In her own words: Nancy Crowther

In this special Pit Stop mini-sode, Alana Roberts chats with Nancy Crowther, widow of the late David Crowther, featured in Alana’s presentation “The Ultimate Weekend Warrior.” They chat about his extensive racing history and their life together in Canada. Dave, was a passionate motorsport enthusiast, raced various Mini Coopers in different disciplines of motorsport including: Road Racing, AutoCross and Ice Racing. 

The interview weaves through anecdotes about Nancy and Dave’s journey, starting from their meeting, dating, and into their 59 years together. It highlights significant events like Dave's victories, their shared experiences with different car clubs, rally races, and the challenges of transitioning from racing to family life.

From simple beginnings of their racing with no trailers, camping at events, and the camaraderie within the racing community. Dave’s story also touches on cherished memorabilia that he kept, like news clippings and trophies, which was part of his meticulous nature. Alana’s goal is to preserve his legacy, underscoring his modesty, and passion for racing. And this episode serves a wonderful reminder of constant evolution of motorsport at every level and the preservation of these memories for future generations.

===== (Oo---x---oO) =====

00:00 Interview with Nancy Crowther 00:39 Dave's Racing Journey 01:23 Life and Racing Together 01:49 Memorable Racing Stories 03:11 Challenges and Triumphs 04:29 Camping and Racing Culture 16:40 Vintage Racing and Modern Changes 33:53 Indy Race Hospitality 35:36 Ice Racing Stories 37:34 Racing Regulations and Safety 39:18 Dave's Legacy and The Presentation 43:03 Racing Community and Friendships 58:56 Final Thoughts

====================

The Motoring Podcast Network : Years of racing, wrenching and Motorsports experience brings together a top notch collection of knowledge, stories and information. #everyonehasastory #gtmbreakfix - motoringpodcast.net

• More Information: https://www.motoringpodcast.net/
• Become a VIP at: https://www.patreon.com/gtmotorsports
• Online Magazine: https://www.gtmotorsports.org/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Grand Touring Motorsports started asa social group of car enthusiasts,
but we've expanded into all sortsof motorsports disciplines, and we
want to share our stories with you.
Years of racing, wrenching, andmotorsports experience brings
together a top notch collectionof knowledge and information
through our podcast, Brake Fix.

(00:22):
In this special Pit Stop Minisode,Alana Roberts chats with Nancy
Crowther, widow of the late DavidCrowther, featured in Alana's
Argensinger Symposium presentation,The Ultimate Weekend Warrior.
They chat about his extensive racinghistory and their life together in Canada.
Dave was a passionatemotorsport enthusiast.
He raced various Mini Coopers in differentdisciplines of motorsport, including

(00:42):
road racing, autocross, and ice racing.
The interview weaves through anecdotesabout Nancy and Dave's journey,
starting from their meeting, dating,and into their 59 years together.
It highlights significant eventslike Dave's victories, their shared
experiences, from simple beginningsof their racing with no trailers,
camping at events, and the camaraderiewithin the racing community.
Dave's story also touches on cherishedmemorabilia that he kept, like news

(01:06):
clippings and trophies, which wasall part of his meticulous nature.
Alana's goal in this is to preservehis legacy, underscoring his
modesty and his passion for racing.
And this episode serves as awonderful reminder of the constant
evolution of motorsport at everylevel, and the preservation of these
memories for future generations.
His wife Nancy initially gave hima year to get it out of his system,

(01:28):
but soon Nancy herself was equallycaptivated by the racing world.
Turning what was meant to be abrief phase into a lifetime of
mutual enthusiasm and competition.
Mark had told us stories about Dave, andI knew his wife Nancy is still alive.
But up until recently, I had nothad the honor of meeting her.

(01:49):
During a trip this year to Canada forBronte British Car Day, Mark and Trevor
surprised me with the opportunityto sit down and talk with Nancy.
I was only mildly annoyed thatI hadn't had a chance to prepare
questions, but it didn't matter.
Nancy knew Dave, and Nancy was therefor his passion in more ways than one.

(02:10):
Instead of trying to sum up Nancy'srole, I'd instead like to play a
clip from my time spent with her.
So they're doing like,uh, It's a symposium.
It's a symposium, so it's basicallyshe's going to be talking about Dave and
his racing history, and just all aboutDave, and Misty, and Minerva and Gumby.
Yeah.

(02:32):
Not so much about Gumby, butthere's not too much about Gumby.
No, no, not much on Gumby, butMinerva and all of his racing time.
Oh, Minerva and I go to, yeah.
Exactly.
And I was like, Nancy will havea million Well, Minerva was
number four, I think, right?
I think there was a three.
But they were all Minervas.
Of course.
Well, there's no other Minerva.
Minerva is Minerva.
Yeah.
I name all my cars.

(02:53):
Oh, I name mine, and so did Dave, so.
Oh, they all have to have a name.
Personality.
Even my master has a name.
I have questions that I prepared,that I just kind of figured.
What?
I'm supposed to tell you?
When we met, Dave and I, uh, like we weremarried 54 years, and we dated for 5.

(03:17):
So 59 years of my life.
When we actually, we met at work.
He was my boss.
Uh, yeah.
Um, I was engaged to someone else.
Oh my gosh.
Instantly with Dave and I, there waslike a, a zzz, an attraction, you
know, like, cars didn't enter into it.
It was just like a, an attraction.

(03:39):
Then when I got to know him, ofcourse, I heard all about the cars.
Now he was driving a Mini.
I should have known.
You know, and um, allhis friends had Minis.
Well, he raced in the,um, no, yeah, the Herald.
Oh, yeah, yeah, before theMini, he had a Triumph Herald.
That was his first car.

(04:00):
And he raced in the, uh, what was that?
San Diego Grand Prix.
I mean, no, no, no, sorry,the, um, Winter Rally.
The Winter Rally, yeah, in 62.
Won Winter Rally.
That was before me.
Ah, okay.
Okay.
He had a best friend namedColin, who had an MG. Colin had
a, um, A very terrific father.

(04:20):
Colin's father was born in England.
He was just a factoryworker, like Colin's father.
Dave's father was like a manager.
He was higher up.
Now it was Colin's father, not Dave'sfather, but he said to the boys, Colin
and Dave, I'm going to give you boys500 each for entry fees to go racing.

(04:42):
Okay?
And in those days that was That was,you know, that was, you know, okay.
So, both of them, they went as a team.
Both were red, like Dave's Misty, andthen the MG. And they raced, and the
year before we got married, he did it.
Uh, we were engaged, but, but I said,you gotta get that out of your system.

(05:04):
Because once we're married, youknow, like, other things, right?
But I could tell, like, right from thebeginning, like, Motorsport was his thing.
So, he decided that's whathe wanted, a year of racing.
And he thought he'd sort ofget it out of the system.
But it ended up, immediately wentinto the driving skills slalom.

(05:26):
And we did that for a long, long time.
And did the whole Ontario circuit.
And it meant travelling a lot.
We started out very basic.
David would change the tires at the event.
He put the, uh, Racingcutters in the backseat.
We do that now, isn't it?

(05:46):
We didn't have a trailer.
That's how we started.
I used to always, always go with him.
More or less a crew.
You know, like I'd keeptrack of all his scoring.
I loved doing it.
I enjoyed being there.
That explains why all thescoring is so neatly written.
Well, I don't necessarily agree withthat because he was very neat too.
And very meticulous as well.

(06:07):
It was probably him, not me.
I've seen both your handwritings,they're both pretty good.
Yeah.
Yeah, they're now, so when he wasroad racing, I was always involved.
Like I, I enjoyed timing and lap scoring.
We belonged to a car club andI got a reputation for the
timing and the lap scoring.
So when the car club was doingevents, I always got stuck in the

(06:28):
timing, in the timing of things,like right from the beginning.
I enjoyed cars, I enjoyed raising, andI was happy doing what I was doing.
I, in those days, it was very.
There are a few girls that actuallycompeted, it was more a men's sport,
and I really, really, really did notwant to put the strain on the car, like
blow out the transmission or something.

