Cars and Stars: Collector Car Person of the Year
23 March 1999
Beverly Hill, Calif nice guy, car collector/restorer Bruce Meyer is the recipient of the fourth annual Meguiar's "Collector Car Person of the Year" award and will be so honored at a televised black tie banquet at the Petersen Automotive Museum, April 15. Meyer spearheaded the drive to recognize American hot rods as a classic car art form and display them at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 1997. He has an extensive collection of coveted classics--e.g.: 427 Cobra, Duesenburg, Ferrari, D-Type Jaguar, Porsche 356, and Bugatti Type 57--and also has an extensive collection of genuine American A and B hot rod roadsters and coupes. Car collector friends of Meyers who will be honoring him in person or via video messages are: Carroll Shelby, Jay Leno, Bruce Jenner, Tom Gale, Gail Banks, Parnelli Jones, Danny Sullivan, Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Steve Earle, Reggie Jackson, Wally Parks and Alex Xydias. Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, Calif opens March 27. For the inaugural Sprint/Midget and modified race weekend, it’s SRO at the half-mile oval, 40 miles outside of L.A. Everything is brand new at Irwindale. Former Trans-Am and Can-Am standout George Follmer recently handled the testing chores for a Motor Trend magazine story on current and early Mustangs. The Bud Moore Trans-Am Mustang that George drove to victories with team mate Rufus Jones is up for sale by its L.A. owner for a cool $335,000 asking price. Sam Posey's Dodge Challenger Trans Am car is priced at $250,000. Follmer is being inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in Detroit, June 10, along with Jimmy Bryan, Frank Kurtis and seven other racing greats. The 1999 racing season is upon us. The March 27-28 period shows IRL at Phoenix, NASCAR in Texas, F-1 in Argentina, and Irwindale, CA openingr. The vintage racing crowd heads to Button Willow raceway near Bakersfield for the VARA salute to Formula Ford.i Arie Luyendyk is now vacillating reigarding his racing plans, First he said the 1999 Indy 500 would be his swan song. Now he says there may be an occasional event that will attract him. The San Diego LeMans series race will be run in November. Media preview day for the April 17 Long Beach Grand Prix Celebrity race is scheduled for April 6 at the street circuit. I drove a Mercury Villager recently with a unique new feature--a “reverse sensor that beeps when you come within six feet of an object, and lets you know as you get closer and closer. We wondered why this wasn't also an aftermarket product, and find out that you can purchase one from Express Systems in Irvine, California. 800 705 4001 The wildest drag racing door slammer’on the planet is being built at Gail Banks'shop in Irwindale, CA. It’s a Mercedes Benz 500SL that looks like a space craft and will be powered by a twin turbo 562 ci motor putting out over 3000 H.P. The driver--it IS a Mercedes after all--will wear a tuxedo fire suit. The hot rod will tour the U.S. taking on all comers. Gail Banks has the info or call Denise at 714 435 3130. The CART PPG lady pace car team took a weekend off and attended Bob Bondurant's driving school at Firebird Raceway in AZ recently. Bob says school business is very good. He's sold out through June. Keep your eye on: the “Senior racing tour (Camaros), The Legends series, and the Women's International Road Racing championship. Bill Maloney -- The Auto Channel
