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High School Sweetheart—Bill Worstell’s 1966 Mustang GT Fastback street machine served as the perfect substitute in CJ Pony Parts Ford Muscle

Posted By: Evan J. Smith
High School Sweetheart—Bill Worstell’s 1966 Mustang GT Fastback street machine served as the perfect substitute in CJ Pony Parts Ford Muscle 
 
Written by Ainsley Jacobs
Photography by Dr. Rudy Rouweyha and the FSC staff
 
For every enthusiast, one car holds a special place in their life above all the others. It carries memories, history, nostalgia, and sentimental value beyond measure. One that has become not just a part of their life, but part of their family — part of the story of who they truly are. For Bill Worstell, the fastback 1966 Ford Mustang GT he drove in high school is that car and then some.
 
Bill’s stepfather, Jack Garris (the only “dad” he’s ever known), was an avid racer in his youth, often going to the track three times a week. He always took Bill with him as they traversed the state of Missouri. Visiting various eighth-mile drag strips, Jack had a 1969 Mustang that he raced in Super Stock in the early 1970s in the now-defunct American Hot Rod Association. “He set two national records and has since restored the car which he still drives,” said Bill proudly of his 85-year-old hero.
 
In the late 1970s, when Bill was 15 years old, Jack purchased a 1966 Mustang GT fastback for $800. “It had a blown-up engine and a wrecked corner panel, and we worked on it. I got it done so I could drive it for my senior year of high school in 1981, and met my wife, Kelly — we’re best friends and have been together ever since,” recalled Bill, now 61 years old, who avidly raced the car for several years.
 
Around that same time, Jack took ownership of Auto Air in St. Louis. He had worked at the company, which was founded in 1953, for most of his life and was able to acquire it as his own. Not only did the shop give Jack and his son the means to work on the fastback, but it also helped them build a bond spanning future generations.
 
Working at Auto Air together and racing a 1965 Mustang with a big block Ford engine in the Super Gas category, Bill and Jack had a blast staying busy in the 1980s. They were drawn towards bracket racing and did quite well, too.
 
When Bill and Kelly had their son, Aaron Worstell, in 1990, it was only natural that Aaron and his brother and sister also tagged along on outings to the track. “They wanted video games, and I told them if I won, they could have one, and there was one season we were on fire that they got video games practically every weekend,” laughed Bill. As his kids started getting older and more heavily involved in school sports, though, racing was put on hiatus. “I sold my race car in ’97, we built a house, and focused on the family.”
 
On the day that 16-year-old Aaron earned his driver’s license, though, Bill headed back to the track — literally. The guys traveled to World Wide Technology Raceway just outside St. Louis, signed Aaron up for a high-school drag class, put him into Bill’s stick-shift 1995 Mustang, and said “Go!” Aaron wasted no time in showing a talent for the sport. As such, Bill built a gray Fox Mustang for his son to bracket-race throughout high school. “He even won a Wally in it,” added Bill, thrilled with his son’s success.
 
In 2021, Aaron got involved in NMRA Richmond Gear Factory Stock and soon moved up to NMRA Vengeance Clutch Coyote Stock. “I liked the structure and format of NMRA but wanted something to do to fill the downtime between Aaron’s runs, so I took his old Fox-body and started racing in Ford Muscle,” Bill shared, inspired by his boy and wanting to get in on the fun himself. “The NMRA is such a tight-knit community, and I like that when someone needs a hand, everyone jumps in to help.”
 
Bill eventually started campaigning his Auto Air shop truck, a 1964 Ford Ranchero modestly equipped with a simple drivetrain from a 1989 Mustang, in CJ Pony Parts Ford Muscle. “It was the slowest car we own,” confessed the man, “but it didn’t matter because it’s so consistent that it’s a great bracket car.”
 
At the 2024 NMRA Spring Break Shootout & Thrill Festival season opener in Gainesville, Florida, Bill’s Rancho proved its prowess as the Missouri man picked up an outstanding overall win for the weekend. Worstell ran on a 14.00 dial-in, but his confidence in the car, as well as his decades of experience working the top end, combined for success. 
 
Bill was planning to race his Ranchero at the NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals Presented by Sipple's Speed & Performance & Innovation Performance Technologies Top of the Rock Thrill Festival in Rockingham, North Carolina, too, but a last-minute change of plans meant new memories were to be made instead.
 
“We had gotten the red car repainted in 1992 after Aaron was born, rebuilt the engine, and restored it. It was really nice but just sitting in the garage,” said Bill. For the 60th anniversary of the Ford Mustang, Bill, Jack, and Kelly decided to go to a big celebration in Birmingham, Alabama, and put the classic pony car to good use. 
 
