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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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 8
Bob in the Triumph Spitfire race car Del Rey! For the next 20 years or so, I raced a number of sailboats that I owned up and down the Southern California coast including in the Ensenada Race. During all this, I met my lovely wife Sue and we were married in 1978. Since I had converted the Sprite to a race car back in 1964, I had to have a tow vehicle, which ended up being a 1965 Ford Mustang. When I eventually sold my Triumph race car, I knew that I wanted a performance car to drive every day. I had always liked Porsches and as it turns out, a customer of mine at the bank had a green 1969 911S for sale. One look and I was hooked! What a great car. It had a Bursch exhaust so it sounded great and it certainly handled way better than my Sprite or Triumph! Unfortunately, several years later, while practicing my driving skills, I crashed and totaled the Porsche on Pacific Coast Highway right in front of the Chart House Restaurant! I went backward across PCH and backed into a Volkswagen van, which I turned on its side---but it kept me and the Porsche from going over the 50’ cliff to the sand below! Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the Porsche was a total loss! I then purchased a more conservative 1974 yellow 924, which became my daily driver. My wife, Sue, and I took it on our honeymoon to Aspen, Colorado. During our trip up to Aspen, the heater control in the dash broke and we had no heat. As a result, we would drive until we couldn’t stand it any longer and would stop for coffee at a gas station and try to warm up. As it turned out, as long as the car idled The crashed ‘69 911S in the gas station, the inside got toasty warm. As soon as we started out however, the cold would set in. Despite the cold, we had a great trip there and back! Later, we sold the 924 and bought a 1974 Peru Red 911 Targa, which, unfortunately, was stolen a number of years later, from the bank parking lot where I was working in Beverly Hills. A succession of other cars followed, including several other Mustangs, an Alfa GTV and even Cadillac Eldorados, BMW M3, Broncos and Suburbans until we acquired a 1969 912 Targa. Great car, but no horsepower! Subsequently, we found a 1980 Weissach Coupe in Ventura that was too good to pass up. I entered it in what was to be the last Porsche Club Concours held in front of the Westin Hotel in 1989 or so. The whole family was involved, Sue, Ryan and our little daughter, Amanda! After racing sailboats for 20+ years, we purchased a 34’ sport fishing boat in the late 1980s to fish for Marlin. In 1988, some friends invited Sue and I to Cabo San Lucas for a vacation. While we were there, I ran into another friend who had a 52’ Pacifica sport fishing boat and he (Continued on page 25) Investment Options Geared to Meet Your Needs When it comes to achieving your investment goals, having the guidance of a trusted professional can make all the difference. In practice since 1980, M. Scott Huddleston is dedicated to helping provide you with the right solutions to address your unique investment needs. • IRAs and 401k Rollovers • Retirement Distribution Planning • Fee-Based Asset Management to Customize Your Portfolio Why not call today? Inquiries welcome... Porsche Club of America Member Since 1997 M. Scott Huddleston, CLU, ChFC Martin & Huddleston Associates 2501 E. Chapman Ave., #140 Fullerton, CA 92831 (800) 801-0884 www.MandHAssociates.com Registered representative of and securities and investment advisory services offered through Hornor, Townsend & Kent, Inc. (HTK), Registered Investment Advisor, Member FINRA/SIPC; 9930 Research Drive, Suite 100, Irvine, CA 92618, (949) 754-1700. Martin & Huddleston Associates is independent of HTK. A8JC-1208-02 OCTOBER 2009 9
Page 1 and 2: October 2009 In this issue... • F
Page 3 and 4: Editor Garey Cooper gareycooper@mac
Page 5 and 6: President’s Message Story by Arma
Page 7 and 8: Editor’s Notes by Garey Cooper A
Page 9: OCTOBER 2009 7
Page 14 and 15: Tire Tech Session Learn about tire
Page 16 and 17: Cleaning Your Engine - Part 2 By Be
Page 18 and 19: Autocross Corner (Cont. from pg. 11
Page 21 and 22: OCTOBER 2009 19
Page 23 and 24: On a warm August day, 138 OCR membe
Page 25 and 26: Phoenix Flight 32 to benefit The Fo
Page 27 and 28: Featured Member (Cont. from pg. 9)
Page 29 and 30: Rice’s Ramblings Story and photos
Page 31 and 32: 2009 Orange Coast Region Board Memb
Page 33 and 34: OCTOBER 2009 31
Page 35 and 36: Rice’s Ramblings (Cont. from pg.
Page 37 and 38: Classified Ads FOR SALE: 930- 911 T
Page 40: Porsche Club of America Orange Coas

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?