Inside this Month: Temp Control Rose Cup Photos ... - Oregon Region

Loud Pedal
The Membership Magazine of Oregon
Region
Sports Car Club of America
Editor:
Randy Unsbee, ABC
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Photographers: TheDigitalperspective.
com, Howard Allen, Doug Berger,
Wayne Flynn, Dave Franks, John Brewer,
Madonna, DMX, Randy Unsbee.
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Page 4
Editor’s Desk
Randy Unsbee, ABC
Email: info@sponsorpr.com
The Class of ‘81 Revisited
I spotted an interesting note in the July issue of SportsCar magazine. On page 114 is the
“25 years ago in SportsCar…” sidebar that states the following:
“ . . . a feature article pointed out that of the 10 rookie drivers at the Indianapolis 500,
nine had come through the SCCA ranks . . . The class of 1981 consisted of Josele Garza,
Kevin Cogan, Geoff Brabham, Mike Chandler, Bob Lazier, Bill Alsup, Scott Brayton,
Pete Halsmer and Tom Klausler.” Not surprising that the feature article sounded familiar
. . . I wrote it.
The year 1981 should have been my 20 th at Indy, but I missed both 1979 and 1980 events
because I was handling public relations for the Can-Am series at SCCA’s national HQ in
Englewood, CO. This was before CART and IRL, when Indy was the biggest race in the
world, and maybe the biggest of all sporting events.
By 1981, I left SCCA due to the revolving door bloodbath that was employment there, and
was looking forward to spending a leisurely month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
with a friend of mine. He was working for Dave Psachie’s Indy car team with drivers
Josele Garza and Geoff Brabham. Geoff was also the ’79 Super Vee champ and later the
’81 Can-Am champion, and Josele was a rising Super Vee star. So, I stayed with the team
and took in the sights.
I had also handled the Super Vee series for two seasons, so I knew Garza and Brabham
well along with their fellow competitor Mike Chandler. Tom Klausler was a friend and
fellow Illinois resident who had built my Nissan 200SX race engine while working at
Prototype Engineering before joining McLaren Engines, and I knew Cogan from handling
Formula Atlantic PR.
No one at Indy had really heard of Josele, so I lined up his fi rst interview with a radio
station. It was a phone-in program and naturally, Mike Chandler decided to call and
disguise his voice, asking Josele about a Super Vee crash he had with Chandler at an
earlier race. Josele was wise to the gag and handled it smoothly, but we had a good laugh
later at the St. Elmo Steak House.
Of course, ’77 Super Vee Champion Bob Lazier lived in Colorado as I did at the time and
I knew him from regional and national race weekends. In fact, we were going to breakfast
before a race in Pueblo, and he brought one of his kids along. Bob got a little angry when
his son decided to cross a muddy drainage ditch on the way to McDonald’s which resulted
in a loud, “Buddy, I told you not to do that!” The child was appropriately chagrined, but
earned his father’s admiration some 15 years later when he won the Indy 500.
I didn’t know ’78 Super Vee Champion Bill Alsup or Scott Brayton that well, because
they preceded my time handling SCCA pro series PR, but I spent a lot of time with Pete
Halsmer over the years in Super Vee and Trans-Am, and he was and is a great racer and
individual.
One of Halsmer’s most interesting stories didn’t deal with racing at all, but his time as a
soldier in Viet Nam. He explained that he had signed up for some non-combatant position
like quartermaster or something, but a paperwork snafu resulted in his assignment for
about six months as a helicopter door gunner! Their mortality rate was maybe exceeded
only by 2 nd Lieutenants, but he thankfully survived that ordeal.
(continued on page 7)