[Banning]

Chris: You were known as Bobby Vette.

Bobby: I had that blue and white 1960 Corvette, and I had the Turner. The Turner was back in the Mini Cooper era. The Turner had a cracked frame which I fixed with hose clamps. They finally failed. The ’60 Corvette I put a fuel injector on it, and I went to Hollywood Spring & Axel and had some leaf springs made for it. I went into the Chevy catalog and found some road race springs from the catalog, order them, and stuck them in the car. That car developed pretty good until I hit the telephone pole. That was my first retirement from racing on Mulholland. My second retirement from street racing was when I finally waded the ’69 Vette beyond repair.

Dan: Did you ever get caught by the cops?

Bobby: Only when I waded the ’69 Vette beyond repair and that was in Ventura.

Dan: It wasn’t on Mulholland where you got caught and beat.

Bobby: Nope! I do kind of remember a silver Trans Am that was really fast. I think that might have been in the era when my car would habitually flip the fan belt. On of the fan belt incidents put Darrel into the wall. At one point I think he had a Z car a 240 or 260 Z. He was really fast and there was no idiot light that read that you were overheating. It was just a gage. In my estimation I lost the belt eastbound somewhere in the middle of the run. I got down to Laurel Terrace and I was coming back when there were houses and stuff and a wall. I got a little loose and I had never got that loose before. Darrel go into it and just jammed right into the wall. I looked at my water temp gage and it was at 230 degrees. I realized that I had slipped a belt and I almost crashed in my own coolant and he definitely did. So maybe the incident with the guy in the silver Trans Am was in that timeframe.

Bobby: The only time I remember getting beat up there, and it wasn’t by much, was by John Hall. On another night I could beat John and he couldn’t beat me. It was always back and forth between me and John.

Bobby: I honestly don’t remember racing you Chris. I remember hearing the stories. I thought it was a little odd that you would do publicity about racing your car on Mulholland with your name and everything. It doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. I just don’t remember it.

Chris: It is on my calendar with the date that read I beat Bobby Carradine.

Bobby: Wow! Like you said, ‘memory is a selective thing.’ I remember winning a lot.

Dan: What are you doing now Bobby?

Bobby: I’m about to direct a feature film. I’m in the process of building a XR 750 Harley Dirt Tracker for the street. I have a Triumph Dirt Tracker that was built by Jack Haley. I used to race that in the daytime on Mulholland. I’m still a guitar player. I finally finished my latest car which is a Mercury Marauder. I had some aluminum wheels made for it. They look like Chevrolet Rally Wheels. They are the same dimensions as Marauder wheels. I didn’t want to change suspension because the car really works good. I put Ford logos on it so it doesn’t look like a Marauder, it looks like a under cover car. I’ve been driving under cover cars since 1984. The reason is you can go as fast as you want.

Chris: Do you miss racing Mulholland?

Bobby: Yes, the good old day. I remember when they started putting those little yellow reflectors on Mulholland. I knew that the end was near. After I retired from street racing I would go up there a few times and check it out. When they changed that section going from Grandstands down to Coldwater it was really very sad. It was such a great racetrack.

Chris: What about the signs No Parking Dust Till Dawn?

Bobby: I remember that. They had these California Rangers up there patrolling the turnouts so you couldn’t park. By then I was living on Mulholland and I didn’t really want anyone racing fast by my house. Not in my backyard.

Chris: Is there anything you want to say for prosperity? We are doing this because right after college I wanted to do this before all of us croaked. Nobody really knows what Mulholland is really all about. I wanted to get the stories down so no one would forget.

Bobby: I was one of founding members of ACR.

Chris: John Hall, Dave Gainey and you?

Bobby: Yeah! There was a guy up there that used to race a Falcon Pick-Up Truck kind of an older guy. Which guy was that?

Chris: Gary.

Bobby: Gary, what a whack job. He used to think that by raising his vehicle that it would corner better. There was a long haired guy up there when I first started racing and he gave me a ride in my Turner. He showed me what the car was really capable of. I wish I knew who that was.

Dan: Did you know Charley?

Bobby: I never knew Charley. I think I only saw Charley up there once. I recall it was really rare when he came through. He didn’t stop. He just kept on going.

Dan: Can you tell us a little about your racing after Mulholland?

Bobby: In 1976 my brother had Ferraris. One of the guys at Modena Sportcars was working on a competition Daytona. This is about four or fives years into my career as a Mulholland racer. I thought I was hot ****. I said that I could drive that. They said, (In a Italian Accent) ‘oh yeah why don’t you get your racing license and you come to Daytona and we will let you drive the car.’ I’m like far out man. I enrolled in the Bondaran School, even though I missed the first day in a five day course, I had the highest score. That was in 1976. I got my ISMA license and flew down to Daytona. I showed up in the Modena Pits and said, ‘I got my license and I’m ready to go.’ They responded ‘its okay we have our drivers.’ My brother David found a Narc Daytona and he bought it from Luigi Conetti. It was one of two cars that had a special big valve engine in it from the factory. We raced it in ’77 and ’78; in ’77 at Sebring, Portland Oregon, Phoenix International Raceway, and Trans Am races. In ’78 we raced it in Daytona. We came in I think eighth overall and third in class. We were the only non Porsche in the first twelve finishing positions. I passed Peter Craig on the last lap. He was lining up to do a photo finish with three other Porsches. There score keeper had the Daytona a lap down and I was actually on the same lap. They were all up on the bank doing 120 MPH and I went by in that Daytona at 185 MPH. I blew them right off the banking and got a position. Concurrent with the Daytona in ’78 I started racing formula Fords for Pierre Phillips.

Bobby: After you read the Colley article it will reference when I hooked up with Guldstrand which is 1982. I had been taking my Vette to him since the mid-seventies. He asked me if I was interested in doing a Showroom Stock Race with him. In my mind I was thinking no way Showroom Stock. I wanted to be a Trans Am driver. My mouth said ‘yeah I’m into this.’ We went out to Willow Springs and test his prototype ‘83 Camaro Z28. I think I was the quickest. He had been working on my car for a long time. He saw how my tires were wearing. He could see that it was being driven to the max. I really owe it to Dick Guldstrand that he resurrected my career.

Bobby: In 1985 I started driving unmarked police cars. It started with “Revenge of the Nerds.” They had an unmarked 440 Dodge Monaco. The producer gave it me because nobody wanted the car. That started my pursuit of purchasing a brand new police car. You cannot get one unless you are a policeman, fireman or ambulance driver. Anyhow, it culminated with a 1990 Capris with a police package with a 350 engine in it. I had a spare Corvette Challenge motor from my Corvette Challenge racing days. As soon as the car was out of warrantee I put it in there. It had a built Trans and that car really worked for a four-door sedan. I’m cruising Mulholland one day and these two rice rockets go by me eastbound between Beverly Glen and Coldwater. The second guy was scrapping knees and stuff. He flips me off, screw that. I just did and E-brake and caught up to these guys. My car had a siren in it because I was a volunteer fireman in Colorado, so I could legally have a siren. I flipped on the siren and that guy pulled right over. I rolled down the window and said, ‘you better be watch who you flip off.’ Then I just took off. The stern look on those guy’s faces, they were cooking right? I made a u-turn and caught them. That must have blown their minds.

Bobby: The columniation of my cop car thing Mercury Marauder which has been re-batched as a Ford and now it looks like an unmarked car, but it has the Cobra engine in it.