A NHRA story this week called Montgomery “a dominant force in gasser racing for decades beginning in the late 1950s.” He won the U.S. Nationals three times by 1963 before anyone else had won it twice.
Montgomery was inducted into the NHRA North Central Division’s Hall of Fame in 1983 and the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1992.
A 1950 graduate of Patterson Co-Op High School, Montgomery grew to love racing while on the streets of downtown Dayton.
”I was a hellraiser as a kid, and even though I never drank or smoked, I loved my cars and driving fast,” Montgomery told the Dayton Daily News in 2005. “A bunch of us would cruise downtown, circle the Civil War monument, then take off and race down Main Street. It was American Graffiti, but it was for real. The cops tolerated us. In those days, WING Radio had its studios on the second floor of a building on Main Street. The announcers often watched from the window and did live broadcasts of our races.”
Montgomery got his nickname in the 1960s.
”Those were the days when parts suppliers ran big magazine ads for their products,” Montgomery said in 2005, “and for some reason, instead of using my last name in the ads, they identified me as ‘Ohio George’ and it stuck.”
Montgomery won the U.S. Nationals for the first time in 1959, driving a “supercharged Willys A-Gasser with a final-round run in 11.98 seconds at 124.65 mph” in Detroit, according to a 1992 Dayton Daily News story. He won again a year later and won two more championships in 1963 and 1969 in Indianapolis. His retired as a racer at the at the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis in 1985.
“Drag racing was good to me,” Montgomery said in 1992. “I was fortunate. I’m thankful I was able to take my hobby and make a living from it.”
A story on MotorTrend.com this week called Montgomery the “king of the gassers” and described him as a “a pioneer, innovator, and mechanical genius who often fabricated his own parts, starting as far back as the 1950s.”
Montgomery is survived by: his life partner, Debbie; son Gregg Montgomery; grandson, Christopher (Karolina) and Justin; and great grandchildren, Kami and Harper.
A graveside service will be held Thursday at Dayton Memorial Park Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Day City Hospice in his memory.
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