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Motor Menders Rod & Custom Club Inc. was started on August 11, 1956. Alan Frey was nominated as President and the dues were set at $1 per week. The club meetings were held at Alan's home on East King Street, until they acquired a garage at 386 W. Clark Avenue. The club later moved to the 500 block of W. Clark Avenue, when the garage at 386 W. Clark Avenue was destroyed by fire.
The club earned $24.00/week from 1956 to 1959 working at the Lancaster Drag Strip, putting up the track lights and removing them after the races were over. This was accomplished by standing on the top of a raised dump truck bed to reach the sockets.
By late 1957 or early 1958, the club saved enough money to purchase a dragster from Birmingham, Alabama, appropriately named the Birmingham Bomber. When they received the dragster, everybody was dissappointed because it wasn not at all what they had expected; hence, the dragster's new name: "Dissappointment." A 438-cu.-in. ods block was won at a show; thus the car number was 438.
Because parts were scarce, as was money, every part purchased for the dragster was a major milestone. The body was added later to run a/comp class.
In 1954, the White Rose Timing Club started a drag strip at the Thomasville Airport. The strip was called South Penn Drag Strip until 1959, when South Penn and the Lancaster Drag Strip both closed. In 1960, the Sportsters Car Club helped the Motor Menders start the York US 30 Drag-O-Way at the Thomasville Airport.
The Sportsters club members eventually all dropped out, leaving the Motor Menders to run the strip alone. With an average membership of approximately 22-25 members it bacame mandatory for every member to work at the strip every Saturday to maintain his membership in the club. In 1965, the club moved to Dover when the property at Clark Aveue was sold. In 1979, York US 30 was closed and the club disbanded shortly thereafter; some of the members went on to work NHRA for 20+ years. The club was resurrected and, although the club was founded on the sport of drag racing, it is now predominantly a street rod club, although some of the members are still very much involved in the drag racing sport.
The club still has active members from its original membership in the '50s and '60s.
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