LeMans winner in Midland

I've been keeping it rather low profile, as some details are still being worked out, but my new job is as Managing Director of Chaparral Partners. Chaparral Partners is a new entity we are forming to market and develop the cars and history of Chaparral Racing in addition to some exciting things we're working on that for now need to be unnamed. A dream job for me, whose idol as a kid was Jim Hall.

We will be working directly with the Petroleum Museum and it's Chaparral Gallery on most projects. And one of the first is just too cool. Starting around the 1st of next April we will have on loan from the Henry Ford Museum, the Ford GT40 Mark IV, above, which won LeMans in 1967*. Cool enough, but the car was owned by Carroll Shelby and driven to victory by two of racing's biggest legends, Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt. Having a good contact in Dan Gurney's personal assistant, I've asked her to put this event on his calendar...and through other contacts we hope to have both Shelby and Foyt attend also. Nothing guaranteed, but we're hopeful. If it works out....a world class racing event on March 26th, the target for our exhibit kickoff gala.

*It was on the winners podium at this race, that Dan Gurney became the first driver, ever, to spray the crowd with the winners champagne instead of drinking it. A tradition continued in every motor sport today.