Places Raced:

Maple Grove Raceway, PA Home track
Cecil County
ATCO
York, PA
Englishtown, NJ Summernationals
Columbus OH Sping Nationals
Indianapolis, IN
Ontario, CA World Finals
Suffolk, VA
Amarillo, TX
Bowling Green, Kentucky
Gainsville, FL Gator Nationals
Cayauga, CANADA
San Air CANADA
Salinas, Puerto Rico

Records Set:

Ratified I 1968 Camaro A/MP Cecil County 10.07

Vegabond (raced 1973-1974) built in 1972-73 by the Trost team; this car set 7 records and held 1-2 still to this day.
They Were:

Wins:

1974 Vegabond:
Summernationals Class Champion
1974 INDY: won division
Final race lost by .10th of a second-televised

1975 Vegabond II:
Class Champ in C class a few times
1975 Englishtown Winner
1975 Exhibition Race in Puerto Rico

1978 Vega won class

Tid-bits:

1974 US Nationals race in Indy was televised. He lost the final showdown by .001 of a second to Tim McDonald and his 1962 D/MP Corvette. Jack’s car was shown as a snipet pulling off the line on the Wide World of Sports.

The world finals in Ontario, CA was a heartbreaker. (Was this in 1974 also with the Vegabond?)  Jack ran a 9.80 which was .01 too fast and was disqualified in the final round in a race he won.

Jack won the Gold Shoe Brake award at Maple Grove.

Jack professionalized sportsman racing and took it up a notch.

Jack Trost Rule: This rule was made by the NHRA due to Jack’s wheel base on the Vegabond II (???) that said the wheel base had have a  98” minimum for a modified production car which made the car run in gas or alter classes. 

History:

The Trost team started in pro stock….

Jim and Jack Trost accomplished much for the pro racing car industry back in the 60’s and 70’s. They started with Rodger Penske’s car and painted his first Indy car driven by Mark Donohue. They did all Penske’s cameros as well from 1967-69.

This led them to “Grumpy” Bill Jenkins cars in 1969 where they started painting his cameros. They ended up doing them all and also his vegas and manza’s throughout the Pro-stock era.

They also did the SRD chasis, a Paul Belvins car and Scott Shaffroth’s car.

Bob Glidden’s cars also were done by the Trost’s including the famous stars and stripes car in 1975.

Drag Racing Cars

Ratified I: 1968 Camero- this was the Trost’s first car they built with a Penske body. The car went onto set a national record. (Any wins with this car to speak of?)

Ratified II: 1970 Nova- this car was in short, a mistake. They ran it for half a season and sold it.

Vegabond: (year of car- who did they get the car/body from?) This was the winning car built in late 1972-73, raced in 1973 and in 1974 set 7 consecutive national records, won the PA Dutch Classic, the Summernationals and division at INDY. In 1975 the car was sold to Ed Sielski and later to________________.

Vegabond II(Year of car) This was Dave Strickler’s car that was aquired from Jenkins. It was re-built and won the 1975 Fall Classic in Englishtown amoung other wins. The car was sold to Cheo Roche and raced by Jack under his ownership in 1976.

Vega: 1978- This used to be Jenkins old car- they re-built it and ran it in 1978 with not much success since they were crunched to get it into the final races of the season.

Records/Trophies & Awards:

3 Wally’s
Best in show (Class?)_____________
Set 8 national records