As NASCAR weekend ramps up again at the Dover International Speedway, WDDE’s Joseph Leahy was at the track recently asking race fans -- and a few driving legends -- about a classic American rite of passage: their very first car..
[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/firstcar.mp3|titles= WDDE All Things Considered host Joseph Leahy visits Dover Int'l Speedway to ask fans about their first car.]
For many, getting their first car meant getting away from home.
Glen Byrum, Human Resources Director for Grotto Pizza, says his first ride gave him the freedom to get from Kent County to the beach and back.
“I had a teal-green Pontiac Grand Am GT. It was the first time that I had a car payment and it was unbelievable. It was a 1996 and I loved it. I bought it. I think it was $9,000. It was fast and I drove my brother and me for two years. We lived at the beach and we went to Milford so it gave the flexibility to stay in the Milford School District while living in Lewes," said Byrum. "Oh, yeah, I was the guy that was volunteered to drive people around.”
And so it was for Michele Rollins. Before marrying Dover Motorsports founder John Rollins and running for Congress in 2010, she was Michele Metrinko a co-ed at Georgetown University.
“Oh, do I recall? I’d been walking across the bridge to Georgetown University from Virginia all through undergraduate and the law school. When that little Mustang 1967 Ford came -- we’d actually flown to Michigan, my sisters and I. We were all beauty queens. my father sprang for three of them and we drove them back in a caravan so that we would end the pedestrian days for the Metrinko sisters," said Rollins. "It was bronze with a cream interior. Oh, I never forgot that. it was such a blessing.”
For Karin Schairer from Cherry Hill New Jersey, she says her first car was an introduction to basic auto maintenance.
“My first car was a 1978 Buick Skyhawk, which was a hatchback. And, I had to insert a screwdriver to get the hatch to pop us. It was silver-blue, like a light blue silver and when you were driving in it the floor was rusted and you could see the road traveling past you as you were driving -- I could see the stripes as I was driving and it was a fabulous car. It was 300 bucks," said Schairer. "I absolutely loved my car. The car eventually, um, it seized up on me. I forgot to put oil in it apparently and the engine went ‘chrgh, chrgh, chrlgh’ and somebody told me that all the pistons went ‘chrgh, chrgh, chrlgh.’ And I learned about cars really quick because if you don’t put oil in the car apparently the pistons don’t go up and down like they’re supposed to.
And for a select few in America, their first car was the beginning of driving greatness. NASCAR legend Bobby Alison “The Leader of the Alabama Gang” remembers owning his first car before he even had his license.
“I had a 1934 Ford four-door convertible. I was only 14 years old and I got it through a trading deal with a guy in the neighborhood. We drove it around the neighborhood wondering whether or not we’d attract the police. It was really, really a neat piece. It was kind of a really dull red, reddish brown. It wasn’t a pretty color, but it had little Ford flathead V-8 in it. It ran good, round and round the city community streets where we lived," said Allison. "It didn’t last long, but I worked on it a little bit. My attention just got diverted in a direction and it just got pushed over to the side, away I went on something else. I’ll always remember that car.”
Of course, Alison’s first car was certainly not his last as he went on to win 84 races in NASCAR's top division.
