I always wonder what happen to my first race car a 1969 Opel GT that my dad Roland and I built togather from 1976 - 1978. We found the GT in a junk yard in Dortmund in late 76.
This is when we pick it up from the junk yard.
We finshed the GT in September 1978, and missed out on running it that year because the last race got rain out. My dad would run the GT the first year in 79, he was never in to the driving side more into the building side of thing's.
This is Roland running in late 1979 in Erlensee in a HARA race.
I took over the steeering wheel in 80 and ran the car for five years learning as much as I could from the US service men who race there.
A young Tony and the Opel GT in 1982 after winning my first Championship
I would be runner up in the 83 and 84 season in the club championships and ran a best of 11.31 at around 200kph with the Opel.
In 84 I got my first real sponsor Parsget
This was my last race in the Opel GT at Erlensee.
Last year in November I was please to receive an email from a Alishia Laymance.
She had found my website while seaching the internet for Opel GT's and She said she knew where my first race car was and that it was still around.
Infact it was her father who I had sold the Opel to in the summer of 1985 Bobby Laymance. Bobby got in touch with me and fill me in on what he had done with the Opel over the last 23 years. He told me that these days he mostly take the car to car shows and cruises, it still had a small block chevy and now has a turbo 350 trans. Bobby has made many changes to the car over the years, like a tube chassis and also customizing the body with Suicide Doors and he still enjoys it today.
This is Bobby at a car show in Tennessee with the Opel in it's present form.
I hope to meet up with Bobby in the future and hope you history buffs enjoyed this, it nice to know that my old race car is still going after all this time.
If my dad had never found it back in 1976 in Dortmund would I be racing today?
Tony
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