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New Member J.R. Herrera Bio

To: <fot@autox.team.net>
Subject: New Member J.R. Herrera Bio
From: "John Herrera" <jherrera@fcc.cc.md.us>
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 17:12:59 -0400
Hello everybody. Here is the bio that Joe Alexander asked for.

I caught the sports car sickness from my brother, 16 years older than I, who 
owned sports cars, rallied, was in a sports car club, and crewed on SCCA sports 
car road-racing teams (Triumph, Lotus) in the sixties. 

I wanted to be a grown-up with a sports car. I wanted to shift gears, double 
clutch, heel-and-toe, drift, rally, race, go too fast on public roads. I 
imagined myself doing all these things while I rode in the back seat of my 
father's giant mushy Buick and got carsick on curvy West Virginia roads.    

In 1977, I graduated from airplane mechanic school and was working at a little 
airport in Maryland. When I drove my 1950 Oldsmobile Futuramic to an SCCA race 
at Summit Point, I actually saw and heard what I had only dreamed of before. 
Two weeks later I had a 1970 MGB. The B was my only car. I loved to work on the 
car and had plenty of opportunities.   

My need for MG parts led me to the local foreign car parts store. The owner 
campaigned a 1968 BMW 2002 in SCCA club road-racing. My frequent visits for 
parts led to a place on his pit crew (and an eight-year relationship with the 
parts girl). I drove my sports car to the sports car races and was actually 
involved. My pit pass was proudly displayed as I walked through the paddock 
area, maybe carrying a tire, hot, tired, dirty, and feeling on top of the 
world. 

In 1979, I bought a new BMW 320i. The BMW was too civilized for me, so in 1980 
I took a powder blue and rust TR-3A for a test drive. The engine would not 
idle, it would die. The front suspension was so far gone that it hopped all 
over the road. None of these things mattered to me - I had decided to buy it as 
soon as I saw it. I still have this car, named Old Blue.

I worked on Old Blue, drove him, worked on him, drove him. In 1993 I drove him 
the entire length of the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway through Virginia 
and North Carolina and back - 1,150 total miles of scenic two lane mostly curvy 
road. 

In 1985 I started spectating at Summit Point Vintage Races, always seeking out 
the Triumphs, especially the Threes. I went to Mid-Ohio and Elkhart Lake when 
Triumph was the featured marque.

In 1997, I bought a tiny 200 year old cottage on two acres that included an 
ancient tumbledown shed. It wasn't so much that I wanted a house, I wanted a 
TR-3 race car and didn't have a place to keep one at my apartment. I 
immediately hired someone to fix up the shed into a kind of funky garage. 

One month later, I saw John Hornbostel's TR-3A advertized, borrowed a tiny 
trailer (sized for a Formula Ford), drove to Indiana, and returned to Maryland 
with the car. I have done some work to the car, some of which makes it look 
cool, but not go faster. I have shown him in some car shows. I have driven him 
in some driver's schools, but not officially recognized ones. Poor health and 
poverty prevent me from racing. 

I now teach people to become airplane mechanics at a Community College. I am 
single and still live in the old cottage. I have a 1950 GMC Tow Truck on Static 
Display in the yard. I plan to work on the racecar and Old Blue some more, do 
some Driver's Schools, and spectate at Vintage Races. I am involved in the 
Triumph Register of America and have become sort of the Funkhanameister. They 
don't do autocross, being more interested in concours. 

Thanks for entering me into FoT,

J.R. 

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