he SAAC-32 story has tobegin somewhere, and LarryMiller is probably as good astarting point as any. Forty-three years ago he was work-

ing in a Utah Ford dealer’s partsdepartment, doing a little drag racingand lusting after his dream car —aCobra—like most of the rest of us. Infact, he was one of SAAC’s first mem-bers in 1976 and he has main-tained his membership eversince.

Larry’s hard work at thedealership eventually led to apromotion to Parts Managerand then to Parts and ServiceManager. In 1970 he moved toDenver to become the PartsManager of a pair of Toyotadealerships. In 1978 he waspromoted to Operations Man-ager over five Toyota dealer-ships. A year later he teamedup with his uncle to purchase aToyota dealership in a suburbof Salt Lake City. Two yearslater he bought his uncle out.Over the next twenty years heacquired a number of car deal-erships in Utah, Colorado, Arizonaand New Mexico. By 1993, AutomotiveAge listed him as the fifteenth largestU.S. automotive dealer, with nineteendealerships. Today that number isforty. In fact, they’ve sold more that amillion cars.

The dealerships provided the cap-ital to expand into other businessendeavors in the Salt Lake City area:movie theaters, sports clothing out-lets, a television station, a restaurantand shopping complex, the Utah JazzNBA team, a AAA baseball team, aprofessional hockey team and con-struction of Miller Motorsport Park innearby Tooele.

Miller’s business successes havealso allowed him to pursue his passionfor cars—especially Cobras andGT40s. He purchased his first Cobra,CSX2175, in 1978. The car neededsome work and that led him to theshop of Cobra racer and restorer Bill

Murray. They have maintained a closerelationship ever since, and whenMurray became involved in the ShelbyAmerican Collection museum in Boul-der, Colorado, it was a perfect placefor Larry Miller’s growing collection ofCobras and GT40s—most of whichdrip with racing history—to be dis-played. Murray maintains the cars,virtually all of which are restored

accurately, and eachone eventuallybecomes race ready.It’s Bill Murray, anexperienced racer,who gets to drivethem when they arevintage raced—whichis often. The new track

includes a large muse-um and many ofMiller’s cars are ondisplay there. ForSAAC-32, all of hiscars were shipped tothe track for display.And some display itwas. The latest acqui-sition was the Cobra

Caravan transporter which SAACmember Tommy Thompson recreated.It is the perfect home and at SAAC-32the correct cars were parked next to itjust the way they were in the famouspublicity photo taken in 1965: a 427Cobra competition car, a Daytona

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The SHELBY E-MERICAN WINTER/2009 54

Coupe, a GT40 MK I and a GT350 R-Model. It was a beautiful sight.

We were so impressed with Vir-ginia International Raceway at SAAC-31 that when we learned the ownerswere working on creating a sisterfacility in southern New Jersey whichwas scheduled to be completed by thespring of 2007, we immediatelyrequested for a date for SAAC-32. Thedate we wanted was the July 4thweekend; contingent, of course, on thetrack’s being completed.

It was also at SAAC-31 that wespoke with Bill Murray, who alongwith Steve Volk, had brought five his-torical Cobras out from the ShelbyAmerican Collection in Boulder(including a Daytona Coupe,CSX2299, the Ken Miles “Heim-Joint”USRRC roadster, CSX2431, and one ofthe original Dragonsnakes, CSX2019).Bill described the new track LarryMiller had built in Utah, MillerMotorsports Park, and suggested thatwe might want to consider it for afuture SAAC convention. With LarryMiller’s enthusiasm for Cobras, it wasa natural. The wheels began turningand we were thinking “2008.”

We anxiously kept abreast of theprogress of the new track in Millville,NJ. There were a couple of SAACmembers living in the immediate areaand they gave us progress reports on amonthly basis. By November it wasobvious that the track’s constructionwas behind schedule so rather than

cross our fingers and hope, we contact-ed Larry Miller. He was happy to hearfrom us and excited about the possibil-ity of SAAC’s traveling circus landingon his doorstep. He could not havebeen more helpful.

We attended the Shelby AmericanCollection’s annual Christmas party inBoulder, the first weekend in Decem-ber. The following day, Sunday, weflew to Salt Lake City for a meetingout at the track on Monday. It provid-ed an opportunity to stay at the LittleAmerica hotel and check it out. Wewere impressed. Even better, LarryMiller was good friends with thehotel’s general manager, so the fix wasin. We were picked up by Alan Wilson,the track’s general manager. He is oneof the premiere race track designers inthe world and Miller Motorsport Parkwas his baby. The track, itself, is verychallenging. Like most new tracks, itis made up of two smaller circuits (2+miles each) which can be connected toform one huge 4+ mile circuit. As arace facility it has every modernamenity you’ve seen at other tracks,plus a handful of things you haven’t.Simply put, there was nothing atMMP not to like. We couldn’t wait toget there in July.