(06:50):
You know what I mean?
So, I was fine doingwith what I was doing.
With the solo events, eventually it gotto the stage where I wasn't enjoying it.
Being in a parking lot with no trees,and no shade, I can't take sun, I
burn and I peel, I burn and I peel.
Even with a hat and long sleeves andeverything, you know, because you

(07:12):
used to have to work when you went.
Yep, you still do.
Still do, yeah.
Marshalling and checkpoints.
Now you don't have to climb, of course.
Now it's everything isstill up on it, right?
But, it got to me.
It really got to me.
I used to have to take gallonsof drinks, like lemonade, water.
And, um, of course, then youhave to use the washroom.
Mm-hmm . Yep.

(07:33):
It's all port potties and a washroom.
Like, just wild, you know?
Yep.
And like Mo, even most for like,that's real, really come, it's been
upgraded of what they call now, um,Canadian Tire, motor Sport Park.
It's no longer called Mosport, butused to go, it was like outhouses or
Johnny's on the spot and they were not.

(07:55):
It was like male and female, it was like,yeah, so you go in and you'd end up with
wet jeans and pinch your nose and yeah,like, yeah, with, with the girls, like
you'd end up all your jeans would be wet.
A couple of times I went at night beforewe settled down and I got grabbed by the
ankles, like, getting my way through thesepeople that were passed out and drunk and

(08:19):
they went to pull me like on my anklesand I came back to them and I was shaking.
And they said, what's happened?
I said, well, I. So, right, I've gota cat going to the bathroom, okay?
Yeah.
No problem.
No problem.
We'll go back to sleep.
So, anyway, yeah.
Yeah, when I said I was sort of losinginterest in the slalom, we were living
in Mississauga in Port Credit, andthe event was at Square One, so it

(08:40):
was just like a ten minute drive.
I said, I'll come up, if you tell meapproximately when you're running,
I'll come up and I'll watch you.
But I'm not going to spenda day there in the sun.
So, he looked reallythoughtful when I said that.
He was losing interest too.
He was getting tired of it.
That's sort of, I think, all I needed.
I like to think that anyway.

(09:00):
I don't like to think I wasinstrumental in him stopping
because he did really well at it.
He had like walls of plaques.
Oh yeah.
Does that sound familiar?
Yeah.
In Canada, all you get isa trophy or a wall plaque.
You don't get money.
Well done!
Another plaque for your wall.
Here, here's your plastic cup.

(09:21):
Yeah, really, really.
In our region, if you get firstplace, you get a glass pint glass.
Oh yeah, so we have a few ofthose in our cabinets at home.
Is that right?
It's kind of funny that you mentionthat, because of course, I've
been autocrossing for a number ofyears, I've gotten her into it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And, uh, it's like I enjoy it, butat the same time, it's, I want more.
Well, we found, we got invited through theslalom one year, the United States invited

(09:45):
us down for an invitational solo event.
And it was done through the Corvettes.
I remember seeing the program for this.
We should have, widened up to that.
Yeah.
Corvette Club invites you to.
And so, but it was me goingdown because it was, we had I
think six minis, seven minis.
Nice.
And we went through the tunnel.

(10:07):
And the guard was at the end, like, youknow, like, the American guard was at
the end and he, the look on his eyes,his eyes were getting bigger and bigger.
It was like the Italian job, becausewe all had these abrasive exhausts on.
Oh my God.
And like all, they wereall Cuberessas, right?
So, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom,you know, and the guard's looking
like, what the hell is coming at me?

(10:28):
You know, these six little minis.
Here we go.
And vroom, vroom, vroom.
So, anyway, that was us.
But when we got there, wedidn't know what to expect.
So, we're watching theCorvette, probably this Corso.
It was in a park.
It was very pretty.
I don't know if it's changednow, but down there, And they
marked the course with a chalk.

(10:50):
Chalk.
Yep.
They still do that.
Yeah.
I could not believe it.
You can't go off course.
All the little Right now, when Davetook me out, clubs that allow passengers
mm-hmm . He'd take me out and until hedid that, I had no idea how hard it is.
How fast they're going.
Yeah.
I mean, my god, like I,I got out of the car.

(11:11):
I said, how do you do this?
How do you not get lost?
You know?
Yeah.
That's how they were.
And wherever the Corvetteslost the back end mm-hmm
. Mm-hmm . They'd make it wider.
I said to Dave, well this, we cameall this way for this, you know, I
said, there's no way the minis aregonna win with And the long straight.
Yeah.
Yeah.

(11:31):
Hardly any corners, right?
Mm-hmm . Keep it wideopen to Corvette life.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
And so anyway, and then we saw wherethey booked us into, uh, holiday in.
And it was Detroit.
And, um, Beautiful breakdown.
So I'm looking when we get to our roomand Dave says, what are you looking at?
And I said, there's holes in ourwindow going out to the balcony.

(11:55):
I said, are those bullet holes?
Dave says, yeah.
I said, we're changingsides on the bed tonight.
You get the window side.
You get the balcony side.
So anyway, yeah, I was not impressedat all with coming down for the
American Slip On, and none of us did.

(12:16):
I know exactly what eventyou're talking about.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because he saved the postcard, and hesaved the directions down to the event.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's what's so cool aboutthis, is I can tell exactly
which event you're talking about.
It's the detail in which he kept it.
Yes.
It's amazing.
I know, it was like that.
Yeah.
Like even his drawers, I couldnever take the laundry in.
Yeah.

(12:36):
Everything had to be.
Just so.
All the socks had to be linedup, colors all together.
I remember the one time I wasprivileged enough to meet Dave.
We came out, I think youwere picking up either engine
parts or something like that.
I can't remember exactly.
I was picking up all the, uh, thestuff from The barn or whatever.
Down in the, down in theshop in, uh, where the rest

(12:59):
of that Cooper ass had gone.
Um, where the engine was.
Yeah.
But, it was just, again, like, walkingto the garage, and I was like, This
shelf is this, this shelf is this.
Well, his garage was.
Like when he was alive.
got pretty messy after you done right?
I'm sure.
Well, it wasn't even messy after,you know, it was still pretty
organized, but like, it wasjust all the junk was together.

(13:20):
I, I remember seeing all the tires Ihad seeing Misty for the first time.
Yeah.
But also I saw he had the accessoryashtray in the door and all that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I saw the box and I was like,the box, oh, I, it is life dying.
Yeah.
He goes, yeah, just leave it right there.
. Alright.
Box goes with the.
It was with the ashtraythat's in the door.
I know he's never seenthis, the mini, right?

(13:42):
Yeah.
And when I wear it and somebodyknows, where did you get that?
Of course, because it's very unique.
Dave just found it.
Yeah.
He didn't order it.
He just found it.
And he knew that I'd love it.
Of course.
Of course he got the chain andeverything, but he found the charm.
The charm's, the charm's then after he gotit, I could have, I could have probably

(14:03):
sold 500 of them and asked Eight hundreddollars a piece for them, you know.
Where did you get that?
Well, I didn't save it.
Trevor bought me anecklace just like that.
Oh, did he?
Yeah, it's amazing, you know.
I've never seen another one.
It's nice to have.
It didn't come in bold.

(14:24):
Going through his things,it's like He kept everything.
I mean, the banquet tickets, the menus.
Yeah, and Mark said you're into horses.
I am.
I'm a horse girl.
Dave was into horses too.
That's my bear.
He went through a stage of, aww.
Yeah.
Harness horses.
Okay.
Like, he got out of it andI'm glad because I don't know

(14:46):
about your type of horses.
I fall in love with animals.
Me too, yep.
Like, I totally fall in love with animals.
That's why I have animals everywhere.
I was gonna say your chipmunk marktook That's my Sammy at my house.
Yeah.
I had a tamed chipmunk and actuallyDave really did most of the taming,
but she was used to both of us chicken.

