Cruisin' Grand

This post is Cruisin' Grand with Grandpa's old race car, not the Camaro. Will post the Camaro soon.

Friday, July 16th (Grandaddy's Birthday, incidentally), 2010, we went to the Midget and Sprint Night at Cruisin' Grand, Escondido. Denny spent practically all day, washing the trailer, the car, hooking up lights and just generally getting ready. I drove down in the Audi and picked up the Shelbo kids to babysit (Ally had to work) and we parked on Broadway where it was blocked off. It was nice to sit in the shade (it was around 100 degrees) and not have to worry about the kids getting in the street.

Ollie got a kick out of "driving" the car. Pyke played with her Polly Pockets Princesses. Denny talked to all the old codgers about the good old days!

A Little History

Uncle Gordon Petersen had the race car built in 1932 by Lujie Losovsky (a pretty famous race car builder. Look him up on the internet). Uncle Gordon, who was Grandpa's uncle, Grandma Jacobsen's (Petersen) brother, used it to advertise his shop on Slauson Avenue (Petersen's Garage) in Los Angeles. Grandpa got a job at Petersen's Garage, upon first arriving in the area, from Iowa, in 1934. The car was sold and they lost track of it until Grandpa, or maybe Uncle Gordon, found it and Grandpa bought it back around 1955. On it's maiden run, before he had even painted it, it won the main event!! And it just happened to be Dad's ninth Birthday! What a cool birthday present! Poor Dad (Denny) didn't get to drive the 3/4 Midgets much. I suspect Grandpa didn't really want to share the fun and I'm sure Grandma wasn't crazy about the idea of her little boy driving in the races. But Grandpa sure had a blast!! He retired the car in 1966, then built a new one that he raced for about ten more years.