Up Close and Personal with Greg Prehodka

From Moss Motoring 1983

A long-time resident of Edison, NJ, Greg Prehodka is by day a planning engineer for Western Electric. By night and weekend, however, Greg’s thoughts usually turn to the real love of his life -vintage MG’s. A Sunbeam Alpine purchased in 1966 while Greg was a student at G.M.I, began his sports car fascination. After the Alpine was totaled by an errant truck, the magic of MG entered Greg’s life in the form of ’67 MGB; this B was campaigned in various rallies and a few ice races, beginning Greg’s love of racing.

Around this time, Greg found his first TD languishing in a driveway in a sorry state of partial disassembly. Much against parental advice, the TD was purchased and towed home. Over the next eight years or so, Greg performed what he describes as a “trickle restoration.” In 1976, however, he decided to finish the job so he could run the TD in the NEMGTR’s Bicentennial Rally of the Colonial Capitals. This 2500 mile shakedown run was completed successfully, despite (inevitably!) the car not being even driven till the morning they left NJ for Savannah!

The following year, the TD was transformed into “OL’53” so that Greg could go vintage racing, its first outing being at Lime Rock in the NEMGTR “Double 3”. The car had been extensively modified to resemble the typical TD raced in the fifties, and once again, was barely finished in time for the event It was a very successful first outing, with Greg qualifying the car for the pole and, with brother Barry co-driving, finished 2nd overall despite 23 minutes of pit stops to cure various maladies!

Since that time, “OL’53” and Greg have raced in some 30 vintage events, with some note-worthy successes, including a spectacular run at the Mt. Equinox, VT VSCCA Hill climb in September ’82. There Greg was the first MG to break six minutes for the 5.2 mile, twisty and narrow hill which rises 3,140 feet! Numerous problems have been encountered and overcome and much midnight oil has been burnt; on the plus side, Greg reports that many new friends have been made and he has had a great deal of enjoyment from his involvement in vintage racing.

As well as proving himself to be a talented MG racer, Greg has another claim to fame: in 1981, he decided there was a need for communication between people racing old MG’s around the country. Consequently, he mailed letters to anyone he could locate who was interested in racing their pre-1962 MG, to see if others shared his belief. The outcome of the survey was positive; the enthusiasm was there, all it needed was capable organization. This Greg has provided. His publication, aptly named “MG Vintage Racers Newsletter”, now circulates to some 60 members throughout the US and Canada, and is in the forefront of a growing movement to get more old MG’s back onto the racetrack. After all, as Greg has proved with “OL’53”, racing an old MG is exciting, demanding, challenging yet very rewarding. Our Moss Motors’ hat is off to the man who has given, and continues to give, so much of his time to this endeavor!