(15:07):
Oh, yep.
Onto your shoulder and cake peanut.
That's great.
And Mark was feeding her there.
They're supposed to havea life of seven years.
We know.
She, she was around for 10.
Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh.
But I'm sure it's allthe peanuts we gave her.
Yeah.
For the, she kept hergoing through the winter.
Right.
No, it's just a phase Dave went through,and then he decided he liked cars better.
Yeah.
I still like the car.

(15:27):
I find them more predictable.
Yeah, I think it was like amidlife thing he was going through.
You know, like, one of his midlife things.
That and his motorcycle.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yes.
Did Dave ever do any racing in the States?
Other than, uh, the solos?
No.
Okay.
Not that I know of.
Okay, so I know he's got like acheckered flag from Watkins Bluff.

(15:47):
We regularly go down to race.
Yes.
Okay.
To watch, yeah.
We went together often.
Yeah, that's around where we live.
Okay.
So we love it down there.
We went before we weremarried, too, for one.
It was cute.
Bunch of girls and a bunch ofguys and the girl end of things.
One of the girls hadarranged for the tent.

(16:08):
Ended up to be a BoyScout tent that was used.
Oh.
And it was humongous.
Humongous this tent.
And we ended up having halfthe camping area in our tent.
That's fantastic.
Because the ones that theguys got wasn't big enough.
Yeah, yeah.
They ended up in the tent.
And then there was a few that came thatwere sleeping in the back of their trucks.

(16:29):
Nice.
They didn't have any.
So everybody's like, come on in.
So was that for Formula One races?
I think that was.
Yeah.
I feel good about it.
Yeah.
It gave us into, not into it, but throughour car club we got involved in the Indy.
Okay.
The Indy series, it was because ourcar club took care of the supporting

(16:51):
races when I won the Toronto Indy.
Oh, that was very cool.
Okay, so it was BARC,British American Racing Club.
As I said, like I had the timing,that's what my thing was, and Peter
Wright was our ice racing pal andhis wife was in timing as well.
Lori and I were in the timing endof the supporting races and it would
change every year like we did itfor seven years Players challenge

(17:13):
one year Formula four is one year.
So it's all different a good mixand basically, you're just doing
the mock grid and Before they goout before the public season, right?
I'm making sure these approved andthey got the sticker and safety
and that's all we did and thenDavid Peter though They got They
were in the hot part of the track.

(17:34):
And if we had to re grid the race, youknow, if something had happened, they
had all the stats to re grid the cars.
So they were with the Indy, right?
They could go into the paddocks.
Oh, that's really cool.
But we used to find, like, whenwe did it, we used to take a
week's holidays each to do it.
Okay.
We used to take the Indy.
Like at home.
Because you see more on TV.
Oh yeah, absolutely.

(17:54):
Well yeah, I mean, you know, with apodcast, you can go any, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
But no, you don't see the whole race.
No, you see a couple of corners at a time.
You're better off than watching it on TV.
Yeah.
We 1.
Yeah.
Yes.
And we were at the firstFormula 1 race in Montreal.
Oh, very cool.
So we went to that.
And I was not impressed the wayyou have to sit in grandstands.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Again, all you saw wasone silly corner, right?

(18:15):
Yeah.
And they didn't havethe TV screen up there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And also it was like, to me, it was like.
It's like 20 cars go by.
But he was like that.
And we did the ice racing every winter.
I remember the first time I sawMinerva was when Mark picked her up.
I know.
And we were saying, this isseeing some serious ice time.

(18:38):
I don't think there was astraight panel on that car.
I don't even think Mark really knewthat ice racing existed until he
sort of stopped in and saw Dave.
Because he, he was more intoMisty than he was Minerva.
And when he went in the crash,of course Minerva's there, right?
And he left and it'sall dimpled and dented.
It wasn't a flat part of the body, right?
It was so pretty though.

(18:58):
And, uh, we rolled in that car.
I was with him.
Yeah, that's what Mark was saying.
What was that like?
Glad you survived that.
I found it slow motion for Daniel.
Yeah.
For Dave it was really fast.
Yeah.
But with me it was like, andapparently it's something that happens.
And I thought, oh.
We're going to roll.
That's how I felt.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.

(19:19):
Did it have a cage or no?
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, like, I was upside down.
Yes.
Hanging from my harness.
Now, my head was really heavybecause I had the full face.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
And I was swinging in the harness.
Oh, yeah.
A friend of ours, who drives a Mini,I don't know whatever possessed
him, he's trying to steady my body,and he said, it's okay, I got you.

(19:39):
And he's trying totouch my release button.
Oh, geez.
Yeah.
I said, don't touch it.
Don't tip me over.
Don't tip me over.
Don't hit the jacks.
Yeah, just make the car the right way.
Meanwhile, there's no windscreen left.
Dave and Peter ran allweekend with no windscreen.

(20:01):
Oh, that's a chilly day.
And it was like minus, I think it got tobe minus twelve or something like that.
Yeah.
And there was snow coming in the car.
Your job when you were in theMini, like, I was the second,
was to scrape the inscription.
The green screen so that theycould see where they were going.
Our job got a whole lot easier.
Yeah, yeah.
And like, uh, ours had awelded diff on the front.

(20:24):
But before we welded the diff,the job of the passenger is
to get Wait over the driveway.
Yeah.
All right.
So yeah, you had to be a certain way,you know Yeah, you get the weight down,
but you didn't want anybody to have it.
Yeah, you know, yeah, so it was alla matter of science So that's it.
They would look at me like when the pointswere really tight for the last couple of

(20:46):
races and we were lining up There was aguy that was just neck and neck with us
in points, and right at the last, hispassenger got out of the car, and Dave
said bye to me, like, get out of thecar, like, you know, get out of the car.
Say, say, wait, move on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And, uh, the weatherwas so nice that race.
Yeah, I need more grip.
Here, eat this cheeseburger.
We watched the race fromsomebody's dock in shorts.

(21:10):
Oh my god it was a nicewarm day in Palm Beach.
It was gorgeous!
Yeah.
And the ice was separating.
The ice was separating from the shore.
Mark didn't enjoy ice racing.
You didn't get the equipment you need.
You need to have snowmobilesuit, snowmobile boots.
And you need to be ready for cold.
Oh yeah.
And he was like, every time we went, well,we came every A couple of times, yeah.
Your wife did, but we didn't.

(21:31):
Nope, gotta be fair to Nicole up there.
He was chattering.
His lips were, you know.
He was so calm.
You're so weak willed, Mark.
And I could tell he wasn't enjoying it.
And I sort of thought, well, geez.
We really burst the guy's bubble.
He was looking forward.
It was good fun that you're on the track.
The rest of it was kind of like Yeah.

(21:53):
Cold and wet.
Yeah, yeah.
No, you didn't.
I could tell.
I didn't enjoy it.
No.
Not what you thought it was going to be.
No.
No.
I prefer the warmer weather.
Yeah, I know you do.
I prefer the warmer weather probably.
I'm a short cinnamonsandals kind of individual.
Yeah.
So obviously, Dave did it all.
Oh yeah.
He autocrossed, he iceraced, he road raced.

(22:15):
Did he have a particular favoriteor any favorite track or?
I would say it's gotta be, healways wanted to go back to vintage.
So it's probably road racing.
Okay.
If he hadn't gotten sick,cause he couldn't breathe.
If he hadn't been chained to theoxygen, you probably would have
seen him in Varac in Minerva.
Mhm.
Pretty cool.
In the middle of a challenge car, yeah.

(22:36):
Oh, he used to be on theWorld Atlanta every year.
Oh, very cool.
With three other fellas, it was nowomen, it was just a bachelor thing.
Yeah, yeah.
And, uh Who was your They met Paul Newman.
Oh, that's cool.
Uh, yeah.
And, have you met Scott Lucas?
No.
I don't think so.
No.
Okay.
He, um, he was a mini driverat a friend of Dave's.

