SPORTS

Racing for his life: Friends, new car keep him alive

Connor Casey
Reporter
Dave Mumaw's 1930s Chevrolet coupe sits inside the garage of his Ashland home. Mumaw and his friends have worked on the car for a year. It made its track debut at Spitzer Motor Speedway on Sunday.

MANSFIELD - Ashland racer Dave Mumaw, 69, pulled his No. 00 vintage modified up to the finish line of Spitzer Motor Speedway on Sunday. Chuck Griffith, the track's announcer, walked up to the car with microphone in hand and peeked inside to congratulate Mumaw on winning the day's vintage car feature race. What Griffith saw brought tears to his eyes.

His friend of over 40 years was smiling back at him.

Griffith recognized that smile; it was the same one Mumaw used to flash after every race, win or lose, during his days competing in races around the area for over 40 years. But recently that smile had vanished.

In April 2015, Mumaw was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the duodenum, a rare form cancer that starts in the small intestine. After a double bypass surgery and a round of chemotherapy, Mumaw was given six to eight weeks to live.

But one year later, none of that mattered. Mumaw's smile was back.

"I saw that smile again on Sunday and it made me weep a little bit," Griffith said on Thursday. "It honestly did."

“It’s been a pleasure and it’s a real joy to be out here," Mumaw said to Griffith, his words echoing over the track's loudspeakers. "I ran my first race here in 1969, and I tell you this has been my home track. This has probably added to my life today, another year or so I hope."

Prior to Sunday, Mumaw hadn't competed since a crash at Sandusky Speedway six years ago forced him to get both knees replaced. The idea of building a new car had been rattling around in his head for a while, and his diagnosis only pushed him further into seeing it happen.

Dave Mumaw stands next to the 1930s Chevrolet coupe in the garage of his Ashland home. Mumaw has worked on the car with several of his friends while he has been battling cancer.

With a little help from his friends

Mumaw wasn't alone. Over a dozen of his friends from his racing career and 28 years as an auto body instructor at the Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center agreed to help

"As soon as we realized that (his diagnosis), it was imperative to chip in and get this thing done," Roger Miller, a fellow racer and Mumaw's friend since high school, said  Wednesday.

According to Miller, Mumaw did most of the work when it came to gathering parts. He found the body, a 1930's-era Chevrolet Coupe, rusting away in a West Salem junkyard.

"It was really beat up bad, sitting in a junkyard on top of a 1968 Firebird," Mumaw said. "I didn’t think too much of it. I didn’t need the fenders, I just needed the basic body. That’s how it started."

The motor came from a drag cart that used to compete at Dragway 42 in the 1960's. Mumaw then bought the chassis off a late model dirt car and gathered up the rest of the parts at swap meets.

With the pieces placed in the garage of his Ashland home, Mumaw's friends joined in to help him put it together.

"They had to put the motor and transmission to get it all working, had to wire it and put the brakes in, the whole nine yards," Miller said. "We started out with a bucket of parts and ended up with a cool looking race car."

The process took over a year, but Mumaw said he loved the hours he and his friends spent tinkering away in the garage.

"We had a good time," Mumaw said. "It was camaraderie for the old guys. Used to be we’d be out chasing wild women and drinking beer. Now we just come in here and drink coffee and work on the car."

The names of those who helped were painted on the back of the car; "Kissel's, Roger M., Dave B., Orland, Mike G., Graham G., Dave S., Bill T., and Steve P." Another name as painted just above the driver's window, "Ol AJ," a callback to Mumaw's nickname from his racing days.

"I was kind of a pistol when I was younger," Mumaw said. "Kind of like A.J. Foyt. I was really high intensity when it came to racing, so they nicknamed me AJ."

Keeping his motor running

Mumaw, his wife Judy and Miller all believe wholeheartedly that the car is what's been keeping Mumaw going more than a year since his diagnosis.

“This car, it kept me alive I think," Mumaw said. "I’m at Stage 4 cancer and they can’t cure it. But I can keep plugging away."

"That race car, I tell you, I don’t think he’d be here this long without it," Judy said.

"It gave him a goal," Miller said. "He said that it felt like it to him, it gave him something that he felt like he wanted to accomplish. All I can say if that worked and that has kept him alive, then it was all worth it."

Even with the car now built and the race at Spitzer won, Mumaw said he's far from finished. He plans to drive at Sandusky in three weeks.

The cancer may have weakened him physically, but sitting in his garage next to "Ol AJ" on Tuesday, Mumaw said his love of racing is a strong as ever.

“I love the thrill," Mumaw said. "I love the smell of alcohol and gas. When you tweak the car a little bit and it runs better the next time out, you know you’ve accomplished (something). It’s the accomplishment, I guess, of getting the car the best it can be and that way you’re the best you can be."

ccasey@gannett.com

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Twitter:@ConnorCasey_MNJ