Frank had a speed shop in Fly Creek NY next to his trucking business, and the customers came from everywhere in the North East and Canada. Frank had wonderful equipment to choose from for his race cars, stuff you could win races with, and he did. Only thing, Frank was a tinkerer, he couldn't leave anything alone. Win the feature race at Middletown, get the car home and put in a new camshaft, or change the suspension, something. When his driver strapped himself in for the next race he was in for a surprise, it was a completely different car, and few liked that. All that tinkering and changing engine parts was to my benefit. Early on I asked Frank (the speed shop was ten miles away) if he would extend me credit, and the answer I got was "nope, save your money up and I'll sell you parts at my cost". I did, and he responded, and, gave me pistons, camshafts, intake manifolds, all things he had replaced in his own car, all good stuff, no junk. He was kind to me to a fault. My respect for the man was great, he was my sponsor for a short-lived snowmobile racing stint (we played golf at times after we both retired from racing).
   Lou Smith died from injuries while driving Franks car (not due to any safety issues with the car), and years later a #62 flew over the fence at Syracuse killing two spectators. That was enough, Frank parked the cars and stayed in racing by selling speed parts at NY racetracks.


 

Stratgey session between Jeep and Frank.



The crew. L-R Fred Seeley, Jeep, Joe Ciganenko, Frank Trinkaus, Willy Seamon.
photos above coutresy of Clay Herbert.



Thats my pal Joe Ciganenko driving the 62 in the fifties.



George Gallup did driving duties in the fifties.



George Welch did a stint behind the wheel of the 62.



Jeep took several tours in the 62.



Here's Jeep in a model year car that allowed the use of a 327ci motor rather than the 300ci max with the coupes. This car was Willy Seamon's road car before it's transformation into a stockcar. The car handled like a beast, and took all the skills a driver had to keep this crate between the fences.



Donny Wayman took his turn.



That's #62 behind Steve Danish and Miss America, Marilyn VanDerbur. It was July 26,1958 and Miss America was coming to Fonda and would present the trophy to the winner of the race that Saturday night. THAT WAS A BIG DEAL!! I remember it taking at least six tries to get the feature under way, everybody towards the front piled ass over head into the first turn causing large pile-ups every time (due to the reduced speed most cars returned to the fray, although from the back of the pack now). Chet Hames chewed some asses out, banged his rolled up flags on fenders, yelling, "you idiots can't win this thing in the first lap". I remember Tom Kotary, his brother Cliff (mostly Tom) and Ed Feuz in a jaw to jaw discussion between re-starts (probably Tom had been sent to the back of the pack). I don't know the reason, but Steve Danish was the last minute driver that night and late in the feature he had his hands full holding off Kenny Shoemaker.
photo above courtesy of John Danish.



Lee Millington won a feature at Fonda in the Trinkaus #62



Lou Smith. Lou was fataly injured in this car at Fonda on 5/15/65.



Irv Taylor took turns behind the wheel.



It wasn't all peaches and cream.
 
Most of the photos on this page are courtesy of Jo Towns

   Other drivers of the #62 that I don't have photos of were Kenny Shoemaker, Lee Armstrong, Ray Sitterly Sr, Moose Cary, Pepper Eastman, and Pete Corey. I'm sure there were others (I think Chuck Mahoney may have been one), but I don't have the photos. During Pepper Eastman's tour with the #62 he wrecked it. Pepper brought his Bouckville crew down to Flycreek, and from scratch they built a stock car in a week at Frank's shop.

   A story related to Bill Wimble's racing skills is as follows. Dave McCready's #S33 driver at the time was Chuck Mahoney, and though Chuck was as brave as they come, and an excellent driver, he was tough as hell on equipment. Dave was tired of Chuck busting up his equipment, and with Chuck's approval decided to find another driver. But Dave didn't know whom to ask, so Chuck told Dave to give Bill Wimble a try. Chuck told his friends "Bill Wimble is the worst driver in the world, and after he wrecks a couple of Dave's race cars he'll come running back to me". Well, history tells it best. Bill Wimble won two NASCAR National Championships with Dave McCready's car in the years following.

   Another story about Chuck Mahoney when he was driving Dave McCredy's #S33. The S33's pit spot was next to mine, so I had a grandstand seat to the following. Chuck was always revving the motor of whatever car he was driving. And it wasn't any different when Chuck pulled in from hot laps, stopped the car revved the motor, put it into reverse to back into his pit stall, revved the motor again, backed in and revved the motor again just before he shut it off. After Chuck got out of the car Fred DeCarr said "Jesus Chuck, I wish you wouldn’t race the motor like that". Chuck replied "it's a racing motor ain't it Fred". Fred DeCarr was McCredy's chief mechanic and engine builder.

   Next week I'm going to get into the photos from the Jeep Herbert collection.