Silent Contender
Outside the loop of front-runners and tour regulars,
Tom Martino is still intense By Teague Froscher ; Photos by Roger Richards
Tom Martino. Say the name out loud once or twice. Sounds like the name of a hockey player, doesn’t it? Or at least someone who should be driving a Zamboni. But Pro Stock driver and former high school hockey player Tom Martino’s talents aren’t displayed on the ice anymore; they reside on the asphalt.
Martino doesn’t have to search his family “Christmas” tree for long to find the source for his love of drag racing. Like so many drag racers, Martino was drawn to the sport because his father was a drag racer. Whether it was his father’s race cars—a 1955 Chevrolet and a front-engine Top Fuel dragster—or the close proximity of his father’s shop to their home, the young Martino was hooked at an early age.
“The shop was behind our house, so I was always around cars,”
Martino said. “I was always intrigued by motorsports. Before I turned
seventeen my father and I started working on a 1966 Pontiac GTO for me
to have when I turned seventeen. I started racing not long after I got
my driving license.”
Martino began bracket racing with that GTO and eventually moved up to Competition Eliminator.
But it was Martino’s transition from Competition Eliminator to Pro Stock that began in an ominous manner. Attempting to lease an engine from Dick Maskin, Martino quickly learned that his rookie season in Pro Stock might be a forgettable one.
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“We had contacted Dick Maskin about leasing a motor from him that
year. We planned to race between eight and ten races with the option of
possibly racing a few more than that,” Martino said. “But
we figured our budget—which we had none of—would let us go
to about eight to ten.”
The only thing he had left was a motor that they had run two years prior. He said, ‘We’ll do every update that we know how, but quite honestly if you make a very good run in a real good session and a couple of the fast cars don’t make a run, you might qualify. Other than that, you won’t look bad.’”
Martino looked anything but bad.
In 1996, his first season in Pro Stock, Martino appeared in the final round at Phoenix and qualified number one at Brainerd. Although he had planned to race just a few events that year, his early success afforded him the opportunity to run even more events.
“We basically made the whole tour because we raced off the qualifying and round money,” Martino said. “They used to pay us for crew chief of the race and we got three or four of those. And it was $500 for every time you won on a holeshot, and I racked up some of those. Between getting a $1000 for being in the top ten at every race, qualifying money, crew chief money and all the other stuff, we were able to run on a shoestring and we were able to make it through the year and finish eighth in points.”
Martino had more success the following year when he got his first two victories at Houston and Columbus respectively—finishing a career-best sixth in points.
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The years that followed, however, were not quite as successful. From 1998-2001, Martino won just two races and finished in the top ten only once.
But any struggles that Martino had to endure on the track paled in comparison to those that he would soon face off the track. Having spent all of the money he had saved for racing in 2001, the financially strapped racer thought that 2002 would have to be an abbreviated season.
Little did he know that his season would only go as far as the third race
of the year, the Gatornationals, in Gainesville, Florida.
“When I came home from Gainesville in March, Jesel (Valvetrain)
had let me go from my job,” Martino said. “That’s what
the abrupt end was in 2002. The only way I was supporting my family was
with my weekly check from Jesel. When that stopped, I couldn’t go
racing. Not only could I not afford it, I had to worry about putting dinner
on the table and paying my mortgage.”
To make matters worse, Martino began having physical problems that rivaled
those of a veteran hockey goalie. It was around this time that an “on
and off” back problem that Martino had dealt with over the years
using muscle relaxers and pain relievers had gotten progressively worse.
And it was the increased back pain and his desire to race at the upcoming
Englishtown race—a home track for the Farmingdale, N.J. native—that
Martino decided to visit his chiropractor.
“I figured I would go the week before [Englishtown] and go once or twice and get tweaked a little bit and I would be in good shape,” Martino said. “On the way home I stopped by my oldest son’s baseball game where I told my wife (Robin) and my friend (Tommy Kling) I was going to get the car ready for a match race the next day.”
I was rolling a spare motor into the trailer and my back just went out.
I laid on the ground until they came home an hour and a half later. I
couldn’t get up; I couldn’t get to my phone; I was in such
pain. It took them three days to be able to do an MRI because I couldn’t
lay still. They finally had to dope me up with valium and morphine just
so I could lay still. I also didn’t drive at Englishtown. I got
my back operated on the Wednesday after the race.”
Immediately after the surgery, Martino felt so good that he asked the nurse if he had been given any pain pills. When she responded that he wasn’t on pain pills, Martino exclaimed, “I haven’t felt this good, ever!”
That feeling of euphoria, however, was short-lived. Arriving home from the hospital on the following Friday, Martino knew the next day that something wasn’t right.
