SCF_418 #1/2 Steve 'Sylvester' Elias modified coupe {UPDATED}

This car was owned by John Foster who owned the Half Way Inn in Deptford, N.J. A lot of the drivers used to hang out there. He sold that at the end of 53 and bought the Park Cafe in north Woodbury. This picture of the #1/2 was taken in a garage where the car was painted an lettered in North Woodbury by the person who painted it. The car was brand new and hadn't seen a race track yet a picture of Sylvester the cat was to be painted on the trunk lid. You see that my middle name was "Sylvester" over the door of the car, but that's not really my name, but a name given to me by Bill Gregory the announcer at the track when I drove the 011 in 1953 at Alcyon. There was a cat head painted on the hood of the car and he was a great one for giving drivers nick names, even today some of the old timers call me Sylvester. The first #1/2 was a brown coupe driven by Marty Geortler. It raced at Alcyon in 52 and 53. In 1955, it was a 37 Ford sedan and was driven by Carl DeGeorge (John Foster's son in law). He went over the fence at Vineland after a bad flip and decided to end his career as a driver and took over crew chief of the car. He brought the car to Vineland the following week without a driver. My car had a problem that night and John ask me to drive his. I went out in the heat race and had problems with the handling so we made a few changes after the heat and won the consi and the feature - a great surprise to all! For the rest of the season Ken Marriot and myself used to drive it whenever our cars were not available. John asked me to drive full time in 1956 which I agreed to do. He had built a brand new car powered by a Sonny Dornberger engine. We won some races at the Atco third mile, but had a wreck one night... The right front spindle had broken and the right front wheel came off and dug in and over I went. It totaled the car and that was the last time the car was on the track. Carl never rebuilt it.