he said. After racing that for a short period of time Bob went into the Navy and eventually spent two tours of duty in Vietnam. After getting out of the service and spending some time in California, Bob headed back to his roots in the southern part of New Jersey, and that's when both his business and his racing careers took off. With the same '55 car that he had before the Navy, Bob switched over to Modified Production with a car that was just as much at home on the street as it was on the strip. "Back then you could set a car up so it could be a race car and a street car," he said. "As competitive as things are now you really couldn't do that anymore." The venerable '55 eventually gave way to a 1970 Camaro that fit into the E/MP class and Bob was as competitive as any E/MP car in the country. "It had a 302 engine and we set the national record with it at Gainesville in 1978." After the success he had with that car Bob sold it and then chose to sit out for a while, but his layoff was brief. "I missed it and wanted to get back and I wanted a car that was a little different, and believe it or not all it took was a trip to the junkyard and that's when I got my first station wagon." Bob didn't know it at the time but a legend, or at least a really cool car with a great story, was born in that junkyard.

1964 Chevrolet Nova Wagon

The car Bob got was a 1964 Chevrolet Nova wagon. The first thing he did to turn it into a race car was get a chassis kit that included everything he needed for the frame, the roll cage and all of the other required items. "It was a lot of fun putting it together and it immediately got a lot of attention. The late Steve Collison saw it at the track and wanted to do a story for Super Stock Magazine." A trip to the defunct Vineland Speedway, a track near Bob's home, was all Steve needed for the article. "The car always has attracted a lot of attention and Steve had fun doing the story at the old Vineland track." One of the reasons that fans like the car is not so much the fact that it's a station wagon, although that often is the first reason they check it out, but what Bob has painted on it. "In the beginning we had a surf board painted on the roof and folks loved it. After that we changed it and made it look like a more traditional station wagon and that included two pieces of luggage and a sleeping bag on the roof. A guy by the name of 'Henry the Brush' painted it and we still have that on the car today." What he doesn't still have on the car are four doors. "No, I wanted to make it into a two door car and so we did. The Novas didn't come as a two door wagon in that year, but we cut it up, changed the body panels, put the bigger doors on it and all of a sudden it's a two door." And that's the car as it races today. All the while, through the different paint jobs and door configurations, Bob either ran the car in Super Gas or as a Super Pro car at his local track, Atco Raceway in New Jersey. "Even when I ran it as a Super Pro car I still kept the throttle stop on because it would help me learn for when I went Super Gas racing." And while he never did win a national or divisional event event, he did go rounds with it on several occasions. "I went six rounds at the Division 1 race at Maple Grove last year and that was a lot of fun."

Photo copyright 2011 Auto Imagery, Inc.

When you talk with Bob you'll quickly discover that most of the things he does are a lot of fun. "I've really enjoyed racing and now my son, BJ, drives the car and I enjoy watching him. He's putting on a Super Gas race at Numidia later this year and I hope a lot of the East Coast guys come to support him." As for Bob, the question is will he make his son's race. "I don't know, I've got a pretty busy schedule. I guess I could skip a lunch and go up there with him. We'll see. I'm pretty busy you know." Those lunches, by the way, have caused another change in the venerable Nova. "All the years I ran it the car weighed about 2,650 pounds, but I think it's up to about 2,675 now," he said with a laugh. Even with the extra weight, if indeed the car is heavier now, Bob and his son know one thing, wherever they go people will stop by, take a look at the car and tell them how much they like it. After all, it's a station wagon and what's not to like about a 1964 Nova two-door station wagon with a 454 cubic inch engine in it, even if Chevrolet never did make such a vehicle. Come to think of it, after seeing Bob's car, maybe they should have.