Slipstream - March 2017

trading stories. It turns out he was the one who bought
it! Neither of us knew where it ultimately ended up.
BK: So you guys raced pretty successfully then?
BA: We did pretty well. Matter of fact, at the 1981
SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Road Atlanta,
Porsche had four or five of the 924 DP “kit cars”
from the factory, and they were expecting to take 1-2-3,
but we came in third and kinda ruined the celebration
for them. This led us to getting one of only six 84 ½
944’s they had built at the factory just for racing -- no
sunroofs, no nothing.
BK: What was one of your most memorable racing moments?
BA: We were at a Sebring 12-hour race and I had
jumped over the wall to make the tire change on the
Bayside 935, when A.J. Foyt was exiting his pit in the
Swap Shop 935 and hit me! Well, he hit the tire I was
carrying, and sent me on my a**. It’s one of the moments
you don’t forget! We didn’t have the helmets or
crew uniforms like they do today, so heck, I could have
been hurt, more than just my pride (laughing).
BK: So you retired in 1999 from EDS, and what did you do
then? You were a pretty young guy still.
BA: Don Istook and I created Istook/Aines Motorsports.
We had been racing Porsches for several years
and had some very good contacts, so we thought we
would get ourselves a 996. Well, to our surprise Porsche
said NO. They did not feel comfortable having the 996
raced. So we then talked to Audi and they provided us
with S4s, which we raced for five seasons.
BK: What’s the “Zuffenhaus” (www.zuffenhaus.us) on
your GT3?
BA: Well that developed out of the racing team actually.
We had two crew chiefs, both from Charlotte. One
of the guys moved here to work full time with us and
the other stayed behind and flew in for the races. When
we stopped racing, the guys wanted to open a shop and
asked me to partner with them, utilizing the assets we
had from the motorsport team. So the guys went back
to Charlotte and ran it. I talked to them several times a
week and maybe visited 3-5 times a year.
BK: And is it just a Porsche service and repair shop?
BA: No, we do Porsche servicing but that’s only part
of it. We do some repair, restoration, and fabrication
of parts, from 2.8 RSR brake kits to reproductions of
steering wheels for 911R and RSs.
BK: Ok, so one last question that everyone that sees the
GT3 wants to know: what’s the significance of the plate?
BA: One of my friends from R Gruppe lives in Singapore
and has a few Porsches, one of which happens
to be a 996 GT3. He was telling me about an event he
had just gone to and he said he took his “kettle,” as
in “teapot,” meaning his 996. I got a kick out of that
and seeing how most of mine are air cooled I asked if
I could borrow his idea for the GT3; so it’s my teapot.
I could have written two columns with all these great stories!
Special thank you to Bob for having me over to his garage
(www.garagesoftexas.com) for coffee and pastries, sitting
amongst his very cool cars.
As always, I’m amazed at what you learn about people
when you take the time to be interested enough to listen. Next
time you’re at an event don’t be afraid to walk up, introduce
yourself, and ask them something . . . anything.
World’s fastest “teapot”
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