Gary Martz
Crew chief, Race car builder, Driver. Gary Martz did it all.
When you think of the term “The Complete Package”, it makes you think of a person or team that could do it all. Bedford's Gary Martz was indeed, “The Complete Package” when it came to the world of local and regional auto racing in the 60s, 70s and early 80s.
Gary was one of the first mass producers of the Late Model stock car chassis in the United States in the late 1960's. Along with building countless winning racecars throughout the country, he was also a winning crew chief and champion driver.
His first interests included hunting and sports, while growing up on the family farm in Patience, Cumberland Valley Township. After graduating from Bedford High School in 1961, he was already souping up cars and hot rodding on the back roads of Centerville, Rainsburg, Cumberland and Bedford with his buddies Jim Nave, Don Snyder and Dave Hite. Legend has it that Gary's father, Wilson, urged the boys to race on a speedway or dragstrip rather than the roads of Bedford County. Wilson was the Bedford County Roadmaster for PennDOT and a highly respected public figure.
Gary and his friends gravitated to auto racing at the South Penn Speedway in Everett and were ready to be a part of the new Cadet stock car division in 1964. This is where Gary started his craft by helping to build Nave's, Snyder's and Hite's first cars. His craftsmanship, skill level, and pit area abilities were soon to be noticed. When local car owner Don Rice formed a second Super Modified team to his already successful No. 31 duo with driver Gerald Chamberlain and crew chief Gus Frear, he tabbed the upstart Martz to be crew chief for veteran driver Boyd Arnold. When Frear left the team after a dispute with Rice, Gary was asked to do double duty for both Arnold and Chamberlain.
After Rice dissolved the 29 team, he revamped the 31 team and brought in Missouri's Kenny Weld as the new driver. Gary left the Don Rice Ford team and was hired by Bedford trucking company owner, Orville F. Conner, to lead the “Hemi Hummer” No. 49 team and driver Milt Miller. The duo of Miller and Martz soon became the team to beat on the tough Super Modified circuit from Williams Grove to Jennerstown and every track in between. They started the 1968 season by winning the Port Royal opener in March and then reeled off several Top 5 finishes at the Juniata County oval. They stayed at Port Royal until Jennerstown opened later in April as both tracks ran on Saturday night. Sunday racing was reserved for Hagerstown. Add in racing on the 1/4-mile asphalt track at the Hershey Stadium Speedway and conducting the first tire tests at the new Pocono Raceway, the Conner team was quite busy.
Their hard work paid off as Milt and Gary won the Jennerstown and Hagerstown Super Modified championships that year. Because of the high costs of Super Modified and Sprint Car racing, Conner decided to go Late Model racing by 1970, and Milt and Gary went their separate ways.
By this time Gary's chassis building business really started to grow as the Late Model division became ever more popular on the east coast. Getting feedback from his customers on how to improve the chassis design was important, but getting behind the wheel himself would even be better.
Gary filled in a few times for other drivers but got his first full time ride in 1971 with the Don Athey Enterprises team from Cumberland. The Athey team was victorious on several occasions over the next several years. Gary's big break came in 1975 when he was tabbed to be Turk Burket's teammate for Claysburg car owners Bobby and Benny Weyandt. The 88 and 88x duo soon became the top team in the northeast with many wins and championships. Gary himself won the 1977 Motordrome and 1979 Jennerstown championships. Burket was already a winning driver by 1975, and he assisted Gary both from behind the wheel with ideas and suggestions and in the shop with his fabrication and mechanical skills.
“It really hit me one night in 1980 Jennerstown when I had to start in the back of the feature”, reflected Martz. “As I looked up through the field, I'd built every car except Charlie's (Cragan) and Gerald's (Chamberlain)! How was I going to explain to my customers afterwards why I passed them?”
After the Weyandt team disbanded in 1979, Gary drove for West Virginia timber contractor Buzz Forman through the 1981 season and then for Johnstown's Whalley Ford team in 1982.
It came as a shock to racing fans and his competitors when at the age of 40, Gary decided to retire at the end of the 1982 season with 50 career wins. In the early 2000's he mentored his son Andy's driving career for the next 10 seasons in the Modified, Limited Late Model and Late Model divisions. His grandson, Cody Buterbaugh also caught the racing bug himself after working for years in the Martz Chassis shop. When Buterbaugh won at Bedford in 2012, it was the first time since the early 80's a Martz Chassis stock car graced Bedford's victory lane.
Each year the business continued to grow as every car was hand built by Gary, brother Bill, his employees, and evening help. Championship drivers such as Tom Peck, Jimmy Spencer, Ed Spencer, Denny Bonebrake, Buddy Armel, Larry Wright, Lynn Geisler, Larry Gorman and hundreds of others all became customers of Gary's. North Carolina driver, Jimmy Edwards Jr, was the winningest driver in the country in 1979 with his Martz Chassis Late Model. NASCAR drivers Darrel Waltrip, Bobby Allison and Skip Manning also drove Gary's car: Waltrip and Allison in special dirt races and Manning on asphalt. Gary himself drove at Pocono Raceway in specially built asphalt Camaro in 1977.
After he retired from driving, Gary transitioned the business back to his roots of hot rodding in 1983 at the same shop he built championship racecars located across from Dawson's Hotel in Bedford. In the late 90's he moved the chassis shop to his current Bedford Township complex. Today, the Martz Chassis brand continues to be recognized throughout the world as one of the top manufacturers for street rods and components.
Even though it's been 33 years since Gary built and drove racecars full-time, he's still being recognized for his auto racing accomplishments as member of the Bedford Speedway and Pittsburgh Circle Track Club Hall of Fames.
Crew chief, Race car builder, Driver. Gary Martz did it all.