(22:56):
And, you have to know Scotty, like,he's just a hell of a guy anyway.
He was struggling along.
He'd had a beer.
He'd had a beer or two.
So the story goes with David.
Somebody was honking behind him.
So he moved over andthey still kept honking.
And so he swore at them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know what he said.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they said, Do you realizewho you just told that?

(23:20):
Paul probably loved it.
You know, like, Scott, doyou realize who that was?
You know, like, and hesaid, Well, who was it?
He said, well, it was PaulNewman, and he says, big deal.
He said, I still would havesaid it, you know, like.
That's awesome, yeah.
So that evening, he cameover to their campfire.
They always used toput a Canadian flag up.

(23:40):
Yeah.
He came over.
Now, I don't know whether he cameover because Scott told him to F off.
I don't know.
He just sat down, the four ofthem, I guess their jaw dropped.
He's like, what are you doing?
And they're like, why are you here?
And he said, I just came overto see if you guys have got
any of that good Canadian beer.
So he said, Oh, sure.
Yeah.

(24:01):
And he spent all like threehours at the campfire.
Those were some of my favorite stories.
It's just the people you meet.
Oh yeah.
Now when Dave and I went downto the Killing Indy race,
we did that through PBG.
Dave worked for Reynolds Aluminum, andPPG did the dye for their aluminum siding.
So that's how this all happened.
So they had a PPGReynolds Aluminum seminar.

(24:23):
They wanted them to mingle.
So when dinner came, theymixed all this, they took the
names, typed it, and mixed it.
Dave ends up sitting besidethe president of PPG.
Now Dave could talk to anyone,he was really good with
people, very good with people.
So anyway.
This guy says to him, he says, Oh,he said, you'll have to excuse me.

(24:44):
He said, I'm so tired.
He said, it was my weekend to host thehospitality tent at the last Indy race.
He said, so I didn't get a lot of sleep.
So Dave starts talking, racing,he said, Oh, yeah, yeah.
So they started talking racing.
So he said, so you andyour wife like racing?
They said, Oh yeah, my wifeloves it and I love it too.
So he said, well, how would you andshe like to go on a weekend on us?

(25:08):
To any Indy race that you want to go to.
Oh my gosh.
Oh wow.
On us.
You know, like, you'd have to get there.
Yeah.
But like, the whole, the entry, andwe'll all be covered by PPG, right?
Oh yeah, yeah.
Just, you know, so David hadjust bought our slide in camper
to fit on our pickup truck.
Yeah.
And he used to say to me,had it been an outhouse, that

(25:30):
would have slid into the truck.
Yeah.
He would have bought it because Ihated the bathroom so much, but it was
gorgeous king size bed Nice furnacefridge kitchen with four burners stove
in an oven a bathroom gorgeous All Ineeded yeah Like I said, we just bought

(25:50):
it it was used We just bought our houseand Dave fell in love with a motorhome.
And because of this racing, hethought we should buy the motorhome.
And we just bought our first house.
Motorhome's important.
Oh, very!
I'm trying to get him tosend the video in here.
Our house cost 62, 000, I think.
The motor home was more, themotor home was $90,000, right?

(26:13):
Yeah.
Okay.
On sale for $90,000.
So this wheeler dealer salesmansays, well, what you and the,
the little lady kept calling me.
You and the little lady who had agood job at the bank, which they
factored into the scheme of things.
Yeah.
You just sign here on the dotted line.

(26:33):
And you'll never have to make a motorhomepayment, because what they do is they
lease it out for you, and you'd let themknow how many weekends you want it, but
what they don't tell you is you have tokeep replacing the motorhome, because
you're putting people that you're leasing,you're putting miles on it, depreciates,
so every year and a half, you're having tobuy a bigger and better motorhome, right?

(26:53):
So I said, I said to him, wewere having issues about it.
I said, look, I said, if it comesto a decision, whether we have to
pay the house payment, the mortgagepayment, and Or the motorhome payment,
which is what I'm going to pay.
I don't want to live in a motorhome.
I waited a long time for house,so I said no, I'm not signing.
It's not that we couldn't havedone it, but I just didn't

(27:14):
want to be financially hurt.
Yep, absolutely.
He didn't speak to me forprobably a whole week.
But then he said he admittedit was the right thing to do.
And then he found this slide at me.
And we picked it up for 700.
Much better.
And we were completely brokebecause we just got the house,
spent every cent that we owned.

(27:34):
You know what it's like whenyou buy your first house.
We luckily had some bonds that hadn'tmatured, so we just got a manual demand
loan through the bank and when they'vegot a bonus at work, you plonk it down,
you know, and we hadn't paid in no time.
But they used to call it,our friends at Raised.
The Ritz Hilton, thesliding camper that we got.
Because a lot of them slept in customizedvans, with coolers and Coleman stoves.

(27:59):
We went through that.
I mean, that's how we started.
But I mean, like, we were beyond that.
And now we were into solid comfort.
In our latter years.
Yeah, so we really, really,really enjoyed that.
They thoroughly enjoyed the racing timesand the camping times, just judging
by how many camping stoves he had.
When he actually road raced, everybodyin those days flat toed their car.

(28:23):
No one had a trailer.
We still had the A trianglebar that you flat toed with.
Everybody slept in the tent, likea pop tent, like not a grandiose
tent, like a very basic tent.
You were lucky if youhad a warm sleeping bag.
You were lucky if you had an air mattress.
And that's how people raced.
And camp.
That's how it was.
It's changed so much.

(28:44):
It's changed so much.
It's sad.
Even you look at Formula 1,they used to be in like these
little campers and trailers.
Yeah.
Now they have basicallya luxury accommodation.
Oh, the motorhomes.
Yeah.
You go to like, most sports.
Yeah.
And the motorhomes are stillthere, because part of racing is
you have to have the motorhome.
They don't use them.
Yeah.
The camp.
You're expected now togo to motels and hotels.

(29:05):
Yeah.
Half the fun of racing, when Dave and Idid it, was after the race, the camping.
Being around the campfire,talking about the day.
Oh yeah.
And it wasn't like a drunkenthing, because most people
had to run the following day.
So it was, you know,good, clean fun, right?
We really, really enjoyed it.

(29:26):
But now it's changed so much.
I think that they've takenall the fun out of it.
The more money you get intoanything, the worse it gets.
It's so untouchable nowfor average day folks.
Yep.
You know, and they used to do like,uh, dances right on the track.
Oh, nice.
Oh my gosh.
Like after the thing was over,they get like a group and we'd

(29:46):
be right in front of the pits.
You used to get the bands aswell, people, their guitar.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was totally likefestival, like back then.
Yeah.
It was a, it was a hangout for people.
You and I were talking, too, and it'slike, I'd love to get into vintage racing.
I still, like, I want to get my license.
It's the way to go racing.
Yeah, and it's I mean,but it's still expensive.

(30:06):
Yeah, it's still very expensive.
You go through a set of tires a week.
But a racing mini is quite priceyif it's already set up these days.
It's You'll go through,like, two tires a week.
Oh, yeah.
You'll have to like, thefront's going to the back, and
then he's going to get to you.
What the cost is, and all that.
Yeah.
Because Buddy might race his TR7s,and just how much he's Because

(30:28):
he's raced for many years, buthe's gotten a lot more serious.
Yep.
A lot more serious this year.
It's been visibly financially strainingon him because of how many of his
other projects he's had to let go,how much time he's spent on it.
It's just crazy.
Dave fell in love with the Mustang.
He fell in love with thatwhen we went to Indy.
Because the Pace car was a Mustang.

(30:50):
And our trip, our weekendinvolved Pace car.
We went out with a head face scarf.
Yeah.
And not for me.
They had me in the back seat.
They was in the front, that was good.
All in the harness, that was cool.
But you were like sliding around.
I'm in a normal seat belt,normal mustangs, black belt.
No helmet.

