poeticsofspeed

I was fortunate enough to be invited to a small dinner in the South of France with Bernard Cahier, his family and an old friend of theirs who turned out to be Carroll Shelby. Seated next to Mr. Shelby I sat in awe as many great stories and adventures were told. Although we had never met, Mr. Shelby was gracious, friendly and treated me like someone he had known a long time.  I took this photograph of him at the Long Beach Grand Prix in 1984.

Years later I was attending the Oakland Roadster Show and Mr. Shelby was there meeting people on behalf of one of his Heart Foundations.  I stood in line and when we met I reminded him of our dinner.  He stared at me a moment and then recalled details of the evening and we talked  pleasantly for a few minutes.  He autographed one of his pictures and wished me well.  On my ABOUT page above I quoted a line I wrote which sums up my experience: ”Not everyone gets to meet the heroes of their youth.  Rarer still is to find that these men are more than you ever expected: Human and real and still very much heroes.”