BuckyThreadkiller
02-01-2012, 6:12pm
Leukemia took my friend Rick Grape late last night.
Aside from being one helluva good guy, Grape was the ultimate car guy. When I first met him about 15 years ago he had in his shop - a 64 GrandSport replica he was working on, Gene Snow's original "Snownman" Funnycar, a birdcage Maserati chassis that he eventually traded to the guy who had the original engine and got a new Viper out of that deal, a Shelby Cobra as well as numerous Legends cars and Karts. Rick showed me that real racers don't drive way cool sports cars - they have all their cash in the racecar and drive an F-350 dually that pulls the trailer.
I first met Rick in the pits at TMS during a Legends event - I was getting into it and he was the go-to guy at TMS for info. He helped me get a car set up and taught me more about racing in two seasons than I had learned in my entire life. He'd taught lots of racers - his son Sparky was WKA champ several times and one of the best drivers I ever saw.
Rick was also a serious Vette guy - tho he traded the GrandSport on one of the first rat rods I ever saw. (He made a fortune taking chrome bits off the 32 Ford and selling those to buy stuff that looked like it might fall apart at any moment.) He was very active in the Cowtown Vette Club and almost always had a Corvette in some form or repair of restoration.
Rick and his son bought a Nascar Truck and we all went racing - I did websites and promotional materials trying to find sponsors, Rick wrenched, Sparky drove and Rick's wife Lu kept score. We didn't have money or luck but we had fun. Its hard to go racing from Texas when everything is in Carolina. We also learned that NASCAR is actually a four-letter word.
Through all of this Rick has been a trooper - I saw him not long ago and he looked like hammered crap but said it wasn't anything to worry about and brushed off my concerns.
Vios con Dios, amigo.
http://www.holmesontherange.com/Grape-Racing.jpg
Aside from being one helluva good guy, Grape was the ultimate car guy. When I first met him about 15 years ago he had in his shop - a 64 GrandSport replica he was working on, Gene Snow's original "Snownman" Funnycar, a birdcage Maserati chassis that he eventually traded to the guy who had the original engine and got a new Viper out of that deal, a Shelby Cobra as well as numerous Legends cars and Karts. Rick showed me that real racers don't drive way cool sports cars - they have all their cash in the racecar and drive an F-350 dually that pulls the trailer.
I first met Rick in the pits at TMS during a Legends event - I was getting into it and he was the go-to guy at TMS for info. He helped me get a car set up and taught me more about racing in two seasons than I had learned in my entire life. He'd taught lots of racers - his son Sparky was WKA champ several times and one of the best drivers I ever saw.
Rick was also a serious Vette guy - tho he traded the GrandSport on one of the first rat rods I ever saw. (He made a fortune taking chrome bits off the 32 Ford and selling those to buy stuff that looked like it might fall apart at any moment.) He was very active in the Cowtown Vette Club and almost always had a Corvette in some form or repair of restoration.
Rick and his son bought a Nascar Truck and we all went racing - I did websites and promotional materials trying to find sponsors, Rick wrenched, Sparky drove and Rick's wife Lu kept score. We didn't have money or luck but we had fun. Its hard to go racing from Texas when everything is in Carolina. We also learned that NASCAR is actually a four-letter word.
Through all of this Rick has been a trooper - I saw him not long ago and he looked like hammered crap but said it wasn't anything to worry about and brushed off my concerns.
Vios con Dios, amigo.
http://www.holmesontherange.com/Grape-Racing.jpg