Lucky Memories

Caught Red Handed In The Act

Some times it just doesn't pay to be a bad boy. I had quite a laugh this evening when a reader posted a comment about the La Carrera Panamericana photo gallery found on radio station XHNOE-FM STEREO 9 which is he Official Radio Station for La Carrera Panamericana and has been since the late 80's. You can view some great shots at the finish arch in Nuevo Larado going back as far as 2002 by CLICKING HERE.

There is also a very complete gallery from 2009 by CLICKING HERE.

I was excited to see there was a gallery from 2007 so I clicked on it and sure enough there was a photo of Jon and I receiving our medals from the awards girls. But when I clicked to enlarge the photo you could see me poking the gal in the belly button with my finger. LOL

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

Bob Bondurant, Lucky, Cobra Daytona -- More Records Than You Can Shake A Stick At

Bob Bondurant has been a good friend since 1970 and when he asked if he could write the forward for our DVD La Carrera Panamericana - Rebirth of A Legend
I was ecstatic.

Bob wrote; In the early 50’s, the top racing teams in the world tasked their legendary drivers – Juan Fangio, Phill Hill, Carroll Shelby and others, to challenge one of the toughest road races of its time – The La Carrera Panamericana. A grueling 2100 mile, multi-day race across the heart of central Mexico. After only five years, the race was canceled. Some say it had accomplished its goal; to promote the newly constructed Panamerican Highway. Others contest that the race was too dangerous and had to be stopped.

Today, the modern incarnation of La Carrera pays homage to that history, and is still considered by many to be the world’s toughest open-road race. To say you’ve competed in, and actually finished the La Carrera Panamericana is a significant achievement.

This documentary is an unprecedented view of that legendary race, and a contemporary look at one of its participants, the California’s Best Racing Team. Rebirth of a Legend chronicles the amazing 3-year journey that lead driver Gary Faules and co-pilot Jon Emerson to take on the 2007 La Carrera Panamericana. I have known and been friends with Gary for many years, and he has proven himself as a skilled driver.

From junkyard to finish-line hero, it’s a ride you won’t soon forget. This DVD is a priceless piece of history!

-Bob Bondurant

This weekend Bob was on hand while the very same Cobra Daytona that he drove into the analogs of automotive history sold for $7.25 million.



Courtesy of Hemmings...

Back in 1967, Bob Bondurant sold a Cobra Daytona for a paltry $4,000. Over the weekend he watched one of six Daytonas built by Shelby cross the block for an astounding $7.25 million at Mecum’s inaugural Monterey Auction, setting a record for the highest price paid for an American car at public auction, according to Mecum.

What A Pleasant Surprize!!! Clément Marin's Work Is Breathtaking

You can only imagine how surprised I was when I received these new photos of Lucky taken in 2007 as seen through the lens of Clément Marin. Many thanks Clément! This is better than finding a roll of undeveloped film for our wedding. Now I know I have to buy his new book. CLICK HERE

Click on each of the following photos to enlarge.

Lucky Attends Car Show

This last weekend my wife, children and grandson spent the day at the Livermore car show. With over 700 cars in attendance Lucky was parked in a guest of honor position in the main sqaure while other cars were parked over many blocks. Any car show is a good car show but one that I can spend the day with my family at get's highest honors in my book any day.





With over 700 very cool cars there was lots to see but one of the coolest cars I saw displayed was a pedal car. It was a special built 75th anniversay edition of a 32 Ford Roadster but get this... It is signed by Edsel B. Ford II. Tell me that isn't cool as hell! It was being sold via a silent bid for charity.




To see some of the other cars there, CLICK HERE.

Lucky in Jay Leno's Garage

CLICK HERE TO SEE LUCKY IN JAY LENO'S GARAGE


It seems all the celebrity late night talk shows host enjoy cars, especially fast ones. Back in the early 80's not only did I have the privilege of meeting Johnny Carson in person but I also got to work on one of his Corvettes while he was in Northern California. After I finished working on Carson's Corvette for a few days he picked it up but before he left we talked cars for a while and surprizingly he was extreamly knowlegable with anything automovite. I told him I was upset that I didn't know he was coming and that I didn't have my camera. He laughed when I said, "Well, it's not like I don't get to see your face every week night anyway is it?" With his charm and a smile he agreed but even so, a few days later I recived an autographed photo.



