[76 RACER]

Aspen...finally someone that had the nuts to say what has been known for a long time! Number one there was never a partnership between Russ jackson and Tom Barrett in 1971. Tom was a very influentual man in the Phx. area. He was on the board of Directors of United bank and had his own high end Real Estate company with his partner Sim Nathan. it was called TIME REALTY and was located at the Safari Hotel on Scottdale Rd. the site of the first Auction. Myself and another person took two cars to be sold there in 71 for a man that is a well known collector in the DUESENBERG circle! Lets ask ourselves this...If tom and Russ were partners as told all the time on TV why wasnt it called the Barrett-Jackson Auction until the Jackson family took it over? Also,Tom had 4 kids. Three daughters and a son. They worked their asses off for their dad. I dont know why they didnt get the auction. Anyway I started delivering cars to Barretts home at 5601 E. Nauni Valley Dr in the town of Paradise Valley just on the north side of Camelback Mtn. Tom had almost 4 acres of land there that you cant even buy today at crazy money! In 1974 I was at Toms home delivering a car to him. It did not run. I fooled with it and got it running to perfection for what it was. He offered me a job taking care of his car collection. That was quite an offer to a 22 yr. old kid from a small town just outside of Dayton.O. I accepted and lived at his home for almost 2 years. I dont need to get into details here but Barrett was way beyond the Jackson family in every aspect if you get my drift. I am not taking anything away from them. They had a shop on Washington St. in Phx. and did not have near the collection of cars that Barrett had. When I went to work for Tom he had the Prince Agakhan 1951 P-IV Rolls, A Maybach that belonged to Dr. Gobels( Hitlers Buddy) Eva Brauns 540 SSK Benz, the Roosevelt parade car when he was president. A Delehaye that belonged to Adriam M. Conandoyle(spelling?) The list goes on and on. To the best of my memory the Jacksons got involved in the auction in 1975 as Barrett let them start doing the advertising for him. For legal reasons I dont need to go with this. Some of the most famous people in the world walked thru Tom Barrett s front door. I know as I was witness to it !!! I will tell you Tom was a hard guy to work for after a while. He wanted me 24 -7 plus! I had no life after a while. Tom was a great man and did a lot for me...believe me! He didnt like my 66 Nova I bought from Pat Hale in Scottsdale and built me a 2-car garage on his property so his customers wouldnt have to see it. Funny thing is that Tom raced UNLIMITED HYDROPLANE boats and was called TOM the BOMB! As far as Jenkins Vega goes...I spoke to him on the phone about the car because I have a Vega I race and always liked his. His words were this. The engine in the car has never been down a race track. The guy that bought the car rolling came back and wanted an engine. He went thru his shop and put together time dated parts to build the engine! He also said that without a contract signed and money in the bank he would not come to Scottsdale and tell the story as he called it about the car! Aspen is correct,there are way too many stories that go with these cars today. Have you noticed that no old $$$ people go to the Barrett Auction? No one of a kind classic cars either. He is right, the Kruse or the RM are better venues. In closing,one well known collector is Banned from the Barrett-Jackson fling because he helped the Kruses a few years back. by the way,the Kruses are some of the wealthiest people in the WORLD! But,they are just some hicks from Auburn,In.......lol Some of the stories I can tell about things I saw at Barretts are really neat. Tom died of Alzheimers and his second wife the mother of three of his kids and her husband took care of him till the end!

GOOB...you be right about REGGIE! I think I told you the story about him from 79 when I met him and he wanted a 69 Camaro I had.