John's Racing Career and Dealership History

and say, "Wait, let's turn the camera on before we look anymore cuz I have so many questions." It's just like pulling me in like a bug light. You used to race yourself. You had a Maza dealership. Like, how did you What's with your background? Every other kind of car you can imagine. I've driven prototype cars, GTP cars. Can remember getting the call. I was at the big shop that I worked for, the Mercedes dealer, and I go back there and it's a zinc manufacturing builds the zincs. would you like to drive a car for us? I said, "Sure." So, I thought I'd hit the big time. So, we got a Formula V. We actually won the first professional race ever at Road Atlanta, which is the day before the Can-Am race. Won that. And I got this watch and didn't pay any attention to it. Threw it in a trailer. I found out later it was a Rolex. I didn't even know what a Rolex was back then. So, uh, so I got a good record, but I never could capture that glory ride. the one year the Mazda ride uh had two cars. Manderville Auto Tech ran a team and did the cars and it was a Mazda factory team and my teammate won the championship. I finished second behind him. They won the manufacturers championship and then they said, "Well, I can do this next year." So, so it quit. So, you have a little bit of everything in here. So, did you collect all this NASCAR stuff through auctions over the years? Like, it was auctions. Well, most of it. How long have you been in this building? Since ' 84. And I was in this first part for the first 10 12 15 years. Then I I moved the tenant out and added more space for him, built that wall, and so it's 75 ft plus 50 ft. So, I've been here a while. I mean, the time you get my age, you better keep up where your time goes. So, it goes rather fast now than compared to what it used to. So, when did you start your dealerships? Cuz I see you had I see John Finger Porsche there and Mazda and were you doing the dealership at the same time you were racing? I was trying to. That was the problem. uh the originally I went to work for the Mercedes MG Fiat conglomerate guy and uh was racing the Sprite. So I went to work there so I could buy parts at costs and after we moved from there to a new place I stayed there for another 15 years and then the siblings bought it out and