October 2009 In this issue... • Featured Members Bob and Sue ...

Featured Member
Competition Driven!
Story and photos from Bob Stockwell
As far back as I can remember, I have
always loved cars. As a kid, growing up
in South Gate, California, I used to listen
to the Indianapolis 500 on the radio and
mark the position of my favorite drivers
with my small collection of model cars.
My next door neighbor who, along
with his wife, worked at the Firestone tire
plant nearby, had a 1949 MG TC that his
wife took to work everyday―I wanted
that car! As a young boy, I always
tinkered in the garage with my dad and
we built what I thought was the perfect
Soap Box Derby car―that is until I saw
a real one at the local Chevy dealer’s
showroom. Oh well, my car won every
race in our neighborhood since I was
a little heavier than the neighborhood
boys, it went faster downhill!
My first car was a 1959 Fiat 500.
Great little car with 21 horsepower!
Driving it to high school, every day when
I would come out of class to go home, I
usually found it on the sidewalk! Four of
my friends would lift it from its parking
spot and put it on the sidewalk just to
make life difficult! It did win a trophy in
the high school car show for the smallest
car displayed!
In Rome, Bob with a Fiat 500, just like
his first car.
After I graduated from high school,
my parents helped me trade in the Fiat
for a new red 1961 Austin Healey Sprite.
Man, was I livin’! Shortly thereafter, I was
drafted into the Army and ended up as a
Meteorologist in Korea. Upon my return
home, I started to upgrade my Sprite (as
things began breaking) with competition
parts, which would be the beginning of
my foray into car racing. The first try at
replacing the clutch with a competition
unit took me and two friends over two
days and 13+ hours. Subsequently, in
1967 at the Santa Barbara Road Races,
two friends and I replaced the clutch and
Bob in his Sprite at Willow Springs
had the car running for the next race in
1½ hours. What a learning curve!
After my return from the Army,
I started my career in banking in the
Automobile Finance. Now with a steady
job, I could concentrate on racing my
Sprite. I was fortunate to become very
successful in SCCA racing in the H
Production class, finishing 2nd in the
SCCA Pacific Division in 1967 and
going to the SCCA Runoffs in Daytona
Beach, where I took the Pole position
1.5 seconds in front of the field. After
losing the transmission in practice
during qualifying and a series of mishaps
in getting the parts flown in from Los
Angeles (which didn’t arrive), I was
successful in getting one of the reserve
cars to lend me a transmission. Well,
because we were delayed at the Orlando
airport waiting for the parts, it took until
7 a.m. the next morning to change the
Winning the 1968 National
Championship in the Sprite 2
Bob and the Carrera at the 2007
Newport Beach Concours
transmission (using a tree branch to hold
the hoist for the engine in the Holiday
Inn parking lot). The race was at 9:30
a.m.
As it turned out, with no sleep the
night before, I fell asleep on the starting
grid! It wasn’t until I heard the roar of
the other cars, that I woke up! I was 4th
into Turn One (but remember I was 1.5
seconds faster than everybody else. At
the end of the first lap, going into Turn
One again, I was hit in the passenger
door by a sliding competitor who had
locked up his brakes. The hit put me
off the course and when I got turned
around, I was dead last―but remember,
I was 1.5 seconds a lap faster! Then,
on the next lap, my brand new Berry
Plastiglass Fiberglass seat, which was
on a 4-inch aluminum frame, started to
break apart. By the end of the second
lap, my seat was on the floor, sliding
around. I was throwing the parts out of
the car, tightening my seat belts, and I
couldn’t see over the dashboard! Well,
no worry, I was 1.5 seconds faster, right!
Well, I did make back to 5th place, but
eventually, at the end of the race, I spun
out trying to overtake the 4th place car
and, because I was holding on with my
left arm for so long to stay in the car, I
became so fatigued, I couldn’t continue.
The next year (1968), all the stars
were apparently in place. I was the
Pacific Division Champion and won the
National Championship at Riverside! I
moved on to successfully race a Triumph
Spitfire in F Production for several
more years. Due to the heavy racing
expenses, I decided to sell my race car
to a good friend, Kas Kastner, who was
head of the Triumph Racing Division.
He convinced me to trade my race car
for his 22’ Santana sailboat. I instantly
fell in love with sailboats and within a
short time, began racing them in Marina
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