As the end of June approached westarted keeping one eye on the Weath-er Channel. The temperatures in theSalt Lake City area were hoveringover 100°. As much as we tried, wecould not will it to go lower but at

least there was a high probability thatit would not rain.

We got to the track on Thursdaymorning to set up registration so wecould start getting people inside atnoon. A half-day load-in has becomenecessary due to the increasing num-ber of 18-wheelers the conventionattracts. The big rigs, carrying largemanufacturers’ displays and carsbeing shipped from other parts of thecountry, need maneuvering room inthe paddock. Their drivers know thatif they arrive on Friday after the con-vention has begun, hundreds of single-car trailers are already parked andunloaded and maneuvering betweenthem to where they would like to setup will be just about impossible.

When we visited MMP back inDecember, 2006 the paddock lookedhuge. We could hardly see the far endof the asphalt. But we also knew thatwe’d need most of it—although thepeople from the track were skeptical.As it turned out, they had scheduled ago-kart race the same weekend asSAAC-32. It was the karting equiva-lent of a Formula 1 race, bringingtogether the stars of that sport (andthey all seemed to have either big rigsor large RVs. Their event began a cou-ple of days before we got there andthey were given half of one of thegarages. So much for our elaborateadvanced planning.

Rather than hold the driver’smeeting in a garage or on the pit wall

The first thing you saw as you came through the track’s main gates was the Cobra Caravan tractor trailer with a cluster of historically sig-nificant Cobras splayed out in front of it. All of them belong to Larry Miller and the rest of his collection was parked in the museum buildingon the grounds or in tents which were spread around the paddock. Included in this display were about a dozen competition roadsters whichwere all historically significant, a factory Dragonsnake, three Daytona Coupes, an GT350 R-Model and a GT40. No matter how many timesyou passed by them they never lost their ability to mesmerize you.

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THE LURE OF THE SALT TRUMPS THE FINE PRINT IN THE HERTZ CONTRACT

onneville is unique in the worldof speed. It provides the outletfor a single purpose: to go as fastas you can in a straight line.

And you have ten miles in which todo it. The salt flats are a remnant ofwhat was once a 159 square-mileglacial lake. The densely packed saltis six feet thick and billiard tableflat. In fact, if you look at the hori-zon you can see the actual curvatureof the earth. Cars have been testingtheir limits there since the 1930s.The current record is held by GaryGabelich in his “Blue Flame Special”rocket-powered car: 622.407 mph.

As soon as we settled on MillerMotorsport Park for SAAC-32 we gotout the Rand-McNally to see exactlywhere Tooele, Utah was. Our fingerwandered about an inch or so west toWendover, UT. Then we beganthinking that maybe a day-before-the-convention-visit to Bonnevillemight add something to the SAAC-32 experience. Chartered bus tripsbefore SAAC-27 and SAAC-30 werea big hit, enabling some 300 conven-tion goers to visit sites where Shelbyhistory was made, to see some of thelegendary speed shops and visitsome real dream garages. How diffi-cult would it be, we caught ourselvesthinking, to contract someone to setup timing equipment on the salt andprovide one timed run for anyonewho wanted to walk away that expe-rience tucked under their belt. Weimagined presenting each partici-pant with a suitable-for-framing cer-tificate noting their top speed. Thiswould be way cool.

Rather than jump into the deepend of the pool, our first step was tocontact someone with some Bon-neville experience. Trans-Am Regis-trar Gary Underwood has been rac-ing

ing in southern California for overforty years. From drag racing to off-road, sports cars to motorcycles, dragboats to go-karts – Underwood hasraced them all. Yes, he had been toBonneville. And he offered the warn-ing that it was the last place onearth a sane person would want todrive a Cobra or a Shelby.

Naturally that caught our atten-tion. He gently reminded us it wasSALT – corrosion producing salt thatstarts eating away at metal as soonas you arrive. Driving a car on it,even at low speed, would coat every-thing and would work its way intoplaces you didn’t even know existed.He explained that the guys whocome to Bonneville to compete eachAugust have dedicated trailers andtow vehicles used only for that oneevent... and they begin to corrode onthe way home. Cars are strippeddown completely and thoroughlycleaned after their attempts to set arecord. After only one run on thesalt, someone with a Cobra or Shelbywould have to spend a couple of dayson their back with a power-washerand they still wouldn’t eliminateevery trace of salt. As Underwoodcontinued to talk we envisioned thescene near the end of “Frankenstein”where the villagers, waving pitch-forks, rakes and torches, chased themonster into the windmill. So muchfor Bonneville.

