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Hi there! I'm a Super Late Model race car; more specifically Joy Fair's last race car. I guess you never thought you would hear a story from a race car , but since Lightning McQueen got so much fame, I figured it was now my turn. My driver, Joy, is known for his great stories, so I figure that must be where I learned how to spin a few yarns myself.

First of all, there are a few pet peeves I need to get off my block. I'm telling you, us race cars never get any respect; good luck having a race without us, ya know what I mean! When things go well, my driver usually gets all the credit; "Great drive, Joy" etc. Let something go wrong, however, and I'm the first one to get the blame, with complaints of "car broke," "handling was off," or"way too loose." Like I had anything with deciding what front spring, or rear end gears were installed in me. Don't even get me started about those crashes into the wall. Now that I got that stuff out of the way, let me tell you a little bit about myself.

My driver and builder, Joy Fair, raced for 50 years before he retired in 1999 and along with my owner Bob Gillelan, they raced a lot of different cars over all those years, but I was their last car. My driver is all time feature win leader at Flat Rock with 159 and Toledo with 97, so I was never worried about him standing on the gas and giving me his best.

I was built in Joy's business, Fair's Garage, in Pontiac, Mich.in 1998 around a Howe chassis and a powerful Katech Chevrolet V6 with a Moldex crank under my hood. Joy, owner "Gilley", and team manager Cheryl Schalm all took great care when building me, and made sure I had all the best equipment. My only regret was never getting the chance to know former manager Russell Wainscott, who was such an important member of the team for so many years. I thought I looked pretty good in Joy's famous No. 1 and school bus yellow paint, but he was never known for having beautiful cars, just really fast ones. Joy even had that cartoon character from the comic strip "Crankshaft" painted on my side. "Gilley" always hated that "Crankshaft" guy, but everyone else seemed to like it a lot. I knew I was probably never going to win any ‘Best Appearing Car" awards, but another driver, Rick Sheppard, hurt my feelings when he said "You better have a tetanus shot whenever you go near one of Fair's cars."

I only raced for two years at Flat Rock Speedway, in 1998 & 1999, before my driver retired, but had a lot of fun. Man, I loved that track. The only thing that made me mad was my last race in 1999 when I got black flagged for a broken brake rotor and was sent to the pits, I tried to tell them it wasn't broke, but the officials wouldn't listen to me. Fair stuck up for me when he drove me up to the flag stand after the race to tell them they were wrong and told me not to move until they apologized to us. Those officials were so mad at us, they even called the sheriff out, but I would not budge. Track owner Ron Drager was a real stand up guy and apologized for doing us wrong, but Joy was so mad he decided that would be our last race together and it was time to finally retire.

Ron Drager and ARCA organized a real nice retirement ceremony for us at Toledo Speedway in September, 1999 for our last final lap together with a lot of Joy's friends and fellow competitors in attendance like Jim Bickerstaff, Danny Byrd, and his former driver and good friend, Joe Ruttman. ARCA retired my No. 1 and my door and hood were put on display in the Toledo Speedway Lounge where they still hang today. I only raced once  after that when Joy decided to race me with driver Brian Norton in the hope someone might buy me. These days, now that Joy is retired from racing, I just sit around in Pontiac hoping some young driver buys me and gets me back out on the track again. I beg you; if any of you young drivers are interested please call Fair's Garage, so my story can continue.

cws