(31:10):
No helmet.
Just relax, you'll be fine.
He's flopping around.
Cause as I'm talking to him,I used to call him that.
I was just gonna say.
It sounds terrifying, but also very funny.
I was just gonna say it sounds funny.
But he's dropping back,like he's the leader.
And he had twelve little,I call them smurfettes.
They were little driving girls with pinkdriving suits and little pink helmets.

(31:34):
But they could drive.
And it was like synchronized, you know,like synchronized swimming with cars.
And he let them get ahead of him.
And he was giving them orders on the mic.
And they said, why are you backing off?
And he said, because I'm coming through.
He said, I've got peoplein the car right now.
So he looks back at meand says, you ready?
And he floors this Mustang AWOL.

(31:55):
Dave, I've never seen Dave's sold.
I've never seen him looklike that on Dave's show.
Dave's sold.
Wow!
Dave's a little bitfaster than a Mini, right?
Yeah.
Just a bit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So he totally fell inlove with the Mustang.
Then he came home witha Mustang convertible.
I know for anniversary specials, and wewent everywhere, but it's sort of in his

(32:17):
old age and the sickness It became his carof choice because it was easier to drive.
Oh, that is way more comfortable.
Yeah Yeah.
Which is fair.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Air conditioning and Yeah.
Being a convert, you know,convertible's so great.
Oh yeah, that's, they've, they'vebeen driving a convertible all day.
Yeah, no, like the air flow, they're sold.
It's gorgeous.
I, I feel like I'm in the lap of luxury.

(32:39):
'cause I was in this TR four Iknow, and I, I've owned a TR three
for 25 years, and I never realizedhow uncomfortable that car was.
Because I never allowedmyself to believe it.
But then sitting in that thing,driving across the 401 all day,
I was like, this is amazing.
And she was a cutie, too.
He took good care of that car.
It was me.
Well, you kept it clean.

(32:59):
Got washed every day.
You kept it clean.
He got some good stuff in there.
Well, he was like 10, guys.
Yeah, he kept it up very nicely.
He changed a lot of weird partsthat you would be like, Oh,
that's the one thing about it.
Yeah, you're like, there'sa brand new piece here.
It's like, nope, that's used.
He kept the used one,because he did replace it.

(33:21):
I think a lot of people wondered why hewent to the Mustang though, you know.
You were so used to himpulling up in the Mini.
Yeah.
Well, the Mustang is just We startedtaking the Mustang into the car show.
Yeah, because, I mean,it was a nice cartoon.
Yeah.
We were at this dinnerto honor Zach Brown.
Oh, yeah.
The International WaterResearch Center did.
And outside was James Hunt's car.

(33:42):
Oh, wow.
But you were in the picturewith Zach Brown, yeah.
Oh.
He's very handsome.
Yeah, it's amazing, you know.
And very down to earth.
Yeah.
Come on, you clean up thebest out of all of us.
No, we met at the Indy race.
We were in the hospitality tent.
Thoroughly enjoying, like, thisgourmet dinner that we were having.
Oh, yeah.
We couldn't believe it.
And meanwhile We didn't know what toexpect, so I had to light the camper.

(34:04):
The fridge was packed with food.
Yes.
You name it, I had it in there.
For sandwiches, for barbecue.
You opened it and things fell.
That's how much food was in there.
Oh my gosh.
And we had the whole weekend.
In the hospital.
Oh, and it's, I'm sure, yeah.
So you had everythingthat you ever wanted.
We Other than Dave had beer.
Well, you gotta have it.

(34:26):
So anyway, we were eating away and a boysays to us, Is there anybody sitting here?
And we just carried on eating.
We said, No, no, that's okay.
And he said, Anybody sitting here?
We said, No, no, mind if we sit?
No, no, go ahead.
Michael and Mario and Dreddy.
Right?
So they plopped down at our table.
So I look up.
And Your mouth is so big.

(34:48):
What?
I wonder why my mouth is hanging out.
You know, nice.
Oh, just nice people.
Genders.
They're just normal people.
As normal as can be.
You know, they don't put the dog on.
We were really impressed.
Well, they were part ofthe circus back then.

(35:08):
It was a community still.
People had to know each other and be nice.
And even when, uh, when we wereworking the Indy, like Peter and
Dave got to talk to the Indy teamsand the Indy drivers and everything,
you know, and that's what he said.
He said, they're all just like Peterand I, they race, just normal guys,
a little bit richer than us, but alittle bit more of a budget than us.

(35:31):
He used to say to me, he sort ofhad a, sort of like a guilt trip.
He said that.
His life had become my life, you know,like I was sort of dragged along and
he said didn't you ever want to doand he said you'd had no time to do it
because you're always supporting me andI said no I wouldn't have done it and
I hadn't enjoyed it I said look at whatI did with this solo like I said enough

(35:52):
yeah I've had it it would have beenthe same thing with any of the racing
that he did but while I participatedI was enjoying it you know you And
as I said, things have changed a lot.
When I was doing it, women weren'tgiven a chance to compete and drive.
Now, She got her own car.
My one claim to fame is we both did anovice season in autocross and he didn't

(36:13):
win novice of the year, but I did.
Yay!
I came in like, I think,fourth in my novice class.
Your novice class was stacked.
Well, yeah, but you also cleaned house.
Like, you did a great job.
I had a lot of fun.
You also had a much nicercar to show me, too.
But it's like, I grew up riding horses.
Oh, yeah.
And jumping courses, soyou would walk the courses.
Yeah, I would walk the coursejust like I'm walking a horse.

(36:34):
Yeah, I know.
I always look throughsome of the, um, Yeah.
When he was racing in the, in MISTI,he kept a lot of his, he had a picture
from each track that he raced at,and the standings for that race.
That's cool.
Yeah, and he actually, the year thathe did road race, I hated it, because
in those days, There's no radiocommunication in the hummus and like with

(36:55):
the mini, I couldn't hide it anyways.
Yeah.
Three minutes, two minutes.
Yeah.
Right.
And if he didn't come when he wassupposed to, start worrying, you yell.
See the safety car going out.
Yeah.
And then you're like, And then, oh, yeah.
You know, that's how Istarted going gray, right?
At 30.
People used to say to me, where'dyou get your hair streaked?
And I'd go, what's that color?

(37:16):
I said, lots of natural, really.
Living with a race car life.
Yeah, I'm married to a racing driver.
What else do you need to know?
I just panic.
Nowadays, it's so great.
It's all, you can hear them,and talking to you all the way
through, and changed a lot.
Not in those days.
Not so much.
I found two in the states through doingIndy, like when we did a supporting races.

(37:39):
Always always Indy is suicidal heat.
The weekend that they hold the Indy inToronto, like 103 Fahrenheit, right?
Yeah.
They have very strict fire regulations,CASC, not so in the United States, right?
So it's getting better.
You have to have like, if you're inthe pits, full jeans, long sleeves.

(37:59):
Socks for fire.
Yeah, absolutely.
None of the shorts and halter tops.
No, none of the cute, yeah.
No, no, little pockets.
He's very nice.
And we had a very strict womanin Bark named Mary Wobbin.
She's from Scotland.
She used to like be so rigid aboutyour attire when you were in the pits.
I can certainly picture this.

(38:20):
Oh, yeah.
With the Scotch accent, right?
She'd just grab women.
Uh, no you don't, not dressed like that.
You don't, you know, like, you'reout, you're back over to the camping
area, get dressed properly ifyou're coming into the pits, yeah.
If I could be dying, itwould be so hot, yeah.
They didn't have the nice techfabric like they do nowadays.