Yet the magnetic pull wasstrong. As the convention pro-gressed, more than a few partici-pants revealed that they were drawninexplicably drawn to the dry lakethey had been reading about in hotrod magazines for years. Most justparked near the edge, walkedaround taking it all in, and snappeda few pictures of their car at thisfamous spot. However, one intrepidconvention goer (who shall remainnameless for obvious reasons) ven-tured out onto the salt in a MustangV6 convertible rented from Hertz tosee “wottleshedo.’ The record booksdidn’t need to be updated. Three dri-vers took turns flogging the car andthe fastest it would go was 115 mph.

B

By the time their adventure wasover the rental unit looked like it hadfollowed a salt spreader through ablizzard in northern Michigan.

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where someone would have to shoutover running engines, as we’ve had todo at some previous conventions,MMP had a large drivers meetingroom. In fact, they had two of them sowe were able to hold the open trackdrivers meeting in one of them andthe vintage race drivers in the other,simultaneously. Both were air condi-tioned. These were just a couple of theadvantages of this track. Anothermade a lot of people happy: eachgarage had its own rest room.

We were given the use of an airconditioned registration trailer (whichmade registration workers happy). Itwas located outside of the track’sgates but still well inside it’s property,off of the road. There was plenty ofroom for participants to pull in andpark while they attempted to negoti-ate the registration gauntlet.

Once through the track gates andpast security, the first thing conven-tion attendees saw was the Cobra Car-avan tractor trailer rig, with an unbe-lievable array of Cobras and GT40ssurrounding it, all courtesy of LarryMiller. Four were parked to recreatethe original Cobra Caravan publicrelations photo: a GT40 MK I, a 427Comp Cobra, a Daytona Coupe and aGT350 R-Model. An example of justabout every other Cobra competitioncar you could list was parked justbeyond this magical semi-circle. It wasnothing short of magnificent.

The track was less than a year oldand even the asphalt smelled fresh.We used the East Course for opentrack and vintage race practice andthe race on Sunday. Concurrently, theWest Course was used, alternately, forparade laps and demonstration laps.

MMP driving instructors used thewhite-with-blue-stripes Miller Mus-tang school cars to give rides at speed.This proved very popular—especiallyto those convention goers who flew

into the convention and expected tomerely be spectators. Both of theseactivities took place all three days:Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

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After a day at the track everyoneheaded back to the Little AmericaHotel & Resort in Salt Lake City,SAAC’s convention headquartershotel. It was a first-rate facility, largeenough to accommodate everyone—and there were no complaints aboutthat. The first half of Friday evening’s

schedule called for tech tables (ques-tions answered on a one-to-one basisby some of the more knowledgeableclub members in attendance: regis-trars, parts manufacturers, restorersand technical experts.

The second half brought some ofthe former Cobra Team members and

drivers together to share some of theirremembrances and answer questionsfrom the audience. The program beganwith a powerpoint presentation byPeter Brock who explained some of thethings he did at Shelby American.Everyone knows that he designed theDaytona Coupe but many were sur-

If Larry Miller has nothing else, he has a terrific sense of history. One of the larger structures at the track is a three-story hospitality build-ing with a glass wall which offers an unobstructed view of the East Track. The third floor has a gourmet restaurant on race weekends andthe rest of the building is used as a VIP area open to members with annual tickets or track memberships. At SAAC-32 the VIP/membershiprequirement was waived and the building was opened to all convention participants. One wall has a three story high “Wall of Fame” withgiant photos of some of the more notable sports car road race and Grand Prix drivers. When one shows up in person, he is asked to sign hisphoto. At SAAC-32, Bob Bondurant put his “John Hancock” on his picture.

Bob Bondurant was a busy boy at SAAC-32. In between signing autographs and posing for photos with convention participants, he was ableto reunite with CSX2299, the Daytona Coupe he shared with Dan Gurney at the 1964 LeMans 24 Hours where they finished 4th OA/1st inGT. He was also paired with Jo Schlesser in CSX2601 [foreground, #26] at Reims in 1965; they finished 5th OA/1st GT.

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prised to learn that some of Brock’sother projects included design of theround Cobra nose badge, the “CS”, theGT350 stripe layout and exteriorstyling cues, various Cobra and earlyGT350 print ads, Shelby’s drivingschool curriculum, the design of the427 Cobra Super Daytona Coupe anda dozen other “special projects.” Brockwas a veritable jack-of-all-trades forShelby American.