The family made a huge road trip out of the occasion and drove the Mustang to Skip Barber Motorsports Park. Although they missed out on driving the Mustang on the famed road course, they put it into the car show portion of the event and enjoyed exploring the facility, chatting with other enthusiasts, and appreciating the entire atmosphere of the special occasion.
 
“My dad had his ’69 Mach 1 that he brought with us, and we were planning to go back home with him to St. Louis because we didn’t want him to drive home alone, but we met another group there going to St. Louis and they invited him to drive back with them,” explained Bill.
 
With Jack safely on his way home, Bill and Kelly continued with their beautiful Mustang to visit friends in Charleston, South Carolina. “It was a 7-hour trip and so beautiful!” he added. “But the car quit running literally right as we pulled up in front of our friends’ house. It just backfired and died — we thought we were in trouble!”
 
After checking most of the major issue areas, Bill was relieved to see that everything seemed fine, mechanically. He put a new coil on his high school hot rod, it fired right back up, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. “So, we left Charleston and drove to Charlotte, North Carolina, to see my brother-in-law next,” continued the man of the extended adventure he and Kelly enjoyed.
 
After a few days in Charlotte, the couple navigated to Rockingham Dragway for the second stop of the Holley NMRA Ford Nationals drag racing season tour. “Everyone wanted to know if I was going to race since I had was leading points after winning at Gainesville. So I decided to at least stage the car and take the tree to get some more points,” he affirmed.
 
With 100,000-plus miles on the chassis and a naturally aspirated engine that he and Jack originally built back in 1988 (using a 1969 Boss 302 block; matching Boss 302 crankshaft and connecting rods; TRW pistons; Edelbrock Performer RPM cylinder heads; a single-plane intake; and a carburetor), the remainder of the Mustang’s modifications were simple and functional.
 
A Ford Toploader four-speed manual transmission and a factory 9-inch rearend (complete with disc brakes) from a 1979 Ford Granada top the list of performance upgrades. “It’s basically a stock suspension car with lift bars on it for a traction device and BFGoodrich Radial T/A non-drag-radial tires,” Bill clarified. “It’s not a race car, but a car that is raced!”
 
Once he decided to go for it, though, Bill decided on more than just staging his high school sweetheart Mustang. “It’ll run low-13s, but I decided to run it on a 15.00 index and take off like I’m at a stop sign next to a police officer to take it easy on her and make sure it didn’t break,” he joked. 
 
Unfortunately, Bill’s plan to go slow backfired when he was too quick on the tree and red-lighted in the first round of NMRA CJ Pony Parts Ford Muscle eliminations with a -0.040 second reaction time.
 
Undeterred, though, he and Kelly enjoyed the rest of the weekend watching Aaron race in NMRA Vengeance Clutch Coyote Stock and hanging out with the rest of their NMRA friends.
 
Sunday night, when racing ended, they packed up and headed back to Charlotte before trekking back to their home in Union, Missouri, to officially end their two-week-long, once-in-a-lifetime road trip.
 
“We had never done a trip like this before, because I appreciate this car and I’m afraid of going to a hotel and coming out and the car being gone, or something bad happening to it on the highway or hail, but at the end of the day, you just can’t leave it sitting in the garage… it was meant to be driven,” proclaimed Bill.
 
Over the years, Bill performed “creature comfort” upgrades to the Mustang. The relatively small driver and passenger seats don’t have headrests but are “not that uncomfortable” according to the driver, as they “put you right where you need to be.” Lap belts have since been replaced with shoulder harnesses that Bill took care to incorporate into the Mustang’s trim for a seamless look.
 
Bill also reupholstered the Mustang roughly a decade ago with new seat covers and a custom center console so that he and Kelly would have “a place to put stuff” when they took it out for a drive here and there. “There’s even plenty of room for luggage in the trunk and behind the seats under the fastback glass,” he added.
 
Similarly, Bill also upgraded the Mustang to have air conditioning “because Kelly required that” and used a combination of later-model Mustang parts to accomplish the task, although the evaporator is still the original Ford unit. 
 
Given that Bill continued Jack’s Auto Air legacy in 2013 after his father retired with a new location in Union, Missouri, (and a new 4,500-square-foot building that was erected in late 2023), it was easy for him to make the updates while keeping the car looking period-correct. Adding a Vintage Air system was in his immediate plans, but despite its name, Bill’s business centers mostly around upholstery, convertible tops, customization, and other odds and ends.
 
