My Pontiac Story

[Keith Seymore]

Milt comes on the scene:

"In late July or early August Wangers talked Joe Kay into hiring a young guy that was working for George Delorean as a 'go-fer' to be a mechanic at Royal - his name was Milt Schornack. Again, I think it was ironic that 7 &1/2 years later when Royal was sold that he returned to Leader Automotive."

[Keith Seymore]

A "high performance" option for the Lemans:

"In early August Pontiac was getting ready to start 1964 production so we got to see the 1964 Tempest and to hear about a high performance option for the Lemans, and that it would be next year's race car and run in B/Stock.

[Keith Seymore]

September 1963:

"It was now September and time for the Nationals. Because Pontiac had pulled out of racing the Super Duty cars had to run FX [ie, "Factory Experimental"] and they put ballast in the Catalinas to run B/FX. My car was entered in B/Stock until [NHRA Tech Inspector] 'Farmer' Dismuke walked by, but he had a ring with a magnet in it that he would use to check cars for aluminum or fiberglass. When he put it on the fender of my car he said 'no way. This is an FX car'. If I ran, it would be B/FX and I sure didn't stand a chance against a Super Duty, and I think that was the year Doug Nash ran C/FX with his Bronco so I couldn't add ballast and run C/FX. So my car sat on the sidelines and didn't run.



"Our other car was a 1960 Corvair, so we did all our traveling in our Catalina, for trips I would switch to a 3.90 rear end, we went to Indianapolis for the 500 in May and made a couple trips to Missouri in it and my wife drove it through the week....

[Keith Seymore]

Keith here again:

I'm afraid with that abrupt ending that's all there is.

I knew that he had been writing these notes, both for my benefit and to keep his recollections fresh. It took me a while to find them, but I did eventually - in the silverware drawer of his travel trailer. It made perfect sense; he used the quiet time at the campground (or after the racing was done on race weekends) to jot these thoughts down.

I'm grateful for his diligence in capturing all this (and for all the insights into the dynamics between he, Jesse, Wangers, Rediker, Schornack, et al), but I only wish there was more

K

[Keith Seymore]

Here's a couple pics of the pad of paper, just so you can see what I'm workin' with....

[Xplantdad]

So totally cool...thanks for sharing Keith!

[Keith Seymore]

November 2009 - Inaugural MCACN:

Just got back from Chicago, where I was able to participate in the Nickey "Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals".

One of the displays was a collection of "significant" Royal GTOs. Tenney Fairchild (owner of the Red Car&Driver '64 GTO) asked if I could bring my car. Thank you, Tenney, for the inivitation (I was honored to be numbered among you all) and thank you, Bob Ashton, for putting on a great show!

Got to hang out and swap stories all weekend with Tenny, Scott Tiemann and his Dad, Bill and Rita Shultz, Big Injun Dave and Mr Wangers. My side still hurts from laughing so much.

K














Complete set of photos can be found here:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...91#post3829591

K

[Keith Seymore]

You're Van Seymore, aren't you...



One of the old stories Dad liked to tell...


He was at the track, somewhere, and there was a lull in the action - so he was napping under a shady tree (where he always liked to park - and something he very much liked to do).

Off a little ways in the distance he can hear this young man, entourage in tow, loudly evaluating all the other cars in his class and issuing his verdict: "....we'll have to watch out for this guy..." or "...this one here will be no problem", etc.

Dad watched, one eye half open, as this young man and his fans approached Dad's pit and surveyed the situation: Dad leaning back, apparently dozing, Mom changing my sister's diaper in the back of the tow car. A little black GTO with no lettering or apparent sponsors, sitting quietly and passively nearby.

"We don't have to worry about this guy!" the kid loudly proclaimed. They laughed and slapped each other on the back as they wandered off to continue their tour of the competition.

After the kid was out of earshot, Dad said to Mom "...I'm gonna run that kid for the trophy... and I'm gonna hurt him!"

"VAN!" she scolded. "Don't you get too cocky!"

"Wait and see" he confided, watching the kid walk away.

Sure enough, as the rounds went by, Dad was clicking off the wins on his side of the ladder (launching lazily and chasing his victims down, or "sandbagging" just enough to take the stripe) and this kid, in his '65 GTO, was knocking 'em down on the other side. Eventually, as predicted, the two GTOs met in the final round.





