What made the meeting so incredible was that my father had bought Neil’s race car back in 1958 for my brother. When I decided to start my harness racing career I gave my race car and all that went with it over to my brother. The last year I’d owned the car(s) had been a disaster totally wrecking two cars (I wrote about it in earlier posts). When Cliff, the driver, found out that Neil was looking to sell his car without the motor he told my brother. He didn’t have any money so my father jumped in and bought it for him (which pissed me off to no end because I had to buy everything for the car(s) myself.) Cliff stumbled on to sponsorship money to pay for running the car during the season and ended up coming up a lap and half short of winning the championship with it (flat tire). So, for the first ten minutes we reminisced about that. Then it was on to Cliffy and our race car.
Neil recognized Cliffy’s name from way back when the local track was built in the early 50's because Cliffy’s father won a couple of track championships as an owner. I tried to be as brief and to the point as I could but Neil would ‘drift off’ and start talking about himself as a racer. It took about a half hour before we got down to just what Neil was looking for from us. Putting it as simply as I can, he’d gotten the racing bug with his brother after WWII and when he sold his race car to my father he thought he was through… but he wasn’t. He told me he recognized that he wasn’t a very good driver (I already knew that) but he still wanted to be involved. He’d put up money for some of the local drivers from time to time (think of Fairlane John with our team) but still wasn’t satisfied. He’d hired a young guy who’d just finished his service time at the local Air Force base to work in his used car lot. The kid convinced him he’d driven race cars back when he was a teen and Neil gave him some money and hooked him upon with some guys who worked at the local Chevrolet dealership. They put a car on the track using a six cylinder motor and ended up winning a lot of races but it wasn't in the top division. Like a lot of young guys, he thought he was capable of “blowing the doors off“ the top cars and had convinced Neil to continue to back him. But, by then Neil had gone into partnership with Lynda’s father-in-law to sell his dealership’s used cars. Neil’s son and Lynda’s husband were good friends and because of that the dealership put some money into the car as well. As I mentioned earlier, Lynda had told me the driver was a “wreck magnet” and how Neil was trying to find a young driver who was capable of winning. The problem was that he’d already given the ‘hot shot’ money and since he didn’t own the car, couldn’t fire him. At this point he hadn’t offered anything and I’d spent about 45 minutes with him and still didn’t know where the meeting was going. So told him I really needed to be going. That got his attention.
When he finally stopped talking about what he’d done and was presently doing he mentioned Lynda’s name and how she’d called him to set up the meeting. He added that he thought she was “a real sweet girl” and was one of his “favorite people”. With all he’d previously said about how monetarily involved he presently was I was sure there was nothing in it for me. But, he went on and said she’d asked him if there wasn’t something he could do to help me out… and he asked what I needed. I’d not heard anything she’d said to him on the phone the previous day so I just blurted out “a motor”, and that was all. I didn’t think he heard me because he didn’t say anything for a few seconds.
I don’t want to bore you with the ’nitty gritty’ of what we discussed so will ‘cut to the quick’. After his initial shock after hearing my request he kind of stalled a bit. I don’t know just exactly what I said… something about any kind of help would be appreciated… and that’s when he finally responded in a positive way towards me. At first he said he could get discounts on engine parts through the dealership… which would be good if we had money to start with… and then he asked what I remember as only his second true question… how much cash did we have. I wasn’t prepared for that and, since Cliffy handled all the money, didn’t really know but I knew I had to give him an answer to keep him interested. I was pretty sure we hadn’t used much of our opening night winnings and I still had to get $200 from Cliff at the restaurant so I threw out a figure of $750. Without a change of expression he commented that it wouldn’t take us very far. I had no idea what putting a Chevrolet motor together would cost. I did know, based on comments from others including “Seeg”, C J’s father and Cliffy’s father, that it would be a lot less than building a Ford motor. Our experience with C J’s cylinder heads the previous year was certainly an eye opener for me. Two Chevy heads cost the same as one Ford head. I sat there waiting for him to tell me he really couldn’t help but then leaning forward and saying he could probably afford to give us $1,000. I almost jumped out of my seat. It wasn’t what I’d gone there hoping for but, realistically, it was probably way more that I could’ve expected from someone I didn’t know at all. My body language spoke louder than words. Before I could say anything he was on the phone. I sat there listening to him talk to what were obviously people involved in racing. He’d turned away from me and after a few minutes he turned back around and asked if I thought I could raise another $500.
I’d sworn to myself that I wasn’t going to use any of the $1,000 profit from the sale of the stock but I also knew that none of the other people involved with the car could come up with any meaningful money, at least right then. But, I told him I thought it could be done with over a period of couple of weeks. He gave me a smile and said he thought we might have a deal. He told me he’d just called the mechanic who’d built the motor in his car and asked how much it would cost to put a Chevy racing motor on the track… about $2,500. Being with a mathematical mind I knew we were still short and mentioned it. His response was this was not the time to worry about”nickels and dimes” and wanted to know if I was ready to move forward. I said I was… and we shook hands. It was now after 6pm.
I promised Elle I’d call so asked Neil if I could use his phone. I decided to take a positive approach and told her that it appeared we’d still be able to race even knowing that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Her response seemed to be similar to her attitude of the previous night (and morning), that of being resigned to the situation. What I wasn’t prepared for was what she did say when I said I was on my way home… “Why don’t you stop and eat on the way? I want to clean up the kitchen.” And then I heard the click of the phone hanging up. While I was on the phone I saw Neil head out to the car lot and had an idea pop into my head… maybe Lynda might be home and we could get a bite to eat. In a matter of seconds that became my goal. I knew I had to thank Lynda for putting me in contact with Neil. However, doing it with others around might prove embarrassing so I thought if I could get in touch with her it would be perfect for each of us.
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| If ever there was proof of how small the world is, this receipt is it. |
2 comments:
Well, You seem to be back in business. I see only one problem, you look to be the only one interested enough to go after that elusive dollar. The whole team including the driver, while I realize the garage and trailering is substantial, appear to be somewhat lackadaisical about the whole business and in the dark about financing an enterprise like a race team. Winning even at short tracks takes money and existing on a shoestring only comes true in movies. Networking, todays term for knowing people, seems to be paying off.
OB... in a way you're right but, living in a rural area with the biggest employer being the County, all racers were searching for $$. I didn't want to go into the details but we had a bunch of small 'donors' who would occasionally put in a $20 bill. Of the cars we were competing with there were only two that had a real sponsor. "Fairlane John" had helped us out by the time this was written with a couple of decent 'donations' and this was pretty much standard for most of the other racers. C J carried the name of a concrete service company but there really wasn't any money in it for him. His father, "Seeg", paid the bills on the car. It was tough going!
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