Other than the history of the car itself and its beautiful body style, one of Bill’s favorite things about the Mustang is actually something perfectly imperfect — the damage to the front left headlight housing that was never repaired because of the funny story behind it.
 
“Aaron drove it through the garage door when he was 12,” laughed Bill, quick to throw his son under the proverbial bus. “It pushed the fender back a bit and chipped the paint along the trim where the windshield meets the hood. It crunched up the chrome on the front of the hood — which I changed — but I left everything else as a guilt-trip reminder!”
 
After such an incredible (and inspirational) adventure in his Mustang, Bill chose to switch back to his tried-and-true Rancho for the remainder of his 2024 NMRA CJ Pony Parts Ford Muscle drag racing season. 
 
In St. Louis at the NMRA/NMCA Race for the Rings & Thrill Festival, Bill made it through to the semifinals in eliminations before his brain “shut off” and a delayed reaction time took him out of the running after putting two round wins in his pocket.
 
Second in season points as he headed into Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, for the Mickey Thompson NMRA Ford Homecoming Presented by Anderson Composites & TransTec Thrill Festival and his 61st birthday weekend, Bill’s brain was once again elsewhere when it mattered most.
 
Kelly had a health scare, and the devoted husband was concerned for his wonderful wife’s wellbeing, he was flat-out distracted as he staged the Ranchero at the start of eliminations. Another red light took him out of the running early on, but it was a bittersweet defeat because it meant that he was able to focus all of his attention on her instead. 
 
“There are a lot of older ‘60s and ‘70s cars in [CJ Pony Parts] Ford Muscle, and I really like that about that class,” Bill observed. “It brings a little nostalgia to the NMRA instead of the mostly late-model Mustangs, and I think it’s a cool class with a lot of variety that gives older cars a great place to race.”
 
Still second in points despite the early exit and well within striking distance of the leader, David Mormann, Bill fully intends to chase the championship for the remainder of the season. “…Really, a win for us is just getting past the first couple of rounds,” he laughed.
 
For 2025, Bill plans to have Jack come racing with him and Aaron, too, so all three generations of Worstell men can race in the NMRA. Bill, too, has an exciting new project on his hands — a 2014 Mustang that he purchased from Joe and Becki Cram which will likely be entered into NMRA Exedy Racing Clutch Mod Muscle.
 
Even though he placed his fastback 1966 Mustang GT back on “road trip-only, no-racing” duty for the foreseeable future, the fact that the Worstell family can still enjoy the car that’s been around for as Bill and Kelly have been together is truly special. “We drive it all over the place, it’s not a show car,” confirmed Bill, who recently took it to both Ozark International Raceway for another Mustang meetup and Table Rock Lake for a mini-vacation with Kelly. “It’s not fast, but it’s fun.”
 
Sidebar:
The Details
Owner/Driver
Owner: Bill Worstell
Driver: Bill Worstell
Hometown: Union, Missouri
Occupation: Husband, father, grandfather, business owner
Class: Ford Muscle
Crew: Kelly Worstell
Car Make/Model/Year: 1966 Ford Mustang GT fastback
Powertrain 
Engine: Ford 302
Engine builder: Bill Worstell
Displacement: 306 cubic inches
Block: 1969 Boss 302 block
Bore: 4.030 inches
Stroke: 3.0 inches
Crank: 1969 Boss 302
Rods: 1969 Boss 302
Pistons: TRW
Heads: Edelbrock Performer RPM
Valvetrain: COMP Cam rockers
Cam type: Solid-roller
Carburetor or EFI system: Carb
Power-adder: N/A
Fuel brand and type:
Headers and exhaust: Hooker Super Comp
Transmission: Toploader four-speed manual
Transmission Builder: Ford
Clutch/shifter/torque converter: 
Rearend: Ford 9-inch
Chassis 
Body and/or chassis builder: Bill Worstell
Suspension (Front): Stock
Suspension (Rear): Stock
Brakes (Front): Disc
Brakes (Rear): Disc
Wheels (front): 15x7-inch Styled Steel
Wheels (Rear): 15x7-inch
Tires (Front): BFGoodrich Radial T/A, 225/60/15
Tires (Rear): BFGoodrich Radial T/A, 225/60/15
Aftermarket body modifications: 
Safety equipment: 
Vehicle weight: 3,000 pounds
Quickest ET: 13.30 seconds
Best 60-foot: 1.9 seconds
Fastest mph: 
End sidebar
 

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