By Bruce Ellis
Photography: Bill Taylor, Jack Kromer, Tim Aylwin &
Kevin McLoughlin
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| Feiser's
Funeral Home is located on Route 30, just a few blocks
west of the square in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. On a
rainy night in late September, it wasn't hard to find. |
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| The line
of mourners stretched for several blocks. The average
wait was four hours. But they waited. In the rain. |
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| They had
come to pay their respects to Kevin Gobrecht, a local
hero, who died at age 30 in a sprint car crash at I-80
Speedway near Greenwood, Nebraska. |
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| They
came from near and far, some in suits and ties, some in
sprint car T-shirts. And they waited. In the rain. |
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| They
could have chosen to attend the funeral a night later.
It would be held in a different location to accommodate
the anticipated crowd. The weather was to be perfect,
and the Outlaws would be there. On this night, there
were a few local racers, a promoter or two, and some
media types, but mostly just fans who came to see the
G-Man one more time. |
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| And they
continued to wait. In the rain. |
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| It was
just past midnight when the last of them paid their
final respects. They didn't give up. They did what they
set out to do. Kevin would have been proud of them. He
too believed in doing what he set out to do. |
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| When he
was 6 years old, Kevin and his brother, Brian, older by
a year and a half, got on their bicycles and started out
for the neighboring village of East Berlin to go
fishing. It was about a 6-mile trip, a long way for two
little kids on bicycles. They weren't even halfway to
East Berlin when one of the pedals on Kevin's bicycle
came off. Brian wanted to go back. He was sure his
little brother couldn't make it. But Kevin wouldn't hear
of it. He had intended to go fishing that day, and
that's what he did. He made it all the way to East
Berlin and back with one pedal. |
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| Twenty-one
years later, he had just run the Sharon Nationals, and
his plan was to go on to Attica in Central Ohio the next
day. All of their help had to return to Pennsylvania. It
was just Kevin and Brian again. Their truck cracked a
piston, and Brian, using good judgment, wanted to go
home. Kevin reasoned that since they had intended to go
to the All Star race at Attica, they should give it a
try, cracked piston and all. "We'll make it,"
he said. "Let's go." |
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| So they
went. They had used tires, a limited inventory of spare
parts, and no help. Kevin mounted tires and changed bars
while other drivers watched their crews do the work. But
at the end of the night, he had his first All Star win. |
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| That
determination was evident throughout his racing career,
which began in go-karts at age 8. He didn't do the
things most kids do because he was either racing or
working on his kart. Even in his high school years, he
would work on the kart after school and, when it got
late, take an engine into his house and work on it while
he was watching television. |
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| His
heroes included local sprint car stars Bobby Allen and
Steve Smith. He liked them because they were hard-core
racers who built their own cars and did their own work.
And they would find a way to race even when the money
had seemingly run out. He especially liked Smith, who
used to sneak his own son Stevie and his little friend
Kevin into the pits at Williams Grove and Lincoln when
they were much too young to be there. As his go-kart
career progressed to paved road courses, he gained
respect for Formula 1 racers. He knew how hard it was to
get a go-kart around a road course and could only
imagine how difficult it must be to do those hairpin
turns in a powerful F-1 car. |
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| His hero
was Ayrton Senna, who, ironically, would be the victim
of fatal injuries suffered when debris went into the
cockpit of his race car during a crash. |
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| While
Kevin was racing karts, he left high school before his
senior year to attend Millersville University on an
entry program. He would graduate from Millersville with
a bachelor's degree in business and finance. |
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| During
his college years, he was racing and working in the
family business, Golf Cart Services. The business
reconditions, sells, and services golf carts in a
13-county area. Kevin was a mechanic and later served as
the parts manager. Golf Cart Services is located across
the street from the race shop, which is next to the
small yellow house that Kevin and Brian shared.
"This little corner on Route 30 is what we
do," Kevin would tell Open Wheel in 1996. "We
work for Dad, then at night, we go back and work on race
cars. We've done it for so long. This is the way racing
has always been for us." |
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| His
racing advanced from go-karts to micro-sprints when his
older brother Scott vacated the seat in his
grandfather's micro. |
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| In his
second year in micros at age 21, Kevin won two features
en route to the track championship at Trailway Speedway.
