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Vintage Engines, Modern Results

‘Ohio’ George Montgomery Proves The Old Ways Are Still Profitable

By Bill Holder

Page 1 of 2

His business card provides the data on “George’s Speed Shop Precision Racing Engines,” but doesn’t provide much of a clue of who George is or what he does. You might be surprised to learn that the George in this case is better known as “Ohio George” Montgomery, a legendary NHRA national driver.

But if you have any memory of drag racing’s golden years of the 1960s, you likely already know a lot about this performance pioneer’s storied career.

The racing career started in 1955 when he put a ’59 Caddy engine in a ’34 Ford Coupe and competed competitively in the Top Eliminator Class in NHRA regional events. Then, in 1958, he bought a ’33 Willys for $100 and equipped it with a Caddy engine. Competition began in 1959 and he had a number of NHRA class wins through the 1961 season, including the Nationals Little Eliminator Class in both 1959 and 1960.

The winning continued in 1963 with a blown small block Chevy under the hood of the Willys Gasser for the new A/GS Blown class. In 1963, he captured the class along with taking the Middle Eliminator Class at the 1963 NHRA Nationals.

Ford Corporate Relationships
New power was in place for the 1966 season as a result from an alliance George formed with the Ford Motor Company. It was the new 427 SOHC Ford engine, supercharged and injected and capable of 1,700 horses.The results with the new power were stunning as Montgomery took both the 1966 and ’67 Nationals in addition to the ’67 Winter Nationals.

But because Ford wanted a Ford body on its drag machines, it was decided that a new dragster would have a modern look. Montgomery added an all-fiberglass ’67 Mustang body, soon to be known as the “Malco Gasser.”

A multitude of national wins followed with Super Eliminator victories at the Spring Nationals in 1969 and Competition Eliminator wins at the Gator Nationals two times, in 1973 and 1974.

His on-track accomplishments made him a household name, often mentioned in the same breath as Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowny, Connie Kalitta, and the like.

After Racing
But there was much more to Montgomery than his driving capabilities. He was also involved with the repairing, tuning and maintaining those powerhouse engines he used during his national NHRA days. In addition, he was – and still is – a master builder of a multitude of racing engines covering just about all aspects of motorsports.

His success as an engine builder has been described with a number of adjectives, according to past and current customers, including innovative, persistent, smart, self-taught and flexible. No challenge was ever too complex to be addressed.

An articulate retainer of past work, his files indicate that there have been many thousands of engine projects. On numerous occasions, engine problems have been brought to George after failures from other companies. Even though Ford has been his main emphasis, he’ll work on any brand.

The old saying of “Let George do it!” certainly fits this guy to a T. Don’t believe it? Just look at the multitude of engine types he’s built, tuned, modified, tested and repaired over some five decades. Included are performance marine, NASCAR, ARCA, truck pulling, off-road truck racing, desert racing, IndyCar, Indy Lights, monster truck, sprint car and drag race (of course) engines.

When he retired from racing in the mid-1980s, his only son Gregg joined the scene, helping Dad at his modest Riverside, OH, facility. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree with Gregg who certainly inherited his father’s engine building skills.

The younger Montgomery explains, “I was in the shop when I was only five years old and doing useful jobs. By the time I was 17, I could operate all the machines in the shop.”

Today, he says, “Our specialty is blueprinting and dyno testing ’60s and ’70s classic and muscle car engines.”