Racing history; this goes a long way back, 1958 or maybe Watkins Glen 1948. My first race recollection is Sebring 1958. Hot as blazes as Sebring always was then. Exotic European drivers and manufacturers, Fangio, Hill, DePortago, Shelby, Behra, these were some of the names of the day. Ferrari of course, but many other marques, Alfa, Porsche, DuBonnet, Crosley, Ford, Corvette, MG, Maserati, Arnoldt-Bristol, Triumph, Chapperall. Long after these early recollections I found myself in the profession and working on cars for a living. From there a fast ride to standing on pit lane 1974 Daytona 24hrs waiting as our Toad Hall Racing 911 RSR rolled to the pits for the first pit stop, now I’m hooked. That race was special as we finished 2nd overall with no unsheduled stops except for foggy windshield at 5 am. A 1974 Porsche 911 3.0RSR, what a sweet car, slide injection throttle body, classic Porsche.
1976 was quite a year as it was full time with Toad Hall Racing, Micheal Keyser and his Dekon Monza, designed by Lee Dykstra. Two race wins and the 24hrs of LeMans made it a year never to forget. The next few years involved many races with a number of teams including a memorable short stretch with John Paul Sr, worthy of a book in itself. Things settled down with the opening of our first shop but by 1983 we were totally involved in the Camel GT IMSA series. Again with a Porsche, another 3.0 911 RSR this time with Atlanta based Pegasus Racing and Ken Madren. During this time the full preparation was done in house, engines, transmissions nearly everything except painting. The team expanded with a 935 turbo Porsche. In the Daytona 24hrs we finished 4th and 10th overall with these cars and given the conditions and circumstances a very proud result.
Pegasus continued to expand and 1984 included a thundering March Buick GTP car with 3.0 Buick V6 turbo engine based on the Indy car program of the day. Extemely fast and also unreliable this car went to LeMans for my second trip to the most famous race in the world.
Although there were many races in the 1980’s and 90’s it was in 2000 that things in racing really took off for me again. This was with G&W Racing by way of my friend Paul Willison and Cole Scrogham. Porsche introduced the first generation of water cooled racing cars, the 911 RSR, for the Grand Am series. It was exciting as G&W won the GT championship. Good times and many friends made who continue to be friends today. Having already become an “old timer” it was invigorating to learn about the newest version of 911 then and again in 2014 with the introduction of the 991 based RSR.
Today we stick mostly to vintage and hisoric cars, also track day cars with prepartion and track support. If anyone is curious it won’t take much to start what might be a long converstion with lots of racing “stories”, maybe a beer or two.