A year later, he split with his grandfather and sat out
for four months while he put his own micro-sprint team
together. |
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| "When
he went on his own, he took everything personally,"
recalls Brian Gobrecht, "and that's when he really
started to win." |
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| The new
owner/driver won four of the ten micro races he entered
in 1991. He came back in 1992 to win 36 features spread
over nine different tracks along with championships at
Trailway and Hill Valley. He backed that up with 29
victories in 1993. |
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| By 1994,
he had become so dominant that he expected to win every
night, and when he lost, the agony of defeat far
outweighed the thrill of victory. The only driver who
seemed capable of beating him was his brother, Brian,
and they often raced at different tracks on the same
nights so both of them could win. |
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| Despite
another 30 victories for Kevin, 1994 would be his last
year in micros. It was clear that the fun was gone for
him in that form of the sport. |
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| "One
night, we ran a micro race, and I ran third and Kevin
was fourth," Brian began. "The next day, we
were moping around like we had just blown up both our
motors." |
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| Brian
told him they were done with micros. |
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| "I'll
sell what I gotta sell, and we're gonna get a sprint
car," Brian said. "If you run third and fourth
and you're unhappy, it's time to move on. Because we'd
won so many races, the winning wasn't as spectacular,
but the losing was even worse. |
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| "I
told Kevin he was gonna drive the sprint car. He was
younger. He had more intensity, and he handled pressure
better. He knew cars better than I did. He was in micros
longer than I was. I always felt that if one of us had a
chance to go far in racing, it was gonna be Kevin." |
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| Brian's
little brother made his sprint car debut at Lincoln in
1995, and it didn't take him long to get fast. |
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| Despite
some crashes, he was showing steady improvement and, had
it not been for a flat tire, would have won a feature at
Lincoln in early July. Although Kevin lost a race that
night, he did gain a mechanic. Brian had been racing a
micro the night Kevin nearly won at Lincoln. |
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| "I
thought, Something's happening here. Something good is
happening here," Brian said. "We always wanted
to be involved in sprint cars. Now we've got a sprint
car. I'm helping to pay the bills on it, and I'm not
enjoying it. I felt like I was missing something really
special, and just like that, I was done. I quit racin'
micros and started going to the races with Kevin." |
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| Three
weeks later, the G-Man got his first win at Lincoln and
held off Pennsylvania superstar Fred Rahmer in the
process. He also qualified for all six World of Outlaws
races he entered in 1995 and impressed enough voters to
be named the National Sprint Car Poll's Rookie of the
Year. |
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| Kevin
got off to a good start in 1996 with a victory in the
prestigious Williams Grove opener. Six weeks later, he
would win another one, and people were starting to
notice. |
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| Still in
the family car, which was financed by the Gobrecht
brothers and their father Bob, Kevin was spectacular
riding the wall at Eldora the night before the Big One
in August. His performance was reminiscent of one of
Ohio's favorite sons, Jac Haudenschild. |
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| Haud
wasn't spectacular on this weekend: "The Wild
Child" was hurting, still feeling the effects of a
crash at New York's Lebanon Valley Speedway. There was
no way he could race the Big One. He would be sidelined
for the next several weeks. |
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| Haudenschild
was in the Pennzoil machine at the time, and car-owner
Jack Elden needed a substitute driver to keep his
sponsor's colors on the circuit. The team's crew chief
was Kirk Dewease, whose brother, Lance, is a star on the
Pennsylvania circuit. Kirk knew about Kevin and
recommended him to the car-owner. Elden agreed to meet
the young Pennsylvanian. |
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| "I
was told he was a hard charger, but after I met him, I
could see that Kevin was also a true gentleman,"
Elden said. "He was a very straightforward, honest
person, and I liked that." |
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| So there
was the G-Man in his second season of sprint car racing,
subbing for one of the most exciting drivers on the WoO
tour. He was in a car carrying corporate sponsorship,
and working for one of the game's top owners. He debuted
in the Big One, then went on to the Knoxville Nationals.
