September 1968, I started working for General Motors at the age of 18. My father had always been a Ford man, so naturally, I had had several Mustangs by then. I sold my 1967 Fastback 289 - 4 barrel, 4 speed when I went to boot camp in May of 1969. I decided to buy a Chevy (since I worked for the General -- no discounts back then). Told my Dad that I wanted to buy a new,69 Corvette 427-435 HP, he said no way would he co-sign for my loan for a "plastic" car. Sooooo, while I was at Fort Bragg, my Dad found this 69 Camaro, he said it had some stripe on the side that said "YENKO" and that he would co-sign for my loan, since it was a steel car. Naturally, I jumped at it, he made the deal and it was sitting in the garage when I got home.
Fast forward two years, I go to my first NHRA points meet in Saginaw, Michigan, towing my Camaro on an open trailer with my 1965 Chevy Suburban (283, three on the tree). First round race pushing up thru the lanes, I count the cars back and I have to race a 69 white Camaro convertible (SS/NA). I figure, no problem, I'm running SS/D and I will blow this little small block off in the weeds. As we get closer to the SS/NA, and I take a closer look, much to my surprise, this Camaro that I have to race says it is a National Record Holder, multi-time class winner stickers and a guy by the name of John Lingenfelter is driving it (you know the one that was on the cover of the latest hot magazine doing a smokey burnout with a big smile on his face, yeah, that John Lingenfelter). Anyway, as Bob Frey would say, “that's why we don't run em on paper, we race em down the track!!!!”
Can you guess what happened (who got the win slip). That race started a friendship, even though I never met John until 3 years later in Pomona at the 1976 Winternationals.