Jackson’s Gary Gardella drives his way to the top

SARAH McCOLGAN Jackson’s Gary Gardella (right) and crew members John Perry (center) and Rich Gardella engage in some shop talk after a June 30 qualifying run at Englishtown Raceway Park in Old Bridge.

Gary Gardella appears to be driving in the fast lane to success this summer.

The 22-year-old Jackson resident is making his professional debut as a drag racer, and if first impressions mean anything, Gardella may be driving his way to the top.

He’s already competed in three sanctioned races on the Import Drag Racing Circuit, and has won two of them to move into the early lead in the points standings.

Not bad for a rookie driver.

SARAH MCCOLGAN Jackson’s Gary Gardella gets off to a fast start during his June 30 qualifying run at Englishtown Raceway Park in Old Bridge.

"This is my first season racing and I want to try all the sanctioning racing bodies to see what they’re like," Gardella said Monday night while working on his car. "Right now it’s a learning experience."

Gardella is sure to learn plenty this summer. While he competes locally at Englishtown Raceway, Old Bridge, there are a total of 18 IDRC shows scheduled throughout the country and he plans to race in most, if not all, of them.

"At the end of the month we’re going out to California, and as soon as we’re done there, we’re going down to Florida," Gardella said. "We were just in Texas too. We’ve been doing a lot of traveling."

Gardella admits that despite his early success, it can still be intimidating for a newcomer.

"It really is," he said. "Most of the main guys on the circuit are all from California and some of them have been doing this for 10 or 15 years, and here I am, some young guy from New Jersey just starting to get my toes wet.

"Not too many people thought I was going to do good at first, but all of a sudden I started winning races. I just wanted to go out this season and learn," he said.

But while Gardella is competing professionally for the first time, he is anything but a rookie. In fact, he practically grew up around cars thanks to his father, Gary Sr., and his love for hot rods.

It’s no coincidence, either, that the younger Gardella works full time at his father’s auto body shop, County Line Auto Body in Howell.

"I’ve been around cars all my life," Gary Jr. said. "My father would go to the local races and he always took me along to all the circle track races around here."

By the time he was 12, Gardella was racing go-karts at places like New Egypt Speedway and Flemington Speedway. He did that for four years until he was 16.

"We did really well too," he said. "My father actually didn’t want me to stop."

But young Gary had other interests, like basketball, a sport he became pretty good at. At least good enough to be the starting point guard at Jackson Memorial High School for three seasons. He also played on a travel team during the summer, and played one season at Division III Endicott College in Massachusetts.

But his love for cars never wavered, and eventually he would return to them in a way even he never imagined.

"It was probably when I was 18 years old and I actually got my first car," Gardella recalled. "My dad and I worked on it just as a hobby at the auto body shop. We started off by putting a wing on it, and then I put a set of wheels on it. It just kept going and going, and after that we put a new motor in it.

"It got to the point where it was too fast to drive on the street."

Gardella races a 1993 Honda Civic Hatchback SI, but it’s no longer a typical car from the street.

"When you look at my car, it looks like a regular street car with a Honda body," Gardella explained. "But it’s pretty much what’s underneath the hood" that’s different.

And what’s underneath is an Acura Integra motor, which Gardella and his crew fine-tuned.

"It’s now a full-fledged race car," he said. "It’s a unibody, totally maxed. I started going to Englishtown every couple of nights and racing it."

From that labor of love a new side career was born. Gardella began working on his car every night in his garage with the help of his crew members, Jason Smith and John Perry.

"They’ve been my biggest helpers," he said. "We’re all great friends and we go way back. We’re all into cars and decided to do this altogether."

With a little help, of course, from Gary Sr.

"My father’s into this car more than anybody," the younger Gardella said with a laugh. "He and my mechanic, John (Perry), used to build hot rods together years ago."

That tradition seems to be carried on in the Gardella garage every night.

"As soon as I get out of work at 6 o’clock, I go home and we work on the car from 6 to midnight," Gary Jr. said. "It’s pretty much a like a full-time job. So I pretty much work from 8 in the morning to midnight every day.

"But we wouldn’t be in the garage every night if we didn’t love it," he added. "And none of us get paid. We don’t pocket any of the money we make. It all goes into traveling and back into the car. We’re actually planning to buy a tractor-trailer for our car to travel in," he said.

"We pretty much do it for fun. It started out as a hobby and turned into a full-time job."

Fortunately, Gardella has been able to defray some of the expenses through sponsors.

"That’s pretty much the biggest thing that’s gotten me to this point," he said. "When I go to tracks, a lot of the other drivers are amazed how many sponsors I have, and they can’t believe I’m only in my first season.

"But the biggest thing in racing is the backing of companies," he said.

His major sponsor is Ecko Unlimited, a line of urban clothing out of South River which targets the 15-30 age group.

"One of the key things is, I’m in the same age group," Gardella said. "Plus I’m into clothes."

D.C. Sports is Gardella’s presenting sponsor, while other sponsors include Kicker Car Audio.

Meanwhile, the interest in the Import Drag Racing Circuit is growing too. In fact, a show at Englishtown last week drew 26,000 spectators.

"That’s pretty surprising considering the sport is only three or four years old," Gardella said.

His career seems to be growing with every race as well, but Gardella doesn’t have any plans to ever make a living doing this.

"No, I would never leave my father and the auto body shop," he said. "But if we keep working at it, the sky’s the limit as to how far we can go. I don’t know if I would ever want to do it full time, but someday I would like to own my own team with my own driver and my own crew. That would be nice."

It could happen too. After all, Gary Gardella already seems to be in the right lane.