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If you have been to one of the
larger vintage races on the west coast
in the past twenty years, the name
Jim Click should be a familiar one to
you. As a Ford dealer, it’s no surprise
that he vintage races Fords. His collec-
tion contains a GT40 MK I, a pair of
small block Cobras, a GT350 and two
Trans-Am Mustangs. All of them have
tons of racing history.
After participating in the vintage
race hobby for more than twenty-five
years, Click has decided to downsize
his collection of cars and let go of these
half-dozen racers. “
It’s time for me to
let someone else enjoy the cars like I
have,”
he said. The cars will be pre-
sented at this year’s RM Sotheby’s
auction in Monterey, California.
Click’s decision to step back from vin-
tage racing is becoming increasingly
common today, as enthusiasts in their
seventies begin to realize that it’s time
to turn a page in their life. There are
others, a generation or two younger,
who will be able to slip behind the
wheel and continue to campaign these
cars. And best of all, with cars like
these, they have been prepared and di-
aled-in so that all a new owner has to
do is suit up, strap in, pull the helmet
on and go racing.
How does someone amass a collec-
tion of cars like this? Jim Click owns
one of the country’s largest automotive
dealer networks with sixteen dealer-
ships in Arizona and California. In
1991, his passion for automobiles at-
tracted him to vintage racing. Thus
was born Jim Click Racing. His goal
was to purchase cars with unquestion-
able race history and prepare them to
an exceptionally high standard of per-
formance and reliability. After all, it’s
not much fun going to a vintage race
and spending most of your time in the
paddock working on your car. You’re
there to drive.
Living in Phoenix, Click got to
know one of that area’s most famous
and successful Cobra racers, Don
Roberts. In 1966, Roberts purchased
CSX2473 from Hi-Performance Mo-
tors. It had originally been purchased
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Summer 2016 86