In the early years it was all about going fast on the street, but the local authority  didn’t  like it much.  I took on an apprenticeship in top fuel drag racing.  Shortly after that Fran and I became a couple and we joined  the Western States Corvette Club, this club was sponsored by the Chevrolet Factory.  During this period we had some good times.  Some of our fondest memories were when we followed the Cam-Am  and Trans Am racing series.  Our club hosted the Penske Hilton Racing team when they came to Sears Point and I was the liaison between the Penske Hilton Race Team and our club.  I remember when Roger Penske couldn’t make our meeting and they sent James Hilton to be the P.R. man.  We spent hours talking with him about mechanical components on the #6 racing camero, very fun stuff for a bunch of want to be race drivers. I remember taking the photo of Fran and Mark Donahue together  at Laguna Seca right after his team had to make a  last hour motor change  from his back-up car to his race car, and before  he took the 917-30 Proche out to win the race.  It was during this same period I remember interfacing with Mario Andretti, a young and up comer during a photo shoot in the same pit area.  Also during this time period we had an opportunity to help test a friends Grand Sport, one of only six built by Chevrolet, this car debuted at Laguna Seca sometime around 1962.  This experience  is a complete other story involving Andy Granetelli and Carol Shelby.  In September of 1969 we were invited to a western states corvette convention.  We drove our corvette to San Diego and had the opportunity to talk with Zora Arkus Duntov, we also took top honors in the car show at the convention.  During the weekend I drove  the Grand Sport Corvette in an auto cross held at Jack-Murphy stadium parking lot.

After moving from Marin County to San Jose  we joined another corvette club.  This club was mainly involved in closed course auto cross and we learned a lot about skid pad testing , g forces and chassis design.  About this time our family grew to be 5.  After going on the SCCA car show circuit thru out California for 3 years, the old street racer now Concourse De Elegance corvette was put aside and buried deep within the garage.  Eventually it became a cruiser  and historical vehicle .

As our family grew we put our energy into other types of sporting endeavors.  During the adolescent and teen years of our children we became involved in running programs for baseball & soccer organizations, this eventually led Fran to become Regional Commissioner of  AYSO  Soccer.  During her 8 year tenure we had the honor to represent our region  at National Conventions held in Arizona and Washington D.C., there we would be assigned obligations to establish by-laws and to elect the National Leaders of AYSO.  As our children grew so did their interests.  We became a racing group again and for the next 12 years we could be found at the moto-cross tracks of California.  I remember the many Friday evenings picking up the kids from school at 3:00pm and going directly to Ascot Park.  Sundays we would travel up and down California chasing this series or that one.  I would build the motorcycles and the boys would race, our daughter would bring the bandages.  Fran would do the scoring of the races for what ever club we would be racing with, CMC, CRC or AMA.  For the next 7 years we spent our weekends cruising to the beach in the old corvette or desert play riding off road cycles. We also had our annual vacation trips to various spots around the Caribbean or Hawaii.  Not much racing at all.  I got bad withdrawal racing syndrome.  About this time Chuck my oldest son starting building race motors for some type of race cars called Dwarf Cars.  Fran and I started going back to the track with Chuck to be with him and Bruce Dorn.  Then it started all over again.  Five years later we have 3 Dwarf cars in the family.  They call me the Fireman (race logo) because of my professional business as a Fire Service Company owner.  We are a race family again.  Marc has gone back to moto-cross and has already won a race in only 4 races back. Fran is being pursued again by track promoters for training scorekeepers and working special event races.  Chuck is working as a motor builder for a top A.M.A. formula 1 racing team, and Kim is still my #1 fan. Racing drivers never fade away they just turn full circle. By the way, my first grandson, Chucks son, rides off road motorcycles and he and Kayle, my granddaughter will be racing this season in the mini dwarf class at Ventura Raceway.