Bill Ames Memorial Plaque awarded to Bill Dentinger of Beady Eye Racing!
The presentation took place among Bill Dentinger's family and friends at
Blackhawk Raceway in October during the last vintage race of the season in
our area. The presenter was friend and partner, Bob "Whirling" Wismer.
This traveling plaque was initiated in honor of the memory of Bill Ames.
Bill Ames raced Triumphs in the 50s at Road America and other nearby venues.
Inventive and creative he elected to rebody his TR3 with first an aluminum
body, and was named the Peyote. The name suggested that the engineering and
design of the body was influenced by some mind altering substance, and
perhaps it was. A second iteration of the Peyote was produced and this
became the Peyote II. It is featured on the plaque, courtesy of Baxter
Culver of California, while being driven at the Monterey Historics.
Bill Ames and his partner Dewey Brohaugh (sp?) took one more step in the
development of bodies and the fiberglass "Ambro" was born. Several bodies
were produced and a few remain today. Doug Karon currently owns #.001 and it
is beautifully restored.
If Bill started to race special bodied Triumphs in the 50s and 60s, he
returned to sport for the final years of his life. With experiences in
between, much of which is worthy of a book, he landed in Upstate New York
and became involved in the restoration of a beautiful stone mansion, owned
by Rosemary Remington. The conversion of this 1800s home into a Bed &
Breakfast led to a longer term relationship between the two.
In the early 90s Bill located one of his Ambro bodies, in Minnesota, on a
cross country trip with Rosemary. This triggered a desire to do one more
"special" and he acquired it. Eerily, the TR3 frame he acquired in
Connecticut, turned out to be one that he had modified many years earlier.
First, the new Ambro was to be driven on the street, but with some
encouragement from Rosemary, Bill found his way back to the track with the
Sport Car Vintage Racing Association. This return to racing was with great
and obvious joy.
Knowing Bill Ames was to know the Joy of Racing a Triumph. The plaque honors
Bill Ames memory and may be passed to other Triumph racers on an annual
basis.
All that know Bill Dentinger will understand his selection as the first
recipient of this memorial. Selection of the next recipient will be at his
discretion. (There are no rules in the FOT)
As a long term driver of his historically correct early TR3, Bill is also in
partnership with Bob Wismer with a Triumph powered "production car" known as
the Thunderbolt. Congratulations Bill Dentinger!!!
Friends of Triumph
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Sidebar:
"Racing With Life"
The last time we saw Bill Ames was in the Summer of 1996. Linda & I were
guests at Stoneleigh in Elizabethtown, New York, a Bed and Breakfast he
restored and shared with, Rosemary Remington. Rosemary is delightful lady
and his patient & loving companion in his final years.
Bill was getting into a tatty British Roadster and heading for a doctor's
appointment as we were headed for Albany in our TR3A. He waved and
smiled...it struck us then, knowing the nature of his appointment, that we
might not see him again.
But we will always have a strong memory of him and the Ambro that he
developed and raced in the late 50s and again in the 90s. It seems fitting
to honor him by sharing his memory with others and presenting this memorial
to someone that exhibits the same kind of joy in racing Triumphs.
It is not intended that the recipient be like Bill Ames for he was certainly
'one of kind', and not at all easily imitated.
The keywords are: "Racing With Life".
That was Bill Ames and so be it also with the Friends of Triumph.
Joe & Linda Alexander
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