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Born
on Mar 02, 1948 in
Wenatchee
,
WA
. I was raised in a small logging community 10 miles up a raging
tributary of the
Columbia river
. I went to high school in Chelan, WA a resort community. I also
spent summers in S.E. Alaska in the king crab industry. After
attending the
University
of
Washington
in
Seattle
, I graduated with a degree in engineering. There I met my future
wife and life-long companion Linda. We were married in 1969. My
engineering jobs carried me to
Wyoming
,
Colorado
,
Montana
,
Washington
and
Alaska
. We returned to North Central WA in the early 70’s to start
farming apples. We have 4 children: Adam 1973, Alex 1975, Amber 1983
and Audrey 1985(notice all names begin with an A and the second
letter is in alphabetical order-actually just a coincidence, not
planned). Having raced motorcycles a little in high school, I now
had the opportunity to pursue racing with a vengeance. In the
mid-70’s, off-road motorcycles went through what I call the
“suspension revolution”. Wheel travel went from 3” to 12”.
Everyone was experimenting with different shock angles and swingarm
pivots. I rode a brand that used a high content chrome-moly steel
that required a heli-arc for good welding. I heard of a man that had
moved into town (Brewster) who had such a machine. I decided to meet
him and see if I could persuade him to teach me to use his welder.
The first time I went to his shop, I discovered a rear-engined
sidewinder dragster that he had built and was experimenting with. In
the next few years we became fast friends. I went to several of his
races and he went to many of mine. As a matter of fact, the first
race of mine that Ed went to, he ended up hauling me to the hospital
with a broken foot. Ed told me one day, that he wanted to build a
car and get in the 200 MPH Club and did I want to partner up. I
asked, “What’s the 200MPH Club?” He replied “that’s when
you set a record at over 200 MPH”. SOUNDED GOOD TO ME. In early
1979, Ed came to me and said “Speed Week is next week, let’s
go” So I put the canopy on my pickup and we headed for the salt.
Though we were hardly wet behind the ears about the salt, we did
what many veterans have done and still do today, WE DROVE ALL NIGHT.
We had a great time there for four days. We took rolls and rolls of
pictures, talked to countless people, and thoroughly enjoyed
ourselves. Everyone was very friendly and open. Don DeBring spent
two hours with us going over all his stuff. We met and talked with
Al Teague, Rick and Nolan White, and the Vescos (had met Don
previously through motorcycles). Some one from SCTA/BNI gave me a
current (1979) rule book. As everyone knows, having a rule book is
the first step on the road to perdition. Your fate is sealed. Ed and
I came home thoroughly pumped. In the next year we did a lot of
planning and scheming. When we headed for Speed Week 1980, Ed
bought some magazines to read on the trip. One was a Popular Science
that had an article about the Vector bicycle that had just upped the
human powered vehicle land speed record from 50 mph to 60mph. Ed
took one look and proclaimed “there’s our car”. The next
thing I knew, we’re on a plane to
Anaheim
CA
, and have signed a contract with Alan Voight and Dan Fernandez to
build a body for our new car. Our job then became one of designing
and building a vehicle to fit inside that body. I have a photo of Ed
and me sitting on his front porch on July 4, 1981. At that point, we
had only a bare rolling chassis. Oh yes, one other small item, I was
on crutches because I had blown out my knee, and Ed was going into
the hospital for 10 days of traction on his back. We had the car on
the salt for the Sept. Speed Week and came within 1.3 mph of the
current record. We would chase that record until 1989. We made a lot
of false moves, did some really dumb things and made our full share
of rookie mistakes. Ed always said “if you build like everyone
else, you will run like everyone else”. Trust me, there was more
than one point that we both wished that we would run like everyone
else. We set our first of many records in 1989 at 262.848 mph.
It’s been quite a ride for us, the crew, our families and friends.
We have been truly blessed, not only in our successes and failures,
but by the people and the relationships we have made. |
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