Co-founder of the Oldwick, NJ Café Racers vintage races an A/Production big-block Corvette, hillclimbs a ’65 Corvette and cruises a big-block Pro Street Chevelle!
Dick Payne is truly a consummate car guy, afflicted with the “virus” since he was old enough to legally drive. That’s when he turned a stock ‘63 Falcon Six into a V8 street machine. Since then the official Maitre d’ café and co-founder with Jim Melfi of the Oldwick, NJ Café Racers lunch group, has drag raced NHRA Modified Production racecars and a string of modified Corvettes. He has also been involved in NCRS restorations and started the local NCCC (National Council Of Corvette Clubs) chapter.
While he hillclimbs both his his ’65 Sting Ray coupe and A/Production Corvette road racer, above, Dick is really at home on road courses. His ‘70 convertible, race-prepped in 1973, has a documented competition history and logbooks back to 1973 to prove it! It has run in SCCA A & B/Production (small and big-block engines) and GT1 (1984 North Atlantic Road Racing Championship), at tracks from Toronto, Canada to Sebring, Florida. The Corvette has taken class wins at Pocono, Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen, Road America, Summit Point, Lime Rock, Louden, Memphis Motor Sports Park, Gateway International Raceway, VIR and New Jersey Motorsports Park. It is certified as an SVRA Group 6 Medallion car.
Dick’s C3 Corvette features a ’73 nose, L88 fender flairs, fresh air induction hood, eight-point roll cage, 20-gallon ATL fuel cell, Griffin radiator, and engine and transmission coolers mounted on the front sub-frame. Its 440-cubic inch big-block, above, utilizes a Dart block, AFR aluminum heads, Cammotion .697/.712-inch- lift roller cam, three-stage dry sump lube, forged 13-to-1 JE pistons, Hooker headers, MSD ignition and a 750-Holley on an Edelbrock aluminum intake. Engine has been dynoed at 650 horsepower and is mated to a Super T-10 four-speed.
A master of multi-tasking, Dick in addition to road, above, drag and hill climb competition, still finds time to run a successful insurance business, attend Cruise Nights in his big-block Chevelle and manage and grow the Oldwick Café Racers. The first domestic Café Racers satellite lunch group has more than 35 active members who own sports cars, hot rods, show cars, classics and muscle cars.
“I’m really just the ‘mouth’ of the Oldwick Café Racers. Jim Melfi first opened up a dialog with Marty Schorr in Sarasota and he shares the heavy lifting with me when it comes to organizing and running our lunch group,” said Payne. "Jim owns a dynamite '70 (LS6) big-block Chevelle, above."
The Sarasota Café Racers are building a global car guy community, one burger at a time! Enthusiasts in New Jersey interested in “breaking bread” with serious car guys, should contact Dick Payne at 1fst427@gmail.com.
Or visit http://www.sarasotacaferacers.com/community.html