Jimmy Gould

Jimmy Gould with Race Car Driver Wally Campbell

During my "Growing Up" time in Groveville, I don't know anyone that owned a car that didn't take it to Jimmy Gould, for repairs. I remember my dad saying "well I have to take the car to Jimmy's," that was magic to my ears. To go to his garage was an experience as a kid. I could not believe the car parts, buckets of nuts and bolts and clips. There would always be a rag spread out on the work bench (where there was room) with a carburetor apart in a million different pieces, as a kid I was amazed that it would ever go back together and be a carburetor again. There were Chilton repair manuals dating back to the beginning of the Chilton Manual, pages with greasy fingerprints and marked pages.
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On the wall was a nail and on it were receipts from places like Andy's Auto Parts, Economy Auto parts, and Gould's auto parts (no relation, I think). There would be an open bucket of Kerosene in the corner, used for cleaning parts, who thought that would be dangerous. I could not believe that Jimmy could find anything in there, but he could " I have one of those" and pick it out.
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Jimmy always had a smile, a joke or a funny story, I think my dad like going there as much as I did. Another thing about going to Jimmy's garage as a kid, there was always that calendar the oil company or the auto parts supplier gave him, you know the one, the one with the "Girl" on it, fully clothed, maybe in a bathing suit, but as a kid in the 1950's that calendar was "it". As a kid there with your dad you could only "peek", it was not till later when you took your own car to Jimmy that you could "stare".
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One thing about getting your car repaired at Jimmy's, it came with an unwritten warranty, if it wasn't right he always had the time to "Take a Look".
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Jimmy had a great love for Ford cars, he would work on a Chevy, but I think he charged extra, I don't know what he did for the years dad had a Hudson. I have to mention that there were a lot of times Jimmy didn't charge, he'd fix something and then say "let me know how it works out" or something along those lines.
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Sometimes, as a teen with a car, you would just stop in to say "Hi" and Jimmy would ask you to run and pick up a part for him, how could you say "No", after he just fixed your car last week and didn't charge you, it all worked out in the end, that's the way it should be.
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Jimmy was an avid race fan, Stock Car or Indy Cars, it didn't matter. Jimmy knew all the drivers, some personally. For years Jimmy could be seen running the "Score Board" at the Trenton Speedway, it was not the push of a button back then, as the places changed you actually had to remove the number sign and place it in the new slot.
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Jimmy would start packing his Ford in the beginning of May for his trip to Indianapolis for the "Indy 500", not packing clothes, but car parts and tools. Jimmy would take an extra starter, carburetor, water pump, distributor, generator, fan belt and spark plugs and the tools needed to replace them, that always amazed me. Yes, he took a tire repair kit. I guess you could say he was always ready for a "Pit Stop".
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Charlie tells the story that he gave Jimmy the nickname "Greasy Graham", which fit him well and he loved the nickname. It comes from a guy that used to run a milk route in a model "T", in Groveville, years ago named "Greasy Graham". At one time the radiator leaked real bad & he had Jimmie break up a horse turd & put it into the radiator to stop the leak !! I guess it worked.
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After Jimmy retired, I guess he retired, it was hard to tell, he could be found just hanging around Groveville with his friend and long time Groveville resident Al Wright, who was a retired mechanic for the Trenton Transit Company. Al was another person that always had a smile and a funny story.
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Wally Campbell, the driver pictured with Jimmy, was killed in a sprint car practice accident in Salem, Indiana. He was one day past his 28th birthday, July 17, 1954. Amazing this photo and some of this posting was picked up and used, with my permission, in the Wally Campbell Website, that is so interesting. http://www.wallycampbell.com/1947-2a.html
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Jimmy was also a member of the Groveville Fire Company, he fit right in with all the other great story tellers of the fire company.
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Jimmy's father, Caldwel "Cal" Gould lived on Allen Street and as a member he is pictured in some of the photo's of the beginning of the Groveville Fire Company.
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His son, Jimmy, has carried on his father's love of cars.

Trenton Speedway ~ April 21, 1968

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This is the envelope it was mailed out in.

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Trenton Speedway

I am not straying away from writing about the Groveville area, but I have had this brochure for some time and wanted to post it somewhere.
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This is a brochure that was mailed out on March 12, 1968, to all registered race fans. This is advertising the Pre-Indianapolis Race on April 21, 1968 (My Birthday, age 24). I was fortunate to grow up with and be friends with Tom and Claire Dwier, whose father was Hamilton Township Mayor Ray Dwier, one of the perks of being Mayor is the Mayor’s Box at the Fairground and track, which meant free entrance and seats, sure am glad they thought to drag me along, because I loved it. One of the best times was when during a race was the time Tom and I were at a race and the concession stand caught fire, which just happened to be under the Mayor’s Box, we had great seats for two events that day, till the seats got warm.
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Admission, Cheap seats, Grandstand $6.00 and The most expensive seats, Box seats $8.50. I don't think you could get a Hot Dog at Indy or a NASCAR race for $8.50. Children on race day $!.00 and Parking $.50, fifty cents for parking, amazing and they made a profit at this.

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This was not mailed to me, I acquired it at a much later date.
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The track roughly followed the oulines of the current day existing lake.1888 - NJ State Fairgrounds built, 1900 to 1945 1/2-mile dirt oval, 1946 to 1956 - 1-mile dirt oval, 1957 to 1968 - 1-mile paved oval, 1969 to 1980 - 1.5-mile kidney oval with the Trenton Speedway being completely demolished in 1983 (Now the NJ Grounds for Sculpture).Kidney-shaped oval; width: 65', turns, 55', straights, 80' wide. Banking: turns 1 & 2 - 10°, dogleg - 4°, turns 3 & 4 - 15° with a radius of the dogleg - 20° and a 2200' front straight. Trenton Speedway was a 1.5-mile paved track.
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Trenton was one of New Jersey's first tracks built in 1900 as a 1/2-mile dirt track. The track was increased to 1-mile in May 1946 and paved in 1957. Many Indianapolis type races were run at Trenton. In the 1960's and early 1970's, NASCAR also held races at Trenton.
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Trenton's NASCAR winners include Richard Petty, Fireball Roberts, LeeRoy Yarbrough and David Pearson (who holds the all-time Trenton track record). Bobby Allison won the last NASCAR race held at Trenton July 1972.