[Banning]

Since we have mentioned Charley several times lately in this thread, here is an excerpt from The Mulholland Experience about Charley.


There was everybody else and then there was Charley Woit the
undisputed “King of the Hill.” Charley was an animated soft-spoken
character with more than a hint of craziness in his demeanor. He was a
top-notch mechanic at a shop on Crescent Heights and Third. Charley
drove with one hand on the wheel and the other wrapped around a
beer can, tossing the empties behind him. He started out his
Mulholland racing career in the early 1960’s. He modified and drove a
1951 GMC step-side pick-up truck. He had other cars also like a 1955
Ford station wagon, a Hillman Minx and another old souped-up truck.
He raced them all and was never reported to have lost a race, not one.


Tim Considine reflected on Charley’s mechanical expertise. “What
was so amazing about Charley was that he modified his cars so well.
They were little **** boxes, not racing cars. He didn’t have any
Corvettes when I knew him. He had these hot rods, fixed up, unlikely
cars. They were quick, really quick. I stopped and I looked at his cars,
the more I think about it, I think his car was a Ford. It was a 6 cylinder.
The radiator was in the back, you opened up the truck, and you could
see that he had sunk the radiator down. I then heard another one, a
Simca, I think. He moved the engine back to establish weight distribution.
He sat in the backseat and steered the car. He moved everything
back so he could drive from the backseat. That was the extent Charley
would go to be quick up there. He had very good car control. He used
every single inch of the road. Blind turn, the shoulder, it just didn’t
matter to him. It is okay if you can see around the corner, but it is not
okay around blind turns. I stuck to him on the back bumper of his car.
We would have fun, he was quick, it was good, bloody good, but I
didn’t take chances like he did. He would try to get around somebody.
He was crazed! He wasn’t just crazy he was very quick, and very good.


I used to tell him, ‘Charley get on a racetrack and forget about this ****.
It is where you can really do it, and everybody is going that same way.’
Charley was a true legend, even when I knew him in the early 60’s.
He was just amazing!”


Charley was quoted saying, “The fun was running “Sunset Sports”
in their Jaguars, MG’s, Corvettes and Porsches, and rubbing their noses
in the shame of losing to a maniac in a truck.” Charley was quite a
character. The legend of Crazy Charley grew. Everybody who ever
raced Charley will remember it for the rest of their lives. One such
veteran of the 60’s era, who became a successful racecar engineer, and a
professional racecar driver put it this way, “Crazy Charley, he raced a
pick-up truck that terrified everybody. Nobody wanted to get near him
cause you were likely to get run over a cliff. At the very least, you’d get
hit by the flying beer cans in his slipstream.” Charley continued
collecting his fellow racers carnage through out the 60’s. One such
victim was the very famous actor Steve McQueen. Charley was quoted
saying, “A lot of us had real crummy cars that we fixed up and then
went out and beat people like Steve McQueen who had real expensive
hot rods. It matters more how you drive the car than how much
money you had in the bank.” Tim Considine confirmed this story by
adding, “Charley blew off Steve McQueen up there. Steve was in his
Lusso Ferrari.” (Dick Guldstrand also remembered something about
that story. He could not give us the details, but he heard Charley
talking about it.) I heard from Charley that he never lost a race. The
scant times I saw him up on Mulholland, I was usually driving also.
I never saw anybody quicker that him. I played with him a few times
up there. He was quick, I was also quick, but he would push it through
those blind turns, so I couldn’t keep up with him. He was good and he
knew it. Charley was absolutely fearless to the point of being stupid.
He would just go around blind corners. He went flying off the hill
every now and then. He was scared from his terrible accidents up
there.”