We’re thrilled to be handling the liquidation auction for the famed Lawrence Engineering Race Car Fabrication Shop in Trenton, NJ on June 24, 2018. This is a rare auction with tons of amazing high-quality tools and equipment of all types and so much important racing history behind it all. We wanted to share some of the back story with you, so we had a chat with owner Les Katona and his daughter, Gloria.
~~Les’ Story — A Very Brief Overview~~
If you know anything about racing in New Jersey, you’ll recognize the names Les Katona and Gloria Katona. Les Katona’s legend began back in 1959, when he bought an old 1942 junk car from a junkyard. He transformed that street car into a race car and entered his first NASCAR race, where he finished twelfth and even won some prize money. By the next year, he had already made his mark in racing and was known as “Wild Les” for being aggressive on the race track—in other words, he had that true winning spirit.
One of Les’ biggest accomplishments came in 1975, when he earned the NJ Triple Crown with a car he designed and raced himself. It was an achievement that many have attempted but no one had been able to do before, and Les will always hold that place in racing history.
To say that Les has had many wins is an understatement—he has at least 92 confirmed feature wins and three times as many other wins.
“We were always a ‘low buck’ team, we didn’t have much money,” Les says. “But we ran with the best and we won.”
One record Les set that he’ll never forget is the reverse race championship that has never been repeated since his win. On certain nights, the dirt track races would run in reverse—clockwise, turning right, instead of the usual counterclockwise, left-turning direction—and Les and his crew adjusted his car for that condition.
“It was one of the weirdest sensations a race car driver could ever have, it was mind-boggling,” Les recalls. “It’s a win I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life.”
In 2011 Les Katona was inducted into the Garden State Vintage Stock Car Club Hall of Fame, an honor that recognized his incredible racing career.
~~Highlights of Gloria’s Story~~
As the only female driver ever to win a regulation feature at Flemington Speedway on dirt and then again on the converted asphalt surface, Gloria Katona certainly has had her share of important racing victories. She won again at Flemington after the dirt track was converted to an asphalt surface, something not many racers achieved; she believes she may be the only one who won on both surfaces in the Sportsman Division. She raced in weekly standard competitions every week, and as Les points out, “She raced with all the boys, not on a special night for female drivers.”
Gloria was honored to be a co-recipient of the eighth annual Gater Racing News “Outstanding Woman in Racing” award during the 2009 Northeast Modified Hall of Fame ceremonies.
Gloria’s career was actually as a stock broker on Wall Street, but for a few years, she raced concurrently with her daytime job. Racing was in her blood—even when she was in business school, she raced during the summer season. Gloria raced house cars that Les modified in each division, and even her husband, Carmen Scarpati, raced a late model house car. As a result, this racing family had all three cars represented in all classes.
Both Gloria and Les have been featured in a number of articles, including as a cover story in Stock Car Racing magazine’s October 1987 issue and a cover story on the Trenton Times “Good Times” insert.
~~The Lawrence Engineering Story~~
It was in the 1960s when Les, a licensed engineer, started the Lawrence Engineering business in order to buy products from manufacturers at a discount, both to use when designing his own race cars and to resell to local racers. At that time he was still working out of a one-and-a-half-car garage behind his house, but soon he bought a building, which allowed Lawrence Engineering to expand.
By the 1970s, other racers began coming to his fabrication shop because of Les’ outstanding racing reputation. They wanted to use his parts and to have him prepare their cars for various races. He gave them advice that helped many big racing names improve and win, and his business just kept growing.
Every car Les raced was designed by Lawrence Engineering; as a result, both Les as driver and Lawrence Engineering as the car owner received points in a variety of races and set records, won championships or received awards for races at Flemington Speedway, East Windsor Speedway, and more.
Les credits much of Lawrence Engineering’s and the Katona racing successes to the fact that this has all been a family business from start to finish. Every member of the family has played an important role in every achievement; although Les’ wife, Barbara, wasn’t a racer herself, she was the business’ bookkeeper, babysat Gloria’s daughter so Gloria could race, and wrote about racing news for the local daily newspaper, among other important work.
“This has always been a family affair,” Les says proudly. “Everybody was involved and everybody helped me climb the mountain that I climbed.”
This is a very abbreviated overview of the Katona family and Lawrence Engineering, but you can own a piece of it at the June 24, 2018 auction held on-site at the Lawrence Engineering Race Car Fabrication Shop, 946 Pennsylvania Avenue, Trenton, NJ. The auction starts at 10:00 AM—come early to preview all the great finds! Can’t make it to the auction or need to leave early? We’re accepting absentee bids, so just give us a call and we’ll help you from there.