A little background......
In October 2011, with little Vintage action other than demonstrations around the region, a small group of people met to discuss forming an Organisation to preserve and recreate the 'golden era' of Modified racing in the Western PA/Eastern OH region. The goal was to race low cost, low tech and era authentic Modifieds that represented the 60's, 70's and 80's and would bring a smile to the face of oldtimers, plus give the younger fans an insight into what was raced 'back in the day'. After floating a basic car concept and set of specifications, interest was immediate and before long the Pennsylvania Vintage Dirt Modifieds became a reality.
In pitching our concept to Track Promoters and Owners, we had to hammer home that this was not a 'spirited demonstration' we were putting on, this was bona fide racing. As for the guys running the cars, they knew you just couldn't go buy a new chassis off the shelf or readily source another Ford Coupe body from the Junk yard. So it was race hard, race clean, give everyone room and toss out all the old aggressive and forcefull driving habits perfected over the years.
We kicked off our Series in 2012 and from humble beginnings of 5 cars at our very first race at Deerfield Raceway OH, we plugged along and slowly increased our car count. Some weeks we had more Officials turn up than cars, but we knew it was just going to take time to grow the Class. It wasn't till Lernerville Speedway and Don Gambles 'Nostalgia Night' mid year, we came of age. Hitting the track with 8 cars, we produced great racing and impressed enough to get some great press (see Jim Zufalls article below). Late in the year, we supported the BRP Big Block Modified Tour at Mercer Raceway and Dog Hollow Speedway and had our biggest field of 13 cars at Mercer, including three Canadians, two from Ohio and one from New York. We finished off the year with 1 show car and 8 local race cars.
As time has progressed, our numbers have increasd and coming into 2016 we find ourselves climbing towards 40+ registerd cars including members in MD, NY, OH and Canada joining a strong PA base. Our reputation in putting on racing equal to most Classes out there, see's us continually breaking new ground and adding new tracks to our expanding Series.
Jim Kirkwood
PAVDMA Founder