(38:41):
And we used to have like, being indie,white jeans, but they were still heavy.
Oh yeah, white denim still warmed up.
Yes.
Yeah, any denim's warmed up.
And then they tried the poisonous everyyear with two box lunches with mayonnaise.
Oh, in the heat, oh no.
Spoiled eggs, nothing better.
Two years in a row, we wentback to Berry to get the cooler

(39:03):
and for me to make sandwiches.
As I said, I'm not eatingany more of that food.
No.
The cooler's actually outin the truck right now.
Yeah.
Oh, it's so cool.
I was wondering if youtook Old Faithful with you.
He used to love that cooler.
That cooler's awesome.
I It gets so much attention.
I get a picture of it every time I see it.
Everybody loves that cooler.
Did you take the racing chairs?
I didn't want to take the racing chairs.
No, but they're, you know, they'rea little too big for your cars.

(39:25):
Oh, they'll fit in the truck.
They'll fit in the pickup.
Alright.
The cooler fit in the pickup.
The chairs would've fit in there.
I had some other stuff that I wasdropping off to some friends at the show.
The little black canvas ones.
They were mini chairs.
I found them specially.
They're a little bit smallerthan the normal canvas chairs.
Those are our special mini chairs.
But those checker ones are my favorite.
Oh yeah, those are so cool.

(39:46):
Those checker ones are awesome.
Do you know how old those chairs are?
Nineteen Eighty four.
It was 1970.
They were way Oh wow.
And it all rotted.
And we kept having to re web.
And then we found a guy upin Barrie that did that.
And that'll never wear out.
And he charged us.
Something ridiculous likefive dollars a chair.

(40:06):
Oh my god.
Wow.
To do that job with all the knots.
It's amazing.
Yeah I know.
I have another one of those chairsthat's got the Toronto Blue Jays on it.
My grandmother used to do them.
Yeah Before I knew the history of thecooler, cause I mean obviously with
the part being in the pawn business.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, it was like Where'd youget that really awesome cooler?
Can I buy it from you?
Yeah, he's like, no.
Okay, I know not everything's for sale.

(40:27):
And then he's like, no, it was Dave.
I think it was a special person.
Yeah, and then he's like, no, it was Dave.
I get it.
When Dave went, like, it wassuddenly, it was a heart attack.
We knew that the COPD was gettingbad, but we weren't expecting him to
hear the day gone tomorrow type thing.
I'm glad he went like that.
That he didn't have to suffer anymore.
But no, I know he thoughtthe world was that cooler.

(40:49):
Oh, that's going to be amazing.
It's part of his life.
Like when we did Gizzy, he said, I gobefore you, you gotta promise me that, you
know, this will go to the right person.
I'll make sure a picture ofit is in the presentation.
I was going to say, is there anythingthat you think that he would need
or want in that presentation?
Oh, well.
What do you think?
That he would not be left out.

(41:09):
I think, uh, I think a big part forDave was a lot of his ice racing.
Yeah.
That was really a major Thatwas, that was a really At the end
when he gave it up, he was tired.
Giving up all the rest of it,but he still kept ice racing.
That was his We werereally competitive still.
Yeah.
Exactly.
When he stopped racing, when Minervastopped racing And that may have been it.
And we were, like, itwasn't a challenge anymore.
Exactly.

(41:30):
Like, I was gonna tell you, oneof the last races that he ran
that he would really Blew my mind.
That race that he toldme to get out of the car.
Mm hmm.
The kind of day it was, it wasmild, and you always had to
look at the ice conditions.
It was like driving on pavement.
The ice was real gummy.
It was starting to melt like the steers.
So even if you hadn't tractionizedyour tires properly, you got good grip.

(41:55):
And the fact that we were,um, no the, well the dip.
Like that used to send us flying anyway.
He actually lapped.
He lapped cars.
Oh my gosh.
Oh no!
That's like Jim Clark levelof, uh, accommodation.
He was just wearing, like, steak.
And I was watching from the dock,because he told me to get out of the car.
He threw me out of the car.

(42:17):
I just could not believethat he left the car.
He was just flying.
It was like that zen moment.
Minerva had wigs.
She was just flying.
And you've got picturesof the ice racing, right?
You've got some pictures?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah, I've got pictures.
I want to scan some picturesinto the, uh, internet.
And when he started, he really enjoyed it.
Yeah, he always reallyenjoyed it, ice racing.

(42:38):
It was Peter that really decidedthat we were going to start
ice racing, not really Dave.
We had the extra car, you see.
Dave was fully into it, though.
Like, he used to come up to ice racing,even That was supposed to be my car.
Oh, yeah.
It was sitting in the underground,but we never got it, you know.
So Peter was looking, andhe said, ooh, nice car.
So yeah, it's gonna be my car.
No, it's not.

(43:00):
This is going to be ourice racer, you know.
Are there any particular racingmemories for Misty that are important?
I would say him gettingcheckered flag in Misty.
Okay.
He got a lot of them though.
I know.
He got a lot of them.
And it was bog stock in those days.
Yeah.
Like he did more after the racingbecause I did have first solo.

(43:21):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Because most of the pre stuff,because he blew his engine.
He blew the engine in Picton and thenleft it behind and put it in the 1275.
And the car club that we belong to, likeOshawa, the reason we switched over to
Oshawa was it was mainly a slum club.
So what they used to do, they'd rent atruck for the weekend and have like a club

(43:43):
thing where you could set your car up.
But it was a fun weekend, like you couldcamp all weekend, you had barbecues.
Like a long tested.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
And it was phenomenal food, likefor 20 bucks for the weekend, you
know, I mean you couldn't go wrong.
And, uh, one of the fellas in ourcar club was a butcher, so he'd
bring like porterhouse steak.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, and grill it.

(44:04):
We have, uh, friends that areengineers in our region, but
big barbeque guys, like smokers.
So, it's kind of the same kind of thing.
We have like a rolling lunch throughthe day, and it's usually like pulled
pork, or birria, or rump roast.
It's nice.
It's some stuff.
Hasn't changed.
Picton, they had, um, youknow, the garbage barrels.

(44:25):
It's like they sawed the barrelsin half and welded them together.
Yeah.
And make one big long barbecue.
Oh, that's nice.
Put all the charcoal inwith the grates on top.
And so give each guy's toolsand you cook your own steak.
And then another guy ownedand managed the Kentucky Fried
Chicken franchise in Oshawa.
So he'd bring all the salads.
Oh, nice.

(44:45):
Coleslaw.
Yeah, the coleslaw's good.
And tomato salad.
Yeah, so we had, thewhole weekend was gourmet.
Gourmet.
Yeah.
He used to enjoy that, like the settingup of the car type thing, and we were
setting up, of course, for a solo.
From what I understand too,you're not a big fan of Gumby.
I know why.
He took hmm.
And he's never done that in a car before.

(45:07):
And it's like, from England.
Mm hmm.
And it's Opposite from what he's used to.
Right hand drive.
Everything about it was all wrong.
And because I'm a wife and I'malways I thought he was going
to do something to himself.
You know, like And it wasa little bit more potent.
A little quicker than Alittle quicker than Misty.
Much quicker than Misty.

(45:29):
I know.
I know.
I know.
But much to Mark's annoyance, Ihave an obsession with that car.
Well, Gumby?
Yeah.
Gumby.
Oh, do you?
Everybody loves Gumby.
Oh, Gumby's great.
Well, it's pretty Gumby.
Well, I mean Is PumpkinMan still in Gumby?
Of course Pumpkin Man's still in Gumby.
Well, I mean, obviously, you know, it'sa very nicely prepped car and all that.

(45:51):
Well, I'm on the Bull of it, so.
Yeah.
And the artwork is fun.
Oh man.
But it's just, to me, it's, that's thekind of car that I Gumby on it, right?
The guy that owned it,he was only, what, 19?
Oh my gosh.
The guy that bought it from me.
Yeah, young kid, yeah.
That's why.
David never put, I don't think Davidever painted Gumby on his own car.

