Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Anybody remember the Anchorage Rondy Grand Prix?

In 1978 I built a car for the race. I found an old 59 VW Ghia and stripped it. I took it to Terry's Parts and Supply for the roll cage and work on the front axle. Memory is bad, but think his shop was behind the Arctic Road Runner. It became a sports center-hockey rink. I found an engine from a new RX4 from Alaska Towing & Wrecking. Sold the accessories to the Mazda dealer to recoup most of my engine expense. I "bridgeported" the engine, installed headers, and a Racing Beat intake with a modified Holley carb. I had a Hewland 5 speed trans that I bolted to the RX4 with the help of a KEP adapter.We installed 911 4wheel disc brakes and a Porsche steering gear box. In front I installed a 5 gallon tank for the much needed window washer solvent.
The race was in front of the train station and a right turn to town a right and a couple blocks down to the front of the train station. Car was painted by Satch Carlson, former writer for Auto Week.

That's some cool nostalgia.

Satch was also an English teacher and won the Papa Hemingway write-alike contest at least once. Hell of a writer until he got caught with a student-girlfriend and quite the row erupted. He did nothing illegal, but got hammered just the same.

You must have known Bob Brown of Bob'so Services?

I remember the races and your car. We had a room in Hilton where we could watch out the window.

I don't recall Bob. I was aware of Satch's problem. In 1980 my oldest Son graduated from Service HS. Satch loaned him his girlfriend's Lotus to use at the prom. It broke down and Satch took his personal Lotus to finish the night.
Another photo:

Bud Jackson built our last house and was a great guy. A friend, Bob Estey, had a VW repair shop their for over 40yrs and recently closed it up. He has a small one man mining claim out of Hope. I raced cars with Skip Winfree that did or does own 10th and M lockers.Dwight and Barbara Bowdin owned a real estate company. Wally Hopkins was an accountant. Dr. Chas. Walner was an OB GYN, Chas. Connel was a dentist that gave me my first ride in a Helio Courier. Herd Charlie had an episode with a moose on his motorcycle and didn't make it. Dennis Stauffer from the UofAA that also raced with us.
Those were the day.
Probably all gone now.

Two friends/co-workers used to race. They were not in any of the pro class stuff but they had a lot of fun. I think one of them had a Fiero and the other a VW Rabbit. Pretty entertaining to watch!

In the 1978 race I had a VW fastback with a modified engine that placed 2nd in class. It was driven by Jim Sloan that worked for the VW dealership for many years.
There used to be a banker there called Vern Padget. I believe he had a car entered also.

My dad used to take us to watch the races. Jim was a friend and I remember his scirocco and the early Eero VW days. I later worked for a summer for Bob and Terry Estey. I had my first Bug then and it was a great summer job.

I still exchange emails with Jim. I worked at Eero and convinced Jim to come there. I worked at Fred's VW and with Peter Adolph and Bahne Martinsen before and after they did the Volvo and Subaru dealership. I guess Bob Estey finally retired and will be spending more time at his mining claim outside of Hope.

Dang Butch, is there anything you haven't done?

The only thing making this story better, is if YOU had been the driver.

You know, I've built a few cars over the years and never cared to be the driver. I was too aggressive and that doesn't win races.
Just like building rifles, I enjoyed a project coming together.

That's pretty cool. Sounds like our circles overlapped quite a bit. We moved from Eero Juneau to Eero Anch when they opened the new store.

I moved from Eero to Continental Motor Co. in the early spring of 1979 and stayed there until we moved back outside in 1980.

I sent you a PM.