Birth: 1940 Death: March 19, 2020 | Birthplace: New England

Ray Stonkus – deceased – Flowery Branch, GA

Stonkus’ first foray in the motorsports came in his native New England when he built and owned a black #9 coupe that everyone referred to as the Flyin’ 9. He and Pete Hamilton were both young and hungry, and together they built that car. Stonkus also worked with Ed Flemke and Don McTavish. Stonkus and Hamilton won the 1967 NASCAR National Sportsman championship, which led to Grand National and Grand American opportunities for both of them. In 1969 he came to Atlanta to work on the Gene White Grand American Camaro driven by Hamilton which won 10 times plus the Championship.

• In 1970 he began as crew chief for Sam Posey’s Trans Am team for the 1970 and 1971 seasons. Ray also was crew chief for the 1970 Indy 500 with Pete Hamilton.
• In 1972 he again teamed with Pete Hamilton to run the Grand National Series for 1972 and 1973.
• In 1973 they began building cars for short track racing and they had many wins over the next 10 years with drivers like Billy McGinnis, Ray Putnam, Ronnie Sanders and Gary Balough.
• He built cars that won the Snowball Derbies for Hamilton, Sanders, Balough and Mickey Gibbs. He worked on the famous Batmobile for Balough that won the Syracuse 200.
• His cars won many races in the Midwest. He built a modified that won the New England Small Block Modified and Championships at Lanier, Jefferson and Macon Speedways and won many All-Pro races.

Stonkus also prepared cars driven by the Willard brothers (Wayne and Craig) from Buford. Ray served as a crew chief for Gary Balough in the All Pro days, and for Rick Crawford in the NASCAR Truck series and was with Crawford when he won at Daytona in 2003.

For 20 years, he was also part of the foundation of the JTG Daugherty race team which now fields two cars in the Cup Series.

Stonkus died March 19, 2020