[Bobby Zlatkin]

The only time I ever saw Jenkins was at a remote dragstrip in central Florida in 1962, at an old airstrip in Valcaria. They were having a super stock meet there and we came up from Miami to watch.

Many big name super stock racers were there. I remember Dan Gay, with his '62 Pontiac and another kid from Dickinson, TX whose dad also owned a dealership, a Plymouth dealership, but I can't remember his name. I just remember that he spun it out at the end of the quarter mile, but nothing got hurt.

Strickler and Jenkins where there with Old Reliable II. That was cool because I had seen the car in so many magazines. At the time, I thought that was the most beautiful car I had ever seen. Still rates right up there on my list.

Anyhow the hood was open so I walked over. There was a bunch of guys around it but an open space right in front. So, that's where I went. I heard a little guy, that I recognized as Jenkins, say to me "Move out of the way kid, you're blocking the air." Everyone was looking and I was so embarassed, I just crawled away.

What he had done was slip the belt off and put a smaller belt between the fan and the generator. Then reverse the polarity of the generator and use it as an electric motor to drive the fan while the car was sitting idle, to cool the engine down. Pretty inovative at the time.