Post by spyder on Jan 5, 2014 7:33:45 GMT -5
Hello and Happy New Year. My name is Ed Mautner and I am Tom Faletti's partner in American Racing Miniatures. More than that, Tom is a very good friend of mine. We both live in No. VA. on the eastern lee of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We met 10 years ago at a local IPMS meeting when I saw some of his 1/25th and 1/43rd Indy models on the table. The discovery that we had both done some real racing further cemented our bond. Mark Tutton of Starfighter Decals is another Indy modeler up here and so we have this weird little enclave of Indy enthusiasts very far away from the Speedway and the epicenter of Indy Car modelers.
I started building car models in 1952 with the Highway Pioneers collection (yeah, I'm a pretty old guy) and bought my first Monogram K-K Roadster in 1955 just as it was introduce. I built that off-white kit OOB and was immediately smitten by its looks. I built several others, but began dropping the axles, adding tail fins (ala the 1956/57 Novis), and brush painting everything. In 1958 I built a Kuzma-like lay down car from balsa wood, Plastic Wood, and Monogram running gear. I went to a car parts store to buy light metallic blue touch up paint that I hand brushed and sanded and polished out. I have continued to build through the discovery of women, college, marriage and five kids.
An uncle introduced me to Speed Age mag and Bob Russo's Championship Trail reports. By then I was well and truly hooked on anything USAC and finally got to go to my first Indy Car race in April, 1959 at Trenton Speedway, again, thanks to this uncle. After a first weekend rain-out we returned and watched Tony Bettenhausen (in the Central Ex.) dirt car) and Roger (in Wilkes Watson brand new #5 dirt car) battle it out with Tony taking the win. He instantly became my hero. If you remember or have read about 1959, it was a bad one: Marshall Teague killed in the Sumar Streamliner in a record run at the new Daytona Tri-Oval in Feb., Georgie Amick killed in the Champ Car race at Daytona in early April and that day at Trenton saw Dick Linder perish when he flew out of the ball park in Jake Vargo's Voodoo Wagon (or was it Hoodoo Wagon). And Jimmy Reece had done the same thing only the September prior. Linder's death weighed heavily on this young man who had just attended church that morning. But by the following day at school all I could think of was the color, the sound and speed of those Offy 255's and the battle between War and Bettenhausen. I became permanently addicted.
And so I continued to build model race cars, attend anything that USAC (and CRA when we lived on the Left Coast),CART, IRL, and Indy Car ran. I attend the 500 each May along with Tom and another old racer. A very few of you I have known for many years and over the last few have gotten to meet several more of you. I have been watching this site for over three years and marveled at the enthusiasm, historical knowledge, and beautiful models that have been put forth. But this is my first post and I look forward to meeting more of you, improving my modeling (as a model builder and modeling marketing guy), and passing on some helpful info to the members. Looking forward!
I started building car models in 1952 with the Highway Pioneers collection (yeah, I'm a pretty old guy) and bought my first Monogram K-K Roadster in 1955 just as it was introduce. I built that off-white kit OOB and was immediately smitten by its looks. I built several others, but began dropping the axles, adding tail fins (ala the 1956/57 Novis), and brush painting everything. In 1958 I built a Kuzma-like lay down car from balsa wood, Plastic Wood, and Monogram running gear. I went to a car parts store to buy light metallic blue touch up paint that I hand brushed and sanded and polished out. I have continued to build through the discovery of women, college, marriage and five kids.
An uncle introduced me to Speed Age mag and Bob Russo's Championship Trail reports. By then I was well and truly hooked on anything USAC and finally got to go to my first Indy Car race in April, 1959 at Trenton Speedway, again, thanks to this uncle. After a first weekend rain-out we returned and watched Tony Bettenhausen (in the Central Ex.) dirt car) and Roger (in Wilkes Watson brand new #5 dirt car) battle it out with Tony taking the win. He instantly became my hero. If you remember or have read about 1959, it was a bad one: Marshall Teague killed in the Sumar Streamliner in a record run at the new Daytona Tri-Oval in Feb., Georgie Amick killed in the Champ Car race at Daytona in early April and that day at Trenton saw Dick Linder perish when he flew out of the ball park in Jake Vargo's Voodoo Wagon (or was it Hoodoo Wagon). And Jimmy Reece had done the same thing only the September prior. Linder's death weighed heavily on this young man who had just attended church that morning. But by the following day at school all I could think of was the color, the sound and speed of those Offy 255's and the battle between War and Bettenhausen. I became permanently addicted.
And so I continued to build model race cars, attend anything that USAC (and CRA when we lived on the Left Coast),CART, IRL, and Indy Car ran. I attend the 500 each May along with Tom and another old racer. A very few of you I have known for many years and over the last few have gotten to meet several more of you. I have been watching this site for over three years and marveled at the enthusiasm, historical knowledge, and beautiful models that have been put forth. But this is my first post and I look forward to meeting more of you, improving my modeling (as a model builder and modeling marketing guy), and passing on some helpful info to the members. Looking forward!
