Misc Nate Strunk photos.  

I well remember that old Ford coupe. Billy Winter was a relative of mine. He bought the car in South Plainfield, NJ from Bill Williams: a local racer. Williams had stopped racing and the car sat in his back yard slowly losing pieces. Billy flat towed the car from South Plainfield to Apgar's Garage in Hampton. Along the way he stopped by our place to see if we had any old pipe or angle iron stored in the barn that he could use for bumpers. I took one look at that rolling pile of junk and fell in love. It was the start of a life long interest in racing.

The number came about when the mechanical work was done on the car near the end of the week. The car was white but Billy wanted it red. There was just not enough time to paint and letter it and still race at Flemington on Saturday night. Three Xs were taped on the doors and the car was painted red. When the tape was pulled off, the car was numbered XXX and everyone left for Flemington. Racing was a lot simpler then.