During the 50's and 60's  I drove at most of the Southern California tracks beginning at Palm Springs in a VW, then an MGA, a Maserati, a 6 liter Chrysler Kurtis, a Lola Mk1, a Devin Special and an Austin Healey Sprite.

I had visited Riverside during its construction, tested cars there, worked on Bondurant's Corvette in 1959 when he beat the national champion, wrote a column and shot photos for a Valley paper.

In the early 60's, Bondurant and I lived in La Canada and he was an instructor at Carroll Shelby's driving school.  Occasionally he would  bring home the prototype Cobra and we would "test" it around the Rose Bowl's large parking lot.  Speaking of off-track fun, one exciting night to remember was cruising the hilly streets of Santa Barbara with Ronny Bucknum in an MG Midget.

I gave up racing in the early 60's because of family considerations and took up SCUBA diving.  Then in the early 80's, I hooked up with Art Evans.  Ginny and I helped him with the 1985 Palm Springs Revival and became part of the Fabulous Fifties. The night before the Palm Springs race I picked up Stirling Moss and we drove the course in the rain.  In the Revival I drove Toly Aruntunoff's Morgan.  Later that weekend Innes Ireland and I ran my AMG Mercedes up the back road to Idyllwild. In the 50's I'd sat on the dirt bank at the Riverside starter's stand for the drivers' meeting with Moss, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Phil Hill, et al.  I was re-hooked!  

My good friend and ex-IMSA team engineer, Harry Haggard, was given a Maserati Bi-Turbo by Kjell Qvale to make it into a race car.  I put a lot of hours on the car at Willow and used it to renew my SCCA National license. But a race car it didn't want to be.

My return to Riverside was in an RX3 Mazda in an SCCA enduro in 1986. After that I think I ran every race at Riverside:  SCCA,  Vintage, Solo and Russell, driving a Mazda RX3, Turner, Porsche 912, LolaT140, Gilbert F5000, Pro Spec Racer, Tiga Sports 2000, Brabham BT21, Formula Ford, and an RT5 SuperVee.   

The most impressive race for me was the SCCA "Last Lap of Riverside " where I drove the Gilbert F5000 for the first time in a field of about 50 different cars.  I had little practice or qualifying because of ignition problems.  Thankfully I started at the back and had worked up to mid-field when the ignition problem recurred in turn 6 and I parked behind the pylon at the exit.  I sat there torn between ire and relief, and sweating at about 110 degrees, when I realized the ignition problem was my fat hand.  I had inadvertently hit the kill switch on the steering wheel.  Luckily the engine refired and I rejoined at the tail end and proceeded to again work back up to mid-pack.  The tube frame F5000, nee Indy car, was a handful on a road course but still a vast improvement over the Kurtis Indy 500 I had driven in the 50's.

The absolute last Riverside event was a Solo I on Halloween weekend, 1989.  I was testing my Tiga SC84 and got fast time of the day.  It seems I ended my return to racing in the Tiga.  I won the Cal Club Region and the Las Vegas Regions' SC2000 championships and set the lap record at Las Vegas in 1992.  In 1995 I ran half the season getting a 1st and three 2nds before joining Medicare and being elected to the Palos Verdes Library Board. (A real change of pace and an introduction to politics and surprisingly unsportsmanlike conduct.)