(46:12):
He came and then he deleted it.
How many Gumby's did theypick up over the years?
Oh, well, everybody wouldgive us the Gumby's.
Gumby's were good.
All they had to do was see them inthe garage, and everybody would give
us a Gumby whenever they saw it.
So we didn't have the heartto take it off the roof.
They're all still there.
Oh, yeah.
To a degree, that's effectively howI'm going to get my Ben Jerry's.

(46:33):
I'm going to find something like that car.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, it's like, I mean,it's not a pristine Coopers to
go out and destroy, you know?
I don't, I can't do that.
I need, that's one thing with ra,there's very little body contact.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm . They're usually pretty good.
Yeah.
It does happen.
What did Dave hit with Misty?
I remember hearing the pictureor seeing the pictures.
Yeah, there, there wasa kink in the bottom.

(46:55):
On the driver's side of Misty atone point in time, in the years.
Harewood had hay balesthat were petrified.
Yeah, no, it wouldn't have beena No, it was, it was underneath.
It was like underneath the driver's side.
Almost like it was a curve.
It could have been a curve, or Iused to always be happy when he
was racing Harewood or Shenandoah.
Because you could seethem all the way around.

(47:15):
Yeah.
But most port, that'swhen I started going grey.
When we were first talking to my dadabout it, he was like I remember Harewood.
He's like, oh, and straight into it.
I'm like, this racetrack wasclosed before I was born.
Yeah, it was great.
Had to find a handle, so if youwent off course and hit a hay bale,

(47:36):
it would have taken a mini out.
That's how bad these hay bales were.
They have pictures of Dave,like, when he was at Harvard and
he was, he's only on one tire.
Mm hmm.
I have those pictures.
I didn't get to see those.
Yeah, I have those pictures.
He had one very good race where therewas a professional photographer there.
I'm getting copies, yeah.
Yeah, we want copies.

(47:57):
That's one thing about thispresentation is I want it to be Visual.
For people to feel like they'vemet him through this presentation.
You know, I want to sort of All thepresentations they talk about famous Yeah.
Famous drivers.
And this is like the guywho reminds me of all of us.
Right?
He was.
He was.
He was.
He's your every man driver.
That's, the title is DavidCrawford, the every man driver.
And he would, like, if you guys werecamping beside us, he would just come

(48:21):
over and just sat down and offeredyou a beer and you'd be instantly.
Yeah, a real beer.
Yeah.
No, but that's what Dave was like.
That was Dave's life.
It was just, I met him.
And that's what's so cool to me.
I met him at a car show.
And I was literally at hishouse like four days later.
He was, he was an awesome,he was an awesome fellow.
I need to thank you forintroducing me as well.

(48:43):
I mean, it was just literally dumb luckI was up here picking stuff up from you.
Cause again, I met Mark becauseI needed parts for a 59 Mini.
Of course.
And just through Facebook, he'slike, yeah, I got a set of seats.
And I met her throughFacebook because of our Minis.
That was 2017, we'vebeen friends ever since.
Like, we keep horse trading stuff.
I got to meet Dave, we getto meet you because of that.

(49:05):
It's what it's all about.
It's the community.
Mark's wife didn't really have anything todo with supporting his interest in cars.
And I think that had a lot to do with whythe marriage turned out the way it was.
We found the balance.
Oh yeah.
He comes to the barn with meand sees the pony have kids.
No.
See, we didn't have kids.
We've got the corgi,the pony, and the cars.

(49:27):
And people look at you, and it was like,with cars, it's no toys to have kids.
I'm not saying we were anti kids.
No, no.
If it hadn't happened.
Yeah.
Yeah, because a coupletimes we thought we were.
And Dave and I were both happy.
Yeah.
But it turned out not to be, you know.
And no, I've actually seen throughracing how it can destroy a marriage.

(49:49):
Yeah.
Like, we'll go to, like,a big car show somewhere.
Like, we, it was, Ithink it was in the fall.
We went down to just somewhere in,like, Amish country in Pennsylvania.
There's this gorgeousBritish car show there.
So, what did we do after the car show?
We found, like, two or threetack shops to go to for her.
Yeah, yeah.
Buy some stuff for the pony.
He comes to the bar and hebrings offerings for the pony.

(50:10):
So, she can, gets like It's funnythat you did that, because Peter
is His wife, totally into horses.
We know a lot of couples likethat, jumping, like jumping.
Cars and horse people.
Yeah, well it's horse power.
Scott, Scott Lucas, this fella thattold Paul Newman of, um, love that.
His wife, totally.
And they have two daughters.

(50:30):
One of the daughters ison the Canadian Olympic.
Oh, very cool.
Takes care of the horses.
Oh, she's still ahead of them.
Yeah, that's still anaccomplishment in itself.
She travels with them,she goes down to Florida.
I did that.
I worked for an Olympic rider.
I know.
It was really cool.
And she loves it.
People that take care daughters,they're not going to get married.
They're both in their thirties.

(50:51):
His daughters.
I didn't think I was going to get married.
Somehow suckered me into it.
It happens.
I think a lot of people were She was,she was I think a lot of people were
worried you weren't going to get married.
It's, it's, it's been a long time coming.
I was going to say, I hopeDave's not looking up at us.
No, not at all.

(51:12):
Having a beer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Having a beer is, yeah, nice.
And that's one of my other favoritethings about Misty, too, is where he
covered up the hole in the barbershop.
Oh, with the, yeah, I love that.
That's because the firstscrutineering we went through, we
were illegal because of that hole.
Yeah.
And like, we had everything done,like the holes and everything was
done, and they wouldn't pass them.

(51:33):
And the only thing thatIt's still there, I love it.
The only thing that Colin'sfather had was a can of beer.
We're done.
Like, that's the onlymetal that we could find.
And like, after he did it, Isaid, we should really Take that
off and put a metal plate on it.
No, it's awesome.
He said it's part of her heritage.
I have to leave it on there.
It's just the same as theashtray that was in the door.

(51:55):
Yeah.
Dave quit smoking.
Yeah, I know.
Mid 90s.
Well, for the first time.
Well, he never took that ashtray though.
And it was part of Misty.
It's, it's her life.
Well, if you ever see the for realashtrays in a mini, I mean, it's, you
know, I love that in the room for the gin.

(52:17):
He liked his gin, sothey had room for gin.
There are times we took Misty Wedidn't drive her a lot because, like,
one winter we took her to Montreal.
I remember And it was, like,minus 30 with the windshield.
He had to keep it on defrost, right?
It was cold.
He told me, he told me, hesays, It's gonna be cold.

(52:37):
Dress warm, and I had a snowmobile suit.
And it was freezing and my snowmobileswere on a blanket and we could see our
breath from the other side of the car.
Oh, it was awful, awful, awful.
When the, uh, when the concrete finallycured the barn we built at our house,
I had my car stored in my dad's garageand it was 2 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

(53:00):
So driving the 62 Mini was terrible.
Because you're enclosed.
I didn't have the top on the TRthree and it reminded me of being 16.
'cause my first car was a TRthree and I didn't have a top, at
first, I had the tau cover only.
So I drove that thing topdown through the winter.
I wore a big, like, you know,winter suit to, for that drive
of Carhartt facing the bibs.

(53:21):
You're a Carhart farmer.
Bib.
Yep.
Now I, I think Dave would'vesaid road racing vintage.
That would've been his, he didn't go.
Would've been his favorite.
Yeah.
That's what, if hehadn't have gotten stuck.
For sure, he would have taken,that was his dream to get.
Well, he wanted to go, hewanted to go hill climbing.
When he and I first talked about mebuying Gumby from him, He was like,
maybe, maybe, but I want to get,I'm thinking about getting it set

(53:43):
up and I want to go hill climbing.
That might have been at the start ofit, but he kept talking about Verac.
No, I think it was at the endwhen he couldn't, he realized
he couldn't do Verac anymore.
And he was like, well, the hillclimb, I can probably still do.
And it was people, Nancy had heardwhat you paid to go with Bay Rack
. But I, I think it was just,it was a weekend of Bay Rack.

