The Shelby American (Winter 2021)

dream Shelby. “ It will come one day. Don’t give up .” College didn’t slow down my car passion. The car club, car shows, swap meets and continuing to scan ads never ceased and the effects of that were really starting to show. I had bought and sold roughly 20 cars and had 12 in the shop by age 26. I had a real problem: 12 projects and nothing seemed to get done. I realized I was tripping over more stuff than I was ac- tually making progress on. One day it hit me and I convinced myself I needed to sell a few things and get the collection down to a more manageable size. A few cars were sold off, and my focus on which direction I really wanted to go was starting to take shape. I had a 1965 Mustang fastback A-code, 4-speed project, along with a good job and some discretionary in- come. Suddenly I realized that I actu- ally could make this car into something if I just stayed focused. Naturally I turned to swap meets and local ads to find the parts that I needed. During my parts chasing, I met a new friend who would change my life forever. I met Hans Pedersen at the Port- land Swap Meet in 2010. He had sev- eral Mustang parts at his space and naturally we started a conversation based on our similar interests. Little did I know at the time that I had just met a great friend. Our friendship grew as time passed. Hans had spent the better part of his life racing, building and showing his Shelby and his Mustangs. He pur- chased his 1966 GT350 in 1970. He drove it to college as a daily driver and vintage raced it all over the West Coast. He attended hundreds of local car shows in the Seattle area where he lived. Our interests were the same, so naturally we would spend hours on the phone or send each other countless emails talking about anything Ford and Shelby related. We kept each other up to speed on current events happening in the SAAC club or any other events that we knew were taking place. Each year we would analyze the new Ford perform- ance cars coming out and speculate about what we liked or didn’t like. These conversations were detailed and always enjoyable. I learned so much about local racing, Shelby history and SAAC club history from Hans. Our re- lationship evolved to going to swap meets together, car shows, and even Laguna Seca in 2015 for the 50 Years of the GT350. It would be safe to say we talked or emailed at least five or six times a week, year after year. Before I met Hans I wasn’t a SAAC member. I had heard of the club for years when the conventions would be covered in Mustang & Fords or Mus- tang Monthly magazine. As a young kid I read these magazines but other than that I really didn’t know much about it. Being younger, I really didn’t know or think about how much I would benefit from joining a national club, especially one based so far away from my home in Oregon. I didn’t know anyone in SAAC, so why should I spend my money on a membership? Once I joined I learned what I had been missing in the past years. I had no idea how joining would have such an impact on me. The SAAC forum be- came a new addiction of mine. I am al- ways reading and learning things I could not find anywhere else. I proba- bly spend too much time on there, but there are worse habits in the world, right? Then there is the quarterly The SHELBY AMERICAN Winter 2021 59 Assisting the judges in the ‘66 Shelby concours class [left] at SAAC-43. That was an education! My wife Lynda and I [ center ] at Pebble Beach in 2015. I met up with Brent Galloway at Monterey during the Tribute to the GT350. Hans Pederson and 6S2339. Hans became my mentor in all things Shelby and we spent many hours on the phone, emailing and at local shows. Having someone else who is also interested in the cars makes the hobby much more enjoyable than going it alone.