Some of the others to take a turnat the microphone were team driversBob Bondurant and Lew Spencer,team mechanic and recent author PhilHenny (Cobras and GT40s in Europeand a new book about Bob Bondurantwhich was unveiled at the conven-

tion), GT350 driver Walt Hane (whoruns a race prep shop in Colorado andis still vintage racing—and embar-rassing drivers half his age), and R-Model and Trans-Am fabricator

Bernie Kretzschmar.Saturday was back at the track,

which was about a 45-minute drivefrom the hotel; most of it on the inter-state. It was a good excuse for thosewith cars to stretch their legs andthose without a ride of their own (i.e.rental cars) to watch the show andtake pictures.

This year the Concours competi-tion took place on Saturday and theconcours schedule began with a briefentrant’s meeting at 9:00 am. That’swhere the ground rules are reviewedand any changes in procedures orscoring are announced. Entrants arealways anxious to “let the gamesbegin” so the Q and A is kept to a min-imum. Cars were parked in the onlyshade available, under a large bleach-ers. Garages, although providingshade, just don’t offer enough sunlight

Peter Brock [above, left] has a seemingly unending series of interesting stories about the early days of Shelby American where he did every-thing but drive a race car. Like everyone else there, that’s really what he wanted to do but Shelby recognized he was needed in other areas;drivers were a dime a dozen but talented graphic designers were in short supply. Bob Bondurant [above, center] was a typical hot shoe dri-ver, always wanting the fastest ride. He was driving Corvettes when the Cobra came out and immediately recognized that if he wanted towin races, there was no better car to do it in than a Cobra. In the late 1950s/early 1960s, Lew Spencer [above, right] was known as “Mr. Mor-gan” and nobody was faster in those cars. He was the Morgan distributor on the west coast and had experience in the business end of sellingsports cars. Shelby tapped him as a driver and he joined the Cobra Team, driving roadsters and coupes. He also raced one of the early Sun-beam Tigers. He quickly moved into the business end of things, first teaming up with Shelby in the Hi-Performance Motors dealership andthen becoming Shelby American’s competition director and Trans-Am team manager. Chuck Cantwell [below, left] was also a SCCA clubracer who signed on as the GT350 project engineer. He also filled in as a GT350 driver when necessary. He was also on Shelby Racing’sTrans-Am team. Walt Hane [below, center] began as racing a GT350 in 1965 and then a Trans-Am Mustang. He became the SAAC’s ChiefTrans-Am Technical Inspector in the early days of that series. The job was like being a sheriff in a wild west cattle town.

Peter Brock’s powerpoint presentation held everyone’s attention—even those who had beenthere and seen it all before [left to right] Brock (at podium), Bob Bondurant, Lew Spencer,Bernie Kretzschmar and Phil Henny. Hidden behind Brock are Rick Kopec and Walt Hane.

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for judges to examine cars thoroughly.The shade of the bleacher area alsoallowed a light breeze to keep the tem-peratures down somewhat. At least, itfelt cooler.

The track’s West Course was keptbusy with a schedule of two intermit-tent activities. Twice each day it waspossible to take your car out for aparade lap session consisting of 5 laps;passengers were allowed and speedswere limited to 55 mph to comply withinsurance requirements. The gridalways seemed to be full for these ses-sions.

In between the parade laps,instructors at the Miller Motorsportsdriving school were on hand to takethrill seekers out for some high speedlaps (they drove) so you could get ataste of what it was like out there. Thecars they used were from the fleet ofwhite and blue-striped ‘07 Mustangs(the school has about 30 of them) thatwere outfitted with a serious selectionof Ford racing engine, brake and sus-pension upgrades.

One rider in the hot lap sessionexited car in a state of amazement. “Ihave never been in a race car before—I’ve driven fast on the street now andthen, and watched some in-car camerastuff on TV. That’s nothing like this. Ican’t believe what it is really like.Everything happens so fast and yoursenses really are overloaded. I can’timagine what it must be like to experi-ence all this AND to be actually racingagainst other cars, having to keep aneye on them as everyone accelerates,turns and brakes. What an incrediblerush! Now I have a lot more respect foranyone who drives any kind of a racecar.” Is he ready to start trying on dri-ving suits and helmets and get fittedfor a racing seat? “Well, I’d sure like tobut I think it could get real expensivereal fast. I think I’ll start slowly,preparing my car for the open trackfirst and see where it leads.”

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