John Stygar

Car Owner
CLASS OF 2023

Car owner John Stygar was a founding member of the famed Eastern Bandits, with Ed Flemke driving his $ coupes to several of the biggest paying races on the east coast during the early 1960’s. A typical race week during those days would have them leave Connecticut to race on Long Island, NY on Wednesday, the New Jersey on Thursday, down to Virginia or North Carolina for Friday & Saturday, then back up to Maryland or New Jersey for a Sunday event. In 1962 alone, they won 17 race at the Old Dominion track in VA.

In the northeast, Stygar’s car won at Thompson Speedway, Seekonk Speedway, Plainville Stadium, Stafford Speedway and Waterford Speedbowl with Flemke, Bugsy Stevens or Ron Bouchard behind the wheel.

Almost forgotten in the Stygar story is that in the early 1970’s, he built a remarkable number of Modifieds in various stages of competition. Long before store-bought race cars were a thing, Stygar produced everything from rolling chassis to bare frames, almost all were 1955-1957 Chevy rails with Chrysler torsion-bar front suspensions in place.

With his cars now numbered 7, he won the inaugural Blast Off 100 at the Waterford Speedbowl in 1975 with Flemke once again behind the wheel.

These Stygar creations ended up in garages throughout the northeast, although few actually knew his car building skills were that prolific. All of which suited the quiet Stygar just fine. John R. Stygar passed away peacefully on January 3, 2019 at the age of 81.