Born in Long Beach, California, Greg Reynolds started his love affair with cars at an early age. When he was a youth, he spent his spare time working on his first car, a 1935 Ford Coupe, which he purchased when he was 14. He spent the rest of his free time at the local road race prep shop, learning from the owner, who was rumored to have connections with Carroll Shelby. Begging pre-race rides in his customer’s McLaren and a Ford 289-powered Bird Cage Maserati, Reynolds established his roots in big-power sport cars. Reynolds moved with his family to Kansas and Oklahoma, but kept his fondness for cars alive by spending the mid-to-late ’60s watching races at variety of local tracks.
Reynolds worked weekends and summers at a small town Ford dealership, prepping first- and second-generation Mustangs, Fairlane GT/As, and many pickups prior to sale. He purchased his first new car, a 1968 Mustang, from that dealership.
Reynolds remembers visiting Shelby American in December 1965 with his dad, just as it opened at the facility near Los Angeles International Airport. They met a salesman from Oklahoma who gave them a personal tour, and took them to a make-ready room where the prototype Hertz black GT350 with gold stripes was being prepped for Hertz corporate review in two days.
Joining the US Air Force in 1968, Reynolds specialized in aircraft maintenance. He married his high-school sweetheart, settled in Oklahoma, and raised two wonderful girls. After Active Duty, Reynolds become an air technician in the Air National Guard and continued service at Tinker AFB. Retired from the Air Guard after 26 years, Reynolds continued working as a logistics manger on A-7, F-15, F-16, B-1, Air Force One, and other VIP aircraft platforms managed at Tinker AFB.
As aircraft and automobiles share a close synergy, Reynolds became a crew member with a Super Modified dirt-track team in the early 1970s. For the next two decades, Reynolds got behind the wheel, where he competed in open track and autocross events driving Boss 302 Mustangs and Shelby Mustangs and Cobras.
For over a decade, Reynolds has been active with vintage racing through Corinthian Vintage Auto Racing and other Vintage Motorsports Council-sanctioned club races. Other racing history includes events at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit, Texas World Speedway, Road America, Miller Motorsports Park, Fontana Speedway, Texas Motorsports Ranch and Eagles Canyon Raceway.
Reynolds love extends to his personal stable of vehicles. He owns and drives a 1967 GT350 that was raced SCCA by Al Taylor from the late ’60s to 1978. He also still owns his 1935 Ford Coupe and a 1968 Mustang. Past vehicles in his garage have included numerous Ford vehicles, including Falcons, Mercury Cyclones, Mustangs, Shelby Mustangs, a Boss 302, Pantera, and a 289 Cobra.
Reynolds now spends his time between working at CoatPro, Inc., and Oklahoma-based power and technical coating application company of which he is a partner, vintage racing a 1967 GT350, and restoring a ’66 Mustang coupe that ran in Trans Am series in 1966.
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