(54:05):
It was towards the end.
'cause it was not longafter I bought Misty.
Yeah.
That he and I talkedabout gum the first time.
Yeah.
And he was like.
What about Minerva?
I never bought this.
What about Minerva?
And we talked about Gumby.
And he was like, I want to try toget it and go hill climbing with it.
He'll climb around the corner becauseof being so close to Blue Mountain.

(54:25):
Like all of that has changed as well.
We used to be able to, in Canada,you could print Tickets off.
Okay.
And you could get in for free.
Yeah.
And it was a great, I guess, uh, fromeven various, like a, an hour's drive.
Oh, that's not bad.
Yeah.
And in the convertibleand the Mustang, you know.
Oh yeah.
Put the cooler in the car.
Yep.
Pick a corner.
Go from corner.
You didn't need a launcher.

(54:47):
With the top down.
Yeah.
Like I said, it didn'tcost, other than the gas.
But now, no.
Oh, I know.
For a day it's like 55 each, 45, 55 each.
Yeah, 45 I had to get through the year.
Just for the day.
Yeah, but if you did Lime Rock it was 88.
Oh, Lime, yeah, Lime Rock was ridiculous.
Yeah.
That's changed.
Yeah, I think to go to theSaturday Vintage Races at Lime

(55:08):
Rock it was 180 for us, US.
But the only track that I've seenin the States is Watkins Glen.
Yeah.
Dave was saying Road Atlanta was.
It's not too bad.
I never saw a road atlanta.
I've seen the old Watkins Glen ticketsfrom the 60s, they were like 2.
I know it was beautiful.
Oh yeah.
We love the Glen.
But then we have tracksin Canada that are St.
Jovi is You've never been there, have you?

(55:30):
That's just on Quebec.
Top of Mont Tremblant by, um I thinkI've probably been on that track.
Have you?
It's gorgeous.
I think I've been on that track.
There's not very manyroad tracks in Quebec.
They used to have a Canadianrunoff at that track.
It was an event with Mini Canada.
Yeah.
And we did drag racing and road courses.
It's nicer than most places.
Yes, it was nice.

(55:50):
Top of the mountain.
Close your mind.
It took us forever to get up there though.
Eight hours later.
I know.
I skied Grey Rocks, butTremblant is a beautiful area.
Plus, you hit Montreal andthey can't speak English.
Oh yeah.
They can, but they don't want to.
They feel superior.
As soon as you hit the border.

(56:11):
This is why I speak French.
Did he have any superstitionsor any rituals that he would do?
It wasn't very superstitious at all.
Yeah, I thought I'd know.
Definitely not.
I'm more superstitious than you.
So did you have any?
Yeah, there you go.
What were your superstitionsbefore the race?
She told me you had to come home.
Never make number 13.
Yeah.

(56:31):
It's like, I get a call herefrom, oh, the nurse came in.
He said, now the hospital justcalled about your appointment
this Friday the 13th.
Oh, yeah.
And I looked at her and I said, I don'thave an appointment on Friday the 13th.
Oh yeah, you have a test.
Uh huh, yeah.
Not today.
So I had to phone the hospitalto find out the doctors that I
had when I had my appendicitis.
It's like a follow up, butthey never told me that I was

(56:53):
supposed to have this stupid test.
So everything's booked and done andI'm not going on Friday the 13th.
No, no way.
So I phoned them and said,no, don't see me coming here.
Reschedule.
I don't think I've had any, I have mylist of questions here, we'll see if
there's anything we didn't touch upon.
But, I want to make sure I do him justice.
Oh, yeah.
Well, it's nice that you're doing it.

(57:14):
No, I think, I, I, I feel, he'llfeel honored that you're doing that.
Won't he?
Mm hmm.
Very much so.
He's a very quiet individual.
He was always one to puthimself down, wasn't he?
Yeah.
Make light of his accomplishments.
Exactly.
People would come down to the basementwhere all his trophies are and blow their
minds, you know, and he'd never tell them.

(57:35):
Well, the one thing that struck mewas he kept all the news clippings.
I know.
And he was so proud ofhis accomplishments.
Yeah.
And that's when I really kind ofstarted thinking, well, I need to apply.
presentation about this becausehe'd want this stuff to be
saved and seen and preserved.
Yeah, you know, yeah.
He just didn't want to bethe one to show it to anyone.
No, I, I, I, I feel soprivileged to really get to.
We're lucky to live nearthe IMRC for that reason.

(57:55):
Yeah, exactly.
Because it will be saved.
Because there is amotorsport archive up here.
But what they do is they scaneverything, so it's all digitized.
Oh, that's good.
Well, then they trash the original.
Oh, that's not good.
So we're happy to have it.
It's in an archival condition box.
And it sits on a shelf ina climate control room.

(58:17):
And then if anybody else needs toreference, because again, like,
there's, there's, there's Can I getany of the pictures on the wall?
Like, the checkered flag and, no?
Uh, I don't know, I think you have those.
I think I have them.
We'll give some, we'llgive them some copies.
I think, I think you might havegiven us a photo of the herald.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah.
Probably have us on the far wall.
Because I am a fan.
Plus, he's a tribe guy.
Yeah.

(58:37):
But it's like, I love it.
It's not only going topreserve his legacy, but all
the guys he raced with, too.
Oh, I know, it's just, that's what'sWe've got to get that, speaking of,
since we talked about the Herald,we need to get good quality photos
of those Winter Rally plates.
Yes.
The license plates.
Yeah.
Those, again, need tobe seen by the people.
Yeah, I just want a presentationthat's going to be That's
one thing that blew my mind.
We used to go up to the startevery year of the Winter Rally.

(59:01):
And until we started doing that, Ihad no idea how fast Rally could be.
Oh, it's insane.
It's so cool.
I mean, it's insane.
And I looked at Dave and I said,I'm really glad we didn't do that.
You know, until you addup all the navigating.
Especially like the group B years.
I know.
The rally.
It's crazy.
It's like you've got his.
Rally board.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's actually what I'm gonna do thepresentation from is I'm gonna put that

(59:23):
up on the podium and clip my notes to it.
I guess you get used toit, you know, like Yeah.
It's like I, I grew up eventingwhere you go galloping in a field,
jumping these big solid jumps andyou just, it's, I'm used to, yeah.
It's just, we seriously, weappreciate the time, obviously, you
know, she's been dying to meet you.
She's, oh, I'm glad you have met you.
Yeah.
Too bad.
You live in the state.

(59:44):
I was gonna say if I can, um, get yournumber, maybe call you and just see if
there's any pieces I need filled in.
I'd really love that.
If you like what you've heardand want to learn more about GTM,
be sure to check us out on www.
gtmotorsports.
org.
You can also find us on Instagramat grandtorymotorsports.

(01:00:06):
Also, if you want to get involved or havesuggestions for future shows, You can
call or text us at 202 630 1770 or sendus an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.
org.
We'd love to hear from you.
We hope you enjoyed another awesomeepisode of Brake Fix Podcast brought
to you by Grand Touring Motorsports.

(01:00:26):
If you'd like to be a guest onthe show or get involved, be sure
to follow us on all social mediaplatforms at GrandTouringMotorsports.
And if you'd like to learn moreabout the content of this episode,
be sure to check out the followon article at GTMotorsports.
org.
We remain a commercial free and noannual fees organization through
our sponsors, but also throughthe generous support of our fans,

(01:00:49):
families, and friends through Patreon.
For as little as 2.
50 a month, you can get access to morebehind the scenes action, additional Pit
Stop minisodes, and other VIP goodies.
As well as keeping our team of creatorsfed on their strict diet of Fig
Newtons, Gumby Bears, and Monster.
So consider signing upfor Patreon today at www.

(01:01:12):
patreon.
com forward slash GT Motorsports.
And remember, without you,none of this would be possible.