Everyone knows about David Letterman's affliction with speed both in his personal involvement of Rahal Letterman Racing in the Indy Racing League as well as all the tickets he seems to get on the highways. And don't forget Jay Leno. It seems Jay Leno's Garage is quickly becoming a popular place to see La Carrera Panamericana race cars as well. A few days ago even Lucky graced Jay Leno's collection and so did Michael Emery's 67 Datsun Fairlady 1600 and Francisco Ortiz's 72 Datsun BRE 510 and Ralf Christensson's Monte Carlo Falcon.

Weekends with the family

The definition of "Spending quality time with the family" seems to vary from house to house but what's important is that everyone must enjoy themselves. While Jon is building his newest ride, that being a BMW Spec E30 which is quickly becoming one of the hottest new spec classes with what will most certainly be a huge success my wife and I took the time to go spend the weekend with our son Will at his place of work... Thunderhill Raceway. Naturally, as long as we were going to a track we decided we might as well take along a race car so why not take Lucky?

On the way home Mari Chris and I stopped by the Pleasanton Car Show and swap meet to look around and while . We had some lunch and looked at lots of great rides and while there I found a new Shelby GT350R model car that I just had to add to my collection.




The weather was awesome and as usual the NASA crowd is always fun and exciting to hang out with. Besides getting to visit with Will and see his new office located in the top of the main building overlooking the track which by the way was just repaved I spent most of my time either racing Lucky or visiting with friends old and new.




Lucky is always a blast to drive and thruout the day Will and I enjoyed spending time together tweaking on Lucky until he was faster and faster. Getting a car to handle and perform better is great but doing it with your son is the best part of all.





Lucky dives inside a Cobra to make the pass in turn 10.


In between races we had time to sit with other friends and spectators in the stands which sit in the shade of some trees overlooking the new modifications made leading onto the straightaway. For the first time Will was trying out someones BMW in the new Spec E30 class and it was one hell of a race too. Will and Jon wanted to learn as much as they can about the characteristics of these cars to help in the building of Jon's new car. As usual Will catches on pretty fast (No pun intended) and even though Will was driving a car with a LOT of miles on the engine against his good friend Donny Edwards in a car with a fresh motor they both set new lap records on the fast new surface and in the process left the entire rest of the field so far behind it looked like they had left. From what I saw this is going to make for some awesome racing.

Donny Edwards telling his mechanic what he needs changed.

One of the cars I enjoyed watching run this weekend that run at the same time Will's race took place was this beautiful new version of Factory Five's Super Unlimited car which by the way, whipped all the high dollar whale-tale Porsches and there was a bunch.





Mari Chris always has fun where ever she is but both of us enjoy riding our bikes in the paddock which helps work off some of those calories from the free NASA barbeque on Saturday nights.

NASA events are always a lot of fun not to mention anytime I get behind the wheel I am smiling but this weekend was made even more rewarding for me when I looked up and saw my buddy Tom Dragoun of 7's Only Racing setting up next to me. Even though I have known the guys at 7's Only for years, Tom and I became good friends last year when he used his tractor trailer rig to haul cars down to Mexico to run in La Carrera Panamericana. Since Tom and I were in the Coyote Convoy all the way to the bottom of Mexico we had lots of time to form a great friendship. Tom will be hauling about 11 cars again this year and being their team support as well one of which is our friend Carson Scheller and his Original Panam Ford.



Man, seeing Tom and his truck sure brought back some wonderful memories.

One of the guys I got to meet is Gregory Clough, president of FUN CUP INC. I had the opportunity to spend time with Gregory and learn about this new racing venture that is quickly taking over in Europe and America. Don't be fooled, like the old saying says, do not judge a book by it's cover. These awesome little "VW Bugs" are anything but slow. Will's boss, Dave Vodden recently went to Europe to drive these little creatures on steroids and has nothing but great things to say about them.

A relaxing day in the sun with Lucky

Yesterday Jon and I hopped in Lucky and drove south to Monterey. Now if you have ever been to Monterey during the weekend of the prestigious Monterey Historis's and Concourse De Elegance then you know that it's not just another Sunday drive. There is some of the most exotic hardware in the world and it's not all parked in some showroom either. I doubt that at any given time that we were ever more than a block from several million dollars worth of cars and that was before we ever reached the track. Ferraris were as ordinary as VW bugs were in the 70's. At one point we pulled up behind a CHP and parked next to us was a Ford GT with a custom paint job, a million dollar McLaren F1 and a Ferrari all of which seemed too timid to pass the CHP but Lucky wasn't and so off we went. As much awesome hardware as there was it was very rewarding to realize that Lucky was ever bit as appealing as any other car we saw and we saw a lot of thumbs up throughout the day and even more fun was passing the majority of them while doing it.

