TVR: Paul Pitzer? 
Lynn: Captain Crunch! Great guy. I think I'm the one who gave him that name. I'll tell you one story... Paul and I, we snuck up to see Lee Osborn last year. Paul's got hot rods too. He builds street rods. He's kinda retired now, he's playing with that. I think all us muscle heads, we're going through our second childhood. You end up playing with old cars again. But, Pitz... I had a great time. Boy, you talk about standing on the pedal, he'd stand on the pedal. He wasn't always sure where he was going, but he always stood on the loud pedal. 

We raced together, had a great time. I will tell you this, I'll tell you a Paul Pitzer story. In the mid '70's, Al Hamilton, when he was running the coal company, would fly to the All Star races with his helicopter or his airplane. Well, Al and I were good friends and if he was going out, he'd say, "Hey! I'll come down with the helicopter and pick you up." If it was real close, we'd fly the helicopter to the deal. It was always like a Wednesday night. If you went out with the car, it was 6, 8 hours out, you lost a day anyhow. So, Al would fly down, land the helicopter here at the shop, or up at my house, and pick me up. He'd fly to the airport at Clearfield, we'd get in a fixed wing aircraft and we'd go. 

This particular time, we were running, I believe it was Chillicothe, Ohio. Pitz had gone out with Weikert, he was running for Weikert at the time. I was running for Mr. Boop... I think. Of course, Al was, you know... Al was Al. Very gracious. Al asked, "Do you want to go along out?" "Sure!", I said. I had a great time with Al. 

So, we got out there to race. There's this 50 lapper. Pitz had to be back to work. He was pretty big in Metropolitan Edison. They frowned on his racing. I think they told him it's either racing or we're going to make you a manager. So, he ended up, you know, retiring. But at that particular time, they'd tolerate it but he couldn't miss work. So Pitz was out there, They were gonna have to drive all night to get him back to work the next day. So I said, "Pitz... Call your wife. We'll drop you, you know, we'll fly you into the closest airport. Drop you... That way you can get some sleep. Your wife can pick you up." We had this all set ahead of time. 

So, we went out to run this 50 lapper. And I remember, I'm running 2nd... I believe Dub May is leading the thing. Now I'm right there at Dub, but I don't have anything for him late in the race. Pitz is all over me. I mean all over me. I feel bad in one respect, but I'm not gonna roll over and play dead. I'm not gonna let him by me. All right? I'm not gonna do anything dirty, but I wasn't giving him the inside. If he wanted to pass me on the outside, that's fine. But, I gotta admit that I wasn't letting him have what he wanted and I was kinda waiting for the opportunity to get by Dub. I think Pitz was faster than both of us. Anyhow, the last 10 or 15 laps, he put a lot of heat on me. As it was, Dub won it, I got 2nd, Pitz got 3rd. 

Well, we come in and and Bob Weikert was there. He had gone out with the car. Mad! Now, the deal was that Weikert had to take us over to the airport. Hamilton, me and Pitz. Well, and you know how Bob was. If he saw something he didn't think was right... He come over and said, "Well you common son of a so and so!", meaning me. "If you wouldn't have been on our way, we'd of won the race!" And, I think he's probably right, they would have. You understand? I tried to explain to him. I said, "Look. If Pitz would have got me, there's nothing I could do about it." But I said, "I'm here racing too and I'm trying to take care of my position." You know, in one respect, you hate to hold up a guy. But, in another respect, you know... and Pitz understood. We never had a problem. Pitz understood that I did what I should do and if the roles would have been reversed, we'd of worked it the same way. 

Weikert ended up... I wasn't so sure he was going to take us to the airport. You know what I mean? He blew up at me. Pitz, I remember, when we went over, he said, "Hey, he's just..." I said, "I understand. I feel bad, you probably could have won the race too. But, what the hell? I'm here to race  and I ain't gonna roll over and play dead for you. I'm not gonna give it to you." 

