Preface (continued)

Why I quit racing in 1963.

After winning the 1962 Ford – Aurora Grand Nationals the executives of Aurora in conjunction with Rich Palmer of Rich’s Hobbytowne asked me if I would consent to lending them my winning car (which actually was a tan pickup) and maybe a dozen or so of my other race cars. Their intent was to study my cars that had been tuned for racing with the hopes of possibly coming up with some new ideas to better their product. I agreed and soon gave my best cars to Rich to satisfy Aurora’s wishes.

A few weeks went by and Rich informed me that Aurora had somehow lost or misplaced all of my cars. To say my blood pressure went off the chart is an understatement and believe me I still feel the same way. If I look at things in a dollars and cents world that tan pickup might be the world’s most valuable HO slot car and forget about the lifelong memories reminiscing and having the “actual car”. Fortunately I didn’t give them my Galaxie qualifying car and my radical modified and I still have those two cars. They made a token gesture to replace the cars with new ones but in my eyes their handling of the situation was in very poor taste.

To add insult to injury they later informed me that I couldn’t defend my title and could not compete in the 1963 contest for which I definitely had in my mind to compete. When informed of their intentions I quit racing immediately and wanted nothing to do with Aurora and Rich’s Hobbytowne and just tried to block them out of my mind. I spent the next almost 40 years thinking that I was not Aurora’s “poster boy” ( I had no beef with Ford and still drive a Ford product) and that is why I received the rather rude and harsh treatment.

While talking to Bob Beer’s about the incident he explained that Aurora was somewhat embarrassed about me winning as I competed at Rich’s Hobbytowne. Rich was a consultant to Aurora and it might have looked like I had received preferential treatment. 6 hours a day practicing for 8 weeks before the contest was not preferential treatment. The other kids in my neighborhood were out enjoying the summer off from school, playing sports, going to parties and having fun. My 1962 summer was spent in the basement tuning and turning laps and yes “I paid my dues”. For some strange reason Aurora never let any of their winner’s defend their title and I’m sure that’s one of the things that led to the death of their contest. After 40 some years I guess I’m getting over it but I’ll never get over it completely.