The first race I ever saw was during a summer vacation in 1962 under the covered grandstands at the Minnesota State Fairground track. The racing bug bit me then, and that was it. I started attending races at Hialeah Speedway in 1965, and discovered the winged supermodifieds of old Hollywood Speedway later that year. I drove my first race the day I turned 16 at Old Hollywood, and first raced Mini-Stocks at Hialeah in 1967. While I have competed in a variety of cars at many current and long since gone Florida tracks, my personal driving and racing career never took off the way I envisioned it would. My passion for the sport never wavered, I have either listened on the radio to, watched on TV, or attended every Indy 500 Since 1964. Starting in 1966, I have been to Over 20 Daytona 500’s, seen the old Can Am cars at Mossport, Indy cars at Portland, Homestead, Indy, Pocono, St. Petersburg, etc., assorted SCCA races, have crewed at the 24 hours of Daytona, raced go-karts, personally raced on all 5 configurations at the “new” Hollywood speedway complex, built racecars from scratch, sat next to Smoky Yunick on a plane back from Indy, have seen Jeff Gordon race at East Bay, watched an F1 race in the pouring rain from a tree limb at Watkins Glen, saw Davey Allison’s first race ever at the Birmingham Fairgrounds track, and attended hydroplane races at the Miami Marine Stadium. I saw the last Le Mans start at Sebring from the Ford GT pits, drag races at Masters field, airplane races at the old Tamiami Airport, entered a car in the “Rod Run to the End of the World’, and way too much more to list here. I confess a personal soft spot for open wheel oval track cars, especially sprints and supermodifieds. I’ve attended the Knoxville nationals, ASCS NW Speedweek, From 1978 to 2011 missed only two years of the East Bay Winternationals, and been to dirt races from Skagit Speedway to East Bay Raceway…and a whole lot in between. I’m from South Florida originally, and after trying life in the Pacific NW for a few years moved back in 2009. Nowadays I live in Titusville with my lovely wife of over 30 years, Debbie. I’m opinionated, bombastic, politically incorrect, probably wrong at times, never been called boring, and hope I will never bore you either.
