Tar Heel

When I was in junior high and high school I got in good with the librarian every year to get me out of a study hall once a day to work in the library as a student aide. The only reason I wanted to do this was to be the first one to read the new Hot Rod Magazines when they came in. I don't know exactly why but I was always drawn to muscle and high-performance cars. Around my 10th grade year in high school (1986) I was working in the evenings after school and basketball practice at a local grocery store carrying out groceries and stocking shelves. One night, a local Stock Eliminator racer named Clarence Leyda (Eastern Ohio - divisional champ one year) came in with his '78 Camaro on the trailer. We got to talking and he asked me if I wanted to come up and work on it. I'll never forget the first thing he had me do; clean all the rubber from under the fenders and on the quarter panel. Fun!!! He taught me everything I knew about working on cars as I traveled up and down the eastern part of the country with him racing. He introduced me to some great people: Gary Russell, Woodro Josey, Jeff Potts, ... I did this through high school and college until I was on my car and began to bracket race and even class race a little.