BIOGRAPHY

I have always been a Pontiac guy; my parents met while working for the local Pontiac dealer and brought me home from the hospital in a ’55 Pontiac 860 coupe. My first car was a ’69 Firebird 400; originally a 4-speed, I installed a 455 HO from a wrecked ’71 GTO and put a 400 automatic behind it. My second car was a ’73 Trans Am, L75 automatic with nearly every option; and Andi got the ’69 with a 400 2bbl and the 4-speed. We were married in August of 1979 and have had numerous Pontiacs ever since. We currently have a 1940 Deluxe Eight Touring sedan and a survivor ’53 Chieftain Deluxe with the straight eight and Hydra-Matic. Having owned 1 or more of nearly every performance model of Pontiac, I’m now driving a flathead eight and like to tell people I’m not sure this “overhead valve” thing is going to catch on!

We joined POCI in 1983 and attended our first convention in 1988; having met members of the North Coast Chapter at that convention, we joined soon after returning home. I recruited 2 other Pontiac guys from Norwalk, Timm Scott and Gary Flew, to join POCI and the North Coast Chapter; and we all went to meetings together. Planning was already underway for what would be the ’91 convention in Cleveland when Andi and I joined in 1988; all 4 of us chaired convention committees, and I was chapter president by the time the convention was held.

I originally proposed the idea of doing an all-Pontiac event at Norwalk Raceway to the chapter, since we had just done a very successful convention. The proposal was debated but ultimately wasn’t accepted by the chapter, for a variety of reasons; and that would have been the end of it, if it wasn’t for Timm Scott. He felt it was too good of an idea and talked to Bill Bader Sr. at the track, before proposing that the 4 of us do the event on our own…and that was the founding of Super Duty Promotions! I was the idea guy and promoter; Timm and Gary would work behind the scenes, and Andi kept track of all the business aspects. She would also create and maintain our website.

The original idea was a 1-day format; which was to be called Tri-Power Sunday. Tri-Power in our case was for the tagline: “Three times the fun! Race! Show! Swap!” I also created the company name, Gary Flew knew a local graphic artist and got us our company logo; and Gary’s wife worked at the phone company, which is how I got xxx-PETE for the Super Duty phone number. Our first event was in September of 1992, we had a beautiful fall day, and Bill Sr. was impressed with the number of cars and participants. He also complimented us on the layout of the event after a walk-through, since we chose not to follow his advice; he admitted it worked very well. Jim Mattison was behind the event from the beginning, as well; and instrumental in getting all the great display cars from Pontiac we’ve had over the years.

Gary changed jobs after the first event and could no longer work with us; Timm’s job relocated him to Georgia in late ‘93, he came back to help us with the ’94 event and we bought out his share of the business after that. Super Duty Promotions wouldn’t have happened without them! The next significant happening was Steve Ames coming on board as the presenting sponsor in 1997; Ames Performance Engineering added greatly to the event credibility. So did the Pontiac display truck and several years of NHRA Pro Stock shoot-outs; courtesy of Fred Simmonds.

Andi and I remained active chapter and POCI members during these years; she was the chapter newsletter editor after serving as co-editor with Gary Flew. I’d been the chapter vice-president prior to the convention and served as president for 2 years. I was elected to the POCI board of directors in ’92 and my first meeting was Irvine, CA in ’93. I served a second term and retired, our event was growing and I didn’t want any conflicts between my POCI work and Super Duty Promotions. My final board meeting was at the Sturbridge convention.

We bought our ’40 Pontiac at the New Hampshire convention in 1994 and I drove it home. That was our introduction to the Early Times Chapter and we’ve been active ever since. We met David and Bobbi Luken prior to the ’96 Blackhawk chapter convention, I was the chapter liaison with the board of directors due to its location in the Midwest. Lukey was already an active ETC member; together with Arn Landvoigt, we created the Flathead Reunion event for the Early Times chapter. Andi and I hosted the first 2 events in Zanesville, OH in 2005 and 2006; along with help from Ron and Betsy Thomas who live there. They hosted a Thursday evening cookout at their home both years for all the Flathead participants. The Flathead Reunion continues, this year it will be in Bradford, PA

If you’ve managed to read this far, it should be obvious the real story is the Pontiac community; Andi and I promoted an idea, and a great many people participated along the way, and are still participating! Finally, our event would never have been what it’s become without the dedication and support of the Bader family and their great facility.

ADDITIONAL MEDIA