The Shelby American (Winter 2021)

scribed as a “Rent-A-Racer”) and the Mustang I (by virtue of the fact that it had been driven by Dan Gurney at Watkins Glen in 1962 in demonstra- tion laps before the USGP). The Mus- tang I won yet no one admitted voting for it. Obviously nobody took the Quail’s show very seriously. The Lords of Pebble had a mysteri- ous change of heart before the 2015 event. They announced there would, in fact, be a GT350 Class after all and 5R002 was accepted but 5S003 was denied. Hovander took the rejection in stride, thinking that he had just saved $10,000 (in transportation, hotel rooms, meals and entrance donations). When other SAAC members who had been accepted heard of his rejection they protested by refusing to bring their cars if 003 was not accepted. Un- beknownst to Hovander. He finally got an acceptance letter, and his knee-jerk reaction was to tell them he was not interested in showing his car at their event. It probably would have been the first time a car had been rejected at Pebble, then ac- cepted at Pebble, and then having its owner reject Pebble. But Hovander cooled down. He was off to Pebble Beach. He knew 003 would never beat 002 in the show, so he fired off an email to Cantwell telling him the good news – 003 had been accepted, and the bad news – he had forgotten how to drive a four-speed and would Chuck like to handle the driving chores on the 75-mile concours participant road rallye? Cantwell thought he could re- member how to drive a four speed and accepted. The drive was probably the high point of Hovander’s Pebble weekend. The route included a long portion of Highway 1 through Big Sur – ar- guably the most scenic road imagina- ble filled with curves, cliffs on one side and the roiling Pacific on the other. It’s hard to compare that to a static dis- play on the lawn. He came away with more good memories than he could ever imagine. As was expected, the top prize in the class went to 5R002 in a replay of the now familiar race-car- trumps-street-car gambit. 003 placed second. Hovander was learning this was just the way it would be whenever the two cars were in the same show. There was one spot available in the Shelby class at the Crescent Beach Concours in White Rock, British Co- lumbia and the event organizer, Allen Chang, asked for 5S003. Hovander was curious to find out what the result would be without having to compete against 5R002. It was a pleasant event, he recalled, and not only did 5S003 win its class but it was also awarded Best of Show. After the Canadian event, Hovan- der vowed never again to compete in concours competition. There was some been there/done that but he also real- ized that car shows were just not that enjoyable for him. So he removed all of the valuable original parts that could wear out, like the tires, rubber brake lines, windshield wipers, fan belt, ra- diator hoses, air cleaner filter and the like and proceeded to drive the car on the street. That was in 2017. He had a favorite route which he would take, leaving at 6 a.m. on a Sat- urday or Sunday morning when traffic was light. He would drive north on I-5 for about forty minutes and then head out into the country where he had the open roads all to himself. His circuit allowed him to return by 9:30 a.m. as traffic began to thicken. One morning he was on the road early and was stopped at a light. It was a six-lane road, three in each di- rection, and he was boxed-in in the center lane. When he looked in his rear-view mirror he saw a large pick- up truck approaching in his lane at speed. The sun had come up ahead of him and the driver of the truck proba- bly couldn’t see the stopped traffic be- cause of the glare. At that point, Hovander knew his car was going to be totalled and he would be lucky to survive. He put his chin down on his chest, exhaled, and tried to relax be- fore the impact. At the very last second the truck swerved to the left and drove into the oncoming lane two rows over, through the red light, and back through six lanes of traffic. Without a scratch. Ho- vander could not believe what he had just witnessed. He gingerly drove the car home, taking back streets, and parked it in his garage. He gave him- self a year to see if he ever wanted to drive it again. He would start it up every couple of weeks but it never left the garage. Nick Smith was a serious drag racer in the 1960s and 1970s, driving mostly super stock Fords. He became a successful Ford dealer and began col- lecting top-level drag cars. They in- cluded Gas Ronda’s long-nose A/FX Mustang, a Thunderbolt, Dick Landy’s altered wheelbase Dodge Hemi, Dave Strickler’s 409 Chevy Biscayne, a 421 Pontiac super stock and numerous others. Before he knew it he had accu- mulated over thirty cars. About fifteen years ago Smith began selling some of the cars, think- ing he had about all the fun he could have with them. The collection was slimmed down to about a dozen fa- vorites. The SHELBY AMERICAN Winter 2021 37