The first place we went to was to pick up our ace in the hole which is a little something that Jon has access to during all of these events which is the all powerful "Media Pass". This was nice because it meant we didn't have to park miles away. As a matter of fact we were waved thru the usual security check-points and drove right in to the track and parked in the very popular Ford Corral.


During the early part of the day Jon and I enjoyed ourselves while the vintage racing was going on and equally beautiful vintage fighter planes buzzing the track and a whole lot more. Oh and did I mention cars? Geeze, no matter how many years I attend this thing I never get tired and if it's possible it just keeps on getting better and better every year.










After Jon and I left Laguna Seca we headed on over to Tarpy's Roadhouse where there was the annual La Carrera Panamericana get together. There were about 60 La Carrera members in attendance some who have been many times, some who will be making their first run this year but everyone enjoyed the afternoon of camaraderie.




There were people in attendance from all over the United States and world. Also in attendance was Arturo Perez. It was was his son Gabriel that won the Carrera with Angelica Fuentes in 2006 in a Turismo Produccion Ford.



With everyone else in attendance Jon and I enjoyed the local grog & ale as our new La Carrera Panamericana DVD mades it's debut. Unfortunately there were some problems with the video equipment on hand resulting in poor sound however without a doubt THIS IS THE BEST LA CARRERA PANAMERICAN MOVIE EVER PRODUCED and many shared the excitment.

A special thanks to Gerie Bledsoe for helping make the La Carrera gathering a special one and also to Bill Hemmer and is wife Adriana Robles since this year they negotiated the deal with Tarpy's, got everything set up, including the parking for Carrera cars and supplied the AV equipment. Bill and Adriana have driven the Carrera twice. In 2007 they were down there in a Porsche 550 replica. Thank you. As master of ceremonies Gerie Bledsoe made sure to introduce everyone and took a few minutes to give us all some updates for the upcoming events. I cracked up when Gerie asked everyone if they were ready for this years event since there were only two months left and I heard Carson Scheller say, "I was born ready." And our friend Dr. Sam Burg in attendance with co-piloto Dyana Marlett cracked me up when he told me he would not miss the gravel and trees on Mil Cumbres. I never thought to ask him about the narrow bridges.

I wish I had written down everyone's name and taken more photos but you know what they say about how time flies when you're having a good time.



Some of the cars and drivers in attendance included Andy Prill from England and Richard Clark from from Monaco who ran with us last year. Andy and Richard had flown over from Europe to race in this weekends event and they also brought along two amazing and historical cars as well. Both were older Porsches which they recently used to compete in this years LeManns one of which ran in one of the very first La Carrara race.



Left to right; Andy Prill, Jon Emerson, Gary Faules, Richard Clark.


Our good friend Doug Mockett and his crew also took a break in the action at the Monterey Historics to attend. Not only did Doug have his Mockett Rocket which just took first place at Pikes Peak at the event but he was also racing two of his formula cars at this weekends event as well including his 1975 Penske PC3.

Left to right, Richard Clark, Gerie Bledsoe, Gary Faules, Doug Mockett.

Doug Mockett proves to Dr Sam Burg that it's not necessary to get lubed up before putting on his Cooper formula car.




Here are few other cars that made a showing at the La Carrera get together.

A hot little La Carrera Falcon.


Our good buddy Carson Scheller drove his fantastic Ford and is always a pleasure to be around.


Another Curtis.




I had to laugh... the parking lot was filled with just about every type of car you would never expect to see at the local mall parking lot but when I saw a Rolls Royce parked near Lucky I cracked up. Where else except Monterey would you ever expect to find one with a fork laying on the hood?



Apparently the chauffeur was off looking for some Grey Poupon. But of course!

It's impossible to post just a few photos from an event such at this but here are just a few including a couple of my favorite formula cars one of which I watched Jackie Stewart race right here at Laguna Seca.








At one point during the day as Jon and I walked around Jon says, "There is Rod Millen's Pikes Peak car." Then a second later he says, "Hey, that's Rod Millen talking about the car!"