1969, John Morton Racing

“It was late ’68 when George Boskoff told me that two Datsun roadsters were delivered to BRE for the purpose of being prepared for racing. The driver was to be Frank Monise, a very experienced driver from Pasadena who had raced Lotuses for many years.

George had told me that the first roadster had been completed and was racing in the D Production class. Bruce Burness, who’d done much of the work on the car, decided to quit BRE, leaving George as the only highly skilled fabricator.

George informed Pete when I won the Southern Pacific B Sports Racing Championship and went on to brag about my welding skills, yet I entertained no thoughts of ever being involved with BRE. I hadn’t really stayed in contact with Pete through the years. The only relationship of any consequence we had had was during the five days we spent together at the Carroll Shelby School of High Performance Driving.”

One day in early 1969, I think it was February; I was working on an oil pan when I got a call. It was Pete Brock offering me a job. I went to his office the next day to see what he had in mind. I told him I’d take the job under one condition. “What’s that?” Pete asked. “That I get a tryout when the second car is finished.” He said “OK.”