Kevin had come a long, long way in a very short time. |
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| Haudenschild
was back in a few weeks, and Kevin returned to
Pennsylvania, but the G-Man left on good terms with his
car-owner. |
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| "I
was very impressed with him," Elden said. "If
Jac and I had ever parted, I would have hired
Kevin." |
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| Kevin
closed the '96 season with the aforementioned All Star
win at Attica but during the year had gained a close
friend in Lee Stauffer, who, along with his father,
maintained the Apple Chevrolet car on the Pennsylvania
circuit. |
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| Since
Kevin and Lee were both eligible bachelors, they spent
whatever free time they could find trying to pick up
girls, says Stauffer. |
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| "We
were in the same situation when we were in school,"
he began. "My dad and I worked in our shop seven
days a week. Kevin and his brothers did the same thing
at their shop. It wasn't that we didn't like girls when
we were younger. The opportunity just wasn't there. We
wished it would've been." |
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| Although
he was afraid it would affect their friendship, Stauffer
offered Kevin the seat in the Apple car for the '97
season. Friendship notwithstanding, it was a sound
business move, from Lee's point-of-view. |
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| "It
was evident that he was gonna be a helluva race car
driver," Stauffer said. Kevin was following Fred
Rahmer and Keith Kauffman into one of the best rides in
Pennsylvania. For a local driver in his third season of
sprint car racing, all those things spelled pressure. |
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| They won
two races at the Grove and two at Lincoln, but the
crashes far outnumbered the victories. Late in the
season, Lee Stauffer was the one who had to end it. |
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| "Kevin
was frustrated. I was frustrated. My dad was
frustrated," Lee said. "I called him up and
said, 'Kevin, it just didn't work out. I'm sorry.'" |
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| The
firing strained their relationship for a few weeks, but
when Kevin crashed his own car at Williams Grove, Lee
was there to offer parts and assistance, and their
friendship was back on track. |
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| Lee
Stauffer knew there would be more good rides in Kevin's
future. |
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| "Because
of his passion. His will to win. Every lap he was gonna
give 110 percent. That's why he wrecked so much,"
Stauffer said. "You get tired of fixing cars after
a while, but you get tired of running eighth, too."
He knew Kevin would never be content running eighth. So
did John Zemaitis, who, in July 1998, offered a
part-time job driving his Zemco #1, since the car's
primary driver, Billy Pauch, had commitments to race a
modified on Saturday nights. |
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| Kevin's
first victory in the Zemco car stopped Rahmer's 12-race
winning streak at Lincoln. His second win was against
the World of Outlaws at Williams Grove. He would get two
more at Lincoln before the season ended. |
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| He would
also meet a girl named Bobbi Myers, who worked at the
French Fry stand at Lincoln. After that, his nights on
the town with Lee Stauffer were numbered. The Zemco team
would field two cars for special races in 1999. Pauch
would drive at Williams Grove and Kevin at Lincoln and
at any other time that Billy couldn't be there. |
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| The
G-Man won a race at Volusia, then the next night flipped
out the ballpark in a frightening crash in which his car
erupted in flames, "I was upset with him (because
of the crash) at Volusia," said Lee, who watched
his own driver, Greg Hodnett, help Kevin climb out of
the wreckage. "He was such a calm person outside
the race car. I don't know what clicked off in his head
when he strapped in. I told him he needed to calm
himself down." |
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| Kevin
must have heeded his friend's advice, because when he
came back to Pennsylvania, he was virtually unbeatable.
As an example: On March 27, he won at Lincoln in the
afternoon and Port Royal at night. The next afternoon,
he won at Williams Grove. He was driving with a
confidence that made him seem invincible. |
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| A couple
of days later, somebody said to Bob Gobrecht that he
must be very proud of his son after winning three races
in less than 24 hours. |
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| "I
was even more proud of him when he showed up for work
first thing Monday morning," Bob replied. |
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| By
mid-April, the G-Man had eight victories and was the
winningest driver in sprint car racing. |
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| About
that time, he got a phone call from Dave Blaney. |
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| The
former World of Outlaws champion and current Busch Grand
National ace needed a driver for his sprint car, and he
wanted the G-Man. It was a full-time WoO deal, complete
with a highly successful crew chief in Kenny Woodruff
and major sponsorship from Amoco. Blaney had his pick of
drivers. Why Kevin Gobrecht? |
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| "He
was winning races consistently in Pennsylvania, and
that's the toughest weekly thing goin'," Blaney
said. "Those guys have an edge as far as learning
how to race on a big track. He was the obvious choice to
us." |
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| Kevin
flew to Atlanta to meet with Blaney and the Amoco
representatives. Kathy Leech, motorsports manager for BP
Amoco, was at the meeting. "He impressed me as
being incredibly intelligent," she said. "Very
confident without being cocky. Very well-spoken. He just
seemed that he would represent us extremely well--and he
did." |
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| The
Amoco deal seemed like a no-brainer. It was clearly one
of the best rides in the country. But, according to
Brian Gobrecht, Kevin thought long and hard before
accepting. |
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| "He
knew Dale (Blaney) didn't go very well in that car.