The tree came down and Dad launched hard and moved first. He shifted cleanly one time, two times, three times and kept it floored all the way through. Crossing the finish line several car lengths ahead of his competition, the kid was not only soundly beaten but surely must have been totally humiliated.

Dad putted back to the pit area, went to the tower to pick up his trophy (...or exchange it for free admission the next week...) and started loading stuff up. As he worked, he noticed out the corner of his eye, the kid approaching: alone - and obviously humbled.

The kid spoke first: "You're Van Seymore, aren't you?".

Dad chuckled to himself and said: "Yes....why do you ask?".

"Well" the kid continued "My uncle is Frank Bakos*. He's always telling me about you and your racecars but I didn't realize that was you when I was here earlier".

They visited a little bit more, about the cars and about mutual friends, and then went their separate ways.

I don't know what the rest of the conversation was but it seems the kid got a "spanking" he didn't soon forget - since Dad heard the same story come back around when Frank starting telling him about it!

K

[Keith Seymore]

"...Didn't you used to be Van Seymore?..."



Ok - so that made me think of a funny one:

After Dad got sick the medicines (steroids) caused him to retain water. During his growing up years and in young adulthood he had always been quite thin, but the medicines caused him to puff up a bit, especially making his face a little rounder than it had been previously.

Dad was always running into someone he knew, whether it was in an expressway rest area in Phoenix or a shopping trip in a local mall. One time we were out and someone thought they recognized him:

"...Didn't you used to be Van Seymore?" the man asked.

Dad paused for a minute and said "....I thought I still was...."

K

[Keith Seymore]

November 2009:

Wendy's story -


I had something funny happen a few weeks ago, back in the November timeframe, that I haven't shared with you guys yet.

I had some errands to run in support of getting ready to go to Chicago (to the Muscle Car Nationals) so I decided to grab some lunch and take the afternoon off. I almost never go out for lunch and I never EVER stop at the Wendy's closest to my house - but - a bacon cheeseburger sounded pretty good so I stopped in. I pulled into the parking lot and parked way in the back, away from everybody else, as is my custom now that I am driving my restored '87 pickup.



I should mention, as shown, my little truck is a red Chevy regular cab 2wd shortbox. Because of that it was only natural I noticed, as I pulled in, a guy followed me in a newer (GMT800 style) pickup, also a red Chevy regular cab 2wd shortbox. He parked back kind of where I was, next to me but leaving a respectful distance between his truck and mine.

After I finished my burger (...which was excellent, by the way...) I walked back out and I noticed his truck was still sitting there. I didn't see him come or go so I looked around a bit as I was walking and right then he came out of the restaurant. He caught up to me and spoke first, saying "...hey, that's a sweet little truck!" or something like that.

I confided that I had noticed his truck , too, so we spent several minutes talking about (red) Chevy pickups, then onto working for GM and living in the area. I told him (gradually) about restoring the truck through the summer, giving him short snippets of info and then responding in more detail as he asked more follow up questions.

I haven't mentioned this yet but, because I was heading to the Muscle Car Nats that weekend, and because I wanted the author Darwin Holmstrom to sign my book, I had my big GTO book laying in the front seat of the truck.



As the pickup truck conversation died down a bit, he said "....I see you've got the new GTO book. Have you had a chance to look at it much?".

I didn't tell him that I'd had it since May but did indicate that I had flipped through it a time or two.

At that point he said, matter of factly: "My car is in it". Surprised, I said "really, which one!?!".

His car is the red '61 Catalina, shown early in the book on pages 40 - 45. He got pretty good coverage spanning over several pages.





So now the conversation was off and running again, this time talking about Pontiacs, and how he got the car painted a year ago, and how the motor is out now (spun a cam bearing) and going back together. I told him my car was on page 99 and that we did the photo shoot in November of '07 pretty much across the street from where we were currently standing. We marveled at the fact that we lived only a few miles apart and never had met before, and how unusual it was for us to meet under these circumstances.

My car:





I bet we stood in that Wendy's parking lot for almost an hour before we finally decided we'd better get going, parting ways but vowing to stay in touch.

That was one of the most bizarre chance encounters (and one of the most enjoyable) in recent memory....

K