When you think of the term “The Complete Package”, it makes you think of a person or team that could do it all. Bedford's Gary Martz was indeed, “The Complete Package” when it came to the world of local and regional auto racing in the 60s, 70s and early 80s.
Gary was one of the first mass producers of the Late Model stock car chassis in the United States in the late 1960's. Along with building countless winning racecars throughout the country, he was also a winning crew chief and champion driver.
His first interests included hunting and sports, while growing up on the family farm in Patience, Cumberland Valley Township. After graduating from Bedford High School in 1961, he was already souping up cars and hot rodding on the back roads of Centerville, Rainsburg, Cumberland and Bedford with his buddies Jim Nave, Don Snyder and Dave Hite. Legend has it that Gary's father, Wilson, urged the boys to race on a speedway or dragstrip rather than the roads of Bedford County. Wilson was the Bedford County Roadmaster for PennDOT and a highly respected public figure.
Gary and his friends gravitated to auto racing at the South Penn Speedway in Everett and were ready to be a part of the new Cadet stock car division in 1964. This is where Gary started his craft by helping to build Nave's, Snyder's and Hite's first cars. His craftsmanship, skill level, and pit area abilities were soon to be noticed. When local car owner Don Rice formed a second Super Modified team to his already successful No. 31 duo with driver Gerald Chamberlain and crew chief Gus Frear, he tabbed the upstart Martz to be crew chief for veteran driver Boyd Arnold. When Frear left the team after a dispute with Rice, Gary was asked to do double duty for both Arnold and Chamberlain.
After Rice dissolved the 29 team, he revamped the 31 team and brought in Missouri's Kenny Weld as the new driver. Gary left the Don Rice Ford team and was hired by Bedford trucking company owner, Orville F. Conner, to lead the “Hemi Hummer” No. 49 team and driver Milt Miller. The duo of Miller and Martz soon became the team to beat on the tough Super Modified circuit from Williams Grove to Jennerstown and every track in between. They started the 1968 season by winning the Port Royal opener in March and then reeled off several Top 5 finishes at the Juniata County oval. They stayed at Port Royal until Jennerstown opened later in April as both tracks ran on Saturday night. Sunday racing was reserved for Hagerstown. Add in racing on the 1/4-mile asphalt track at the Hershey Stadium Speedway and conducting the first tire tests at the new Pocono Raceway, the Conner team was quite busy.
Their hard work paid off as Milt and Gary won the Jennerstown and Hagerstown Super Modified championships that year. Because of the high costs of Super Modified and Sprint Car racing, Conner decided to go Late Model racing by 1970, and Milt and Gary went their separate ways.
By this time Gary's chassis building business really started to grow as the Late Model division became ever more popular on the east coast. Getting feedback from his customers on how to improve the chassis design was important, but getting behind the wheel himself would even be better.
Gary filled in a few times for other drivers but got his first full time ride in 1971 with the Don Athey Enterprises team from Cumberland. The Athey team was victorious on several occasions over the next several years. Gary's big break came in 1975 when he was tabbed to be Turk Burket's teammate for Claysburg car owners Bobby and Benny Weyandt. The 88 and 88x duo soon became the top team in the northeast with many wins and championships. Gary himself won the 1977 Motordrome and 1979 Jennerstown championships. Burket was already a winning driver by 1975, and he assisted Gary both from behind the wheel with ideas and suggestions and in the shop with his fabrication and mechanical skills.
“It really hit me one night in 1980 Jennerstown when I had to start in the back of the feature”, reflected Martz. “As I looked up through the field, I'd built every car except Charlie's (Cragan) and Gerald's (Chamberlain)! How was I going to explain to my customers afterwards why I passed them?”
After the Weyandt team disbanded in 1979, Gary drove for West Virginia timber contractor Buzz Forman through the 1981 season and then for Johnstown's Whalley Ford team in 1982.
It came as a shock to racing fans and his competitors when at the age of 40, Gary decided to retire at the end of the 1982 season with 50 career wins. In the early 2000's he mentored his son Andy's driving career for the next 10 seasons in the Modified, Limited Late Model and Late Model divisions. His grandson, Cody Buterbaugh also caught the racing bug himself after working for years in the Martz Chassis shop. When Buterbaugh won at Bedford in 2012, it was the first time since the early 80's a Martz Chassis stock car graced Bedford's victory lane.
Each year the business continued to grow as every car was hand built by Gary, brother Bill, his employees, and evening help. Championship drivers such as Tom Peck, Jimmy Spencer, Ed Spencer, Denny Bonebrake, Buddy Armel, Larry Wright, Lynn Geisler, Larry Gorman and hundreds of others all became customers of Gary's. North Carolina driver, Jimmy Edwards Jr, was the winningest driver in the country in 1979 with his Martz Chassis Late Model. NASCAR drivers Darrel Waltrip, Bobby Allison and Skip Manning also drove Gary's car: Waltrip and Allison in special dirt races and Manning on asphalt. Gary himself drove at Pocono Raceway in specially built asphalt Camaro in 1977.
After he retired from driving, Gary transitioned the business back to his roots of hot rodding in 1983 at the same shop he built championship racecars located across from Dawson's Hotel in Bedford. In the late 90's he moved the chassis shop to his current Bedford Township complex. Today, the Martz Chassis brand continues to be recognized throughout the world as one of the top manufacturers for street rods and components.
Even though it's been 33 years since Gary built and drove racecars full-time, he's still being recognized for his auto racing accomplishments as member of the Bedford Speedway and Pittsburgh Circle Track Club Hall of Fames.
Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame
Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Class of 2015
Bedford County Sports
Hall of Fame
Class of 2015