Suppose it wasn't Dale. Suppose it was the car. Kevin
thought he might get in the deal and look like a
jerk," Brian said. |
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| There
were other reasons for his soul searching. |
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| "It
happened so fast," Brian continued. "At that
time, Kevin was still a golf-cart mechanic who raced
part-time. And he got along so well with that whole
Zemco crew. He knew how much fun he was having with
them." |
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| Still,
the offer was too tempting to resist for a man two weeks
shy of his 30th birthday and only four years removed
from micro-sprints. "He made the decision because
he was a part-time driver who had a chance to be an
Outlaw," Brian said. |
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| "This
was his shot, and if he wouldn't have taken it he
would've always looked back and said, 'What if...'" |
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| He
joined the Amoco team in Tulsa and ran fourth to match
the car's best finish at that point in the season. |
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| A few
days later, the G-Man experienced what corporate
sponsorship is all about. He found himself in a
convention center in New Orleans greeting 3,000 of
Amoco's best customers. |
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| "For
three days, he sat and signed autographs and charmed
everyone," Kathy Leech remembered. "He found a
way to connect with every person he met." |
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| Things
would not be going quite as well on the racetrack,
however. The team struggled for two months. A DNQ at
Lernerville was the final indignity. Kevin came home to
New Oxford in late July to await the weekend WoO races
at the Grove and Hagerstown--and to contemplate his
future. He knew the Zemco car was his if he wanted it. |
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| Although
he knew J&J chassis were winning races all over the
country, Kevin felt more comfortable in Maxims. Just a
personal preference. So he called Blaney, who told him
to contact Woodruff. He got Woodruff's voice mail, left
a message, then went fishing with his brothers and some
friends. |
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| While he
was on the fishing boat, his cell phone rang. It was
Woodruff. If Kevin didn't mind missing a weekend, the
veteran crew chief would go home and put three new
Maxims together. Woodruff was willing to do whatever it
took to keep his driver happy. |
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| "Kev
and Kenny got along fine," Brian said. "They
got along like a driver and crew chief should get along.
They didn't always agree, but anybody who felt that
those two hated each other was just reading between the
lines and didn't know what was going on." |
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| That
afternoon, Kevin told Brian he felt more relaxed on that
old fishing boat than he'd been in two months. |
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| The
G-Man was comfortable again, and his confidence was
back. In his first weekend in the new car, he won the
Big One at Eldora. A week later, he ran third in the
Knoxville Nationals. The six-week Western swing was
next, and Kevin recorded 9 top-10 finishes in 14 starts. |
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| "We
had some good nights and some rough nights," he
said of the Western tour. |
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| He was
leading at Gray's Harbor near Elma, Washington, when he
made contact with a lapped car. He was running away with
a qualifying night feature at Calistoga when a flat tire
took him out. He felt driver error cost him the Gold Cup
at Chico. |
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| "Racing
in California is not like racing anywhere else," he
said. "California was nice, but I'm glad to be
going back to some places that I've at least seen
before. It'll be nice racing on those big tracks, where
we can really get going." |
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| Within
10 days of the final Western stop at Rock Springs,
Wyoming, he expected to be home. Back with his family in
New Oxford. Back racing at the Grove in the National
Open. |
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| "I'm
looking forward to getting back to Pennsylvania,"
he said. "There is going to be a lot of pressure on
me to do well there, but I've got pressure to do well
every night out here." |
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| So,
after two months on the road, Kevin was coming home.
There was just one stop between Rock Springs, Wyoming,
and Pennsylvania. Just one weekend stop. At I-80
Speedway near Greenwood, Nebraska. |
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| And
that's where it ended. |
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| "He
was living a dream," Brian said. "One week he
was jet-skiing in California, the next he was riding the
sand dunes with ATVs. He was doing all the stuff he
never got to do before. |
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| "The
more we think about it, the more this whole deal seems
like fate. This year was going so good for him on every
level. He was very much in love with Bobbi. The way he
started the year in Pennsylvania was just about perfect.
Then he got the Outlaw ride. Things didn't go real well
with the Outlaws at first, but maybe it was fate that he
didn't qualify at Lernerville. That made them take a few
days off to put cars together. It gave the family one
last chance to bond with him. It gave us our last chance
to get together as a family and do things. We didn't
know it at the time, but he was never coming home again. |
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| "Winning
the Big One. Running third at the Knoxville Nationals.
It was almost like the Lord was saying, 'Boy, you're
leaving this world soon, but we're gonna let you fulfill
all your dreams before you go.'" Rest in peace,
G-Man. |
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| Used with permission from Doug Auld of
Openwheel Thank you for allowing me to publish this
article. |
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