So, Pitz and I got in the plane. Now there was a paid pilot. I remember Pitz, I think Pitz was in the copilot's seat. Hamilton and I were in the back. The pilot said we got some bad weather we gotta fly around. Now Pitz was afraid of nothing... fearless. You know? I mean he got busted up a few times in a racecar and it didn't bother him. I'm gonna tell you what. We got up in the air and we flew over the racetrack. It was beautiful, the cars leaving and everything. It was really neat. We started flying off and it looked like World War II over here and World War I over there. Boy! Thunder showers and stuff. Well, this pilot thought he could get around it, or over it. We got in, I'll tell you what... That plane went up and down, there was hail and water hitting that thing. Pitz looked at me and I looked at him, you know. I'll tell you what. Both of us "soiled" our pants. Scared the hell out of us. 

We finally got out of it and come over to York, landed at York to Drop Pitz off. We got down... I looked Pitz right in the eye. I know what fear looks like. I know he saw fear in my eyes and I saw fear in his eyes. The pilot got out and he said, "I've never been in anything that bad in my life!" If he'd of said that when we were up there! <laughs> That's one Pitz story. I gotta tell you a second one. Okay? 

We're at Selinsgrove, again, Pitz is running for Weikert. I don't know who I was running for, it doesn't matter. Normally, we went pretty good up there. This particular night, neither one of us is going worth a damn. Were running 7th and 8th midway in the feature and going nowhere. Now Pitz is running 7th, right ahead of me, and he got in the corner and about lost it. I went underneath him, just clipped his front wheels to straighten him out, or he'd of spun out. I didn't do it on purpose, I was just glad I didn't crash him. So, low and behold, he gets it gathered back up. The track's pretty rough and pretty heavy, full of holes and stuff. Everybody in front of us drops out! I mean all the good guys, Adamson, Gus Linder and all them guys... they had trouble. They drop out! 

Now here's two cars that shoulda run 7th and 8th. On the white flag lap, we inherit the lead. I'm first, Pitz is 2nd. White flag, we take it... go through one and two... go down the backstretch. Now 3 & 4 was a plowed field, one car length off the pole and up. I took her in, put her on the bottom, went around real nice... Well, they said old Pitz come in about 5 car lengths behind me, figured "what the hell"... He put her up in the rough stuff. They said he had that thing up and down, just standing on the loud pedal. Just by dumb luck, what he did, he ricocheted off the corner and beat me. Won the race. Coming off the corner, he had speed. Instead of launching her, he came off and just nosed me out. He won the race. My guys weren't happy. What the hell, you know? I mean he threw a long shot and he made it! I mean, 9 chances out of 10, he'd of stuck her over the wall. I said, "What was I supposed to do?" Knowing now... yeah! I'd of stuffed her in there too, if I'd known he was gonna pass me. <laughs>

So, I walked down and Pitz was still celebrating in Selinsgrove's victory lane. I went over and congratulated him. I said, "Well Pitz? You owe me!" I said, "First of all, for passing me. But second of all, I need half of your money for straightening your ass out! You wouldn't have won this race!" <laughs> We knew, you know, we shouldn't even have been up front there, but that's two pretty good Pitzer stories.

TVR: Bobby Allen? 
Lynn: Hmm... Bobby Allen, what a talented racer and builder. The only problem with Bobby is... Bobby had all the ideas. He taught a lot of people how to make a racecar go fast on a certain kind of racetrack. That was his... you know. Can you imagine the mechanics that went through, that he trained and then went on? He trained them and bought them enough food, I mean, he didn't pay 'em. They were trained. Then when they learned something, they went on. Take Tommy Sanders at Gambler and a lot of other guys who went through that training program down there. That's called basic training, I want to tell you. 

He had talent to burn and shared it. Probably too much. He just made everybody... when they were looking for a problem, he'd try to help them... his biggest competitors. He's the reason a lot of them learned to go fast because of