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“On Saturday afternoon I felt a tingle in my leg,” Martino said. “Then my foot started to throb a little bit and I said, ‘You know, I’ve probably been doing a little too much on my feet.’ So then I took a Percocet. Within two hours I was in agonizing pain.”
To diagnose the problem, Martino had an electromyography (EMG) —a
medical procedure used to diagnose muscle and nerve problems—which
revealed that the operation had inadvertently “stretched”
three of the nerves in his spine.
Surprisingly, Martino didn’t have to endure another operation to alleviate his leg and foot pain.
“Actually what fixed me was physical therapy,” Martino said. “The doctor sent me to a physical therapist that she knew and told her what was wrong. They worked on my muscles to relieve the pressure on the nerves.”
But the dark storm cloud continued to follow Martino.
It was during this time that Martino was taking a drug that slowed down his nervous system to help his body cope with the “stretched” nerves. The side effect of taking this drug for a year was that he now has “severe stomach problems.” As a consequence, Martino had to have his gallbladder removed roughly six months ago and is now seeing a gastroenterologist to help him with his newest physical ailment. But don’t feel sorry for him. With all he’s had to endure over recent years, Martino is quick to point out, “there are people that live with a lot worse than me.”
Amazingly, through all of his physical problems, Martino says that he
feels 100 percent, kind of.
“Oh yeah,” Martino exclaimed. “Now I’m not 100 percent like a 22-year-old. I’ve got to be careful when I put a head on a motor; I’ve got to make sure I pick up things right. I’m stiff all the time. But I’m stiff because I’m a lazy bastard. If I would do some of the exercises they [physical therapist] gave me, I wouldn’t be as stiff.”
Martino doesn’t have time to do those exercises nowadays because he’s busy with his own business—Martino Racing Enterprises—building and rebuilding engines for everything from bracket cars to Competition Eliminator. And in his spare time, he is the crew chief and engine builder for Pro Stock driver Bob Benza.
In fact, it was at Vegas last year while working for Benza that Martino’s luck might have finally changed.
Faced with a damaged race engine, Benza and Martino had decided they weren’t going to be able to make the trip to Pomona. But little did Martino know that Larry Morgan and his wife Diane had other plans for him.
“Larry had just gotten a Don Ness race car and he was really struggling with it,” Martino said. “And Ness cars have always been my forte. If I could have my little claim to fame, it would be the fact that I can race a Ness car very well. Larry’s wife, Diane, came over and asked me, ‘Are you going to California?’ I said, ‘No.’ Then she said, ‘Would you like to? We are struggling with this Ness car and we are trying to figure out who to get to race it. And Clyde West—V. Gaines’ crew chief—says the best Ness guy in the pits is Tommy Martino.’”
With that endorsement and invitation, Martino and Tommy Kling packed their bags and headed for Pomona.
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Arriving at the track with nothing but luggage, driving experience, and what he calls his “Ness set-up,” Martino managed to qualify 15th for the race—despite never racing the car until the Thursday of qualifying.
It was on Sunday, however, that Martino proved that racing Don Ness cars isn’t his only forte.
Using a holeshot to defeat Erica Enders and Richie Stevens, he advanced
to the final round, where he lost to Jeg Coughlin.
But Martino says that his Ness set-up wasn’t the only reason for his success on that day.
“Larry (Morgan) is a wide open guy,” Martino said. “He
gave us a free hand to do what we wanted. And we were lucky enough that
it responded to the first thing we did, so we were [headed] in the right
direction.”
So what did it feel like to return to the driver’s seat after such a prolonged absence?
“It felt great,” Martino said. “When I came home I was on cloud nine for a month. It made my year. When we were getting ready for first round and Clyde (West) comes on the radio and asks me, ‘You ready?’ I said, ‘Clyde, I’ve been ready for two years.’”
Hopefully Martino won’t have to wait another two years.
For 2006, Martino’s racing plans involve continuing his engine building business and to crew chief for Bob Benza for ten to twelve races this season.
But don’t be surprised if Martino returns to the driver’s
seat now that he’s at “full strength.” Although his
love of hockey has been replaced by basketball—his oldest son currently
plays high school basketball—it’s clear that drag racing is
still an important part of Martino’s life.
“I would love to go racing again,” Martino said. “I would like to try and get sponsorship to race my own car. Or I have a green light (no pun intended) from Larry to run his second car. So that has really opened the door for me.”
Martino is quick to point out, however, that he would return under one condition: “I would never leave Bob Benza flat because he’s helped me earn an income for the last two years. I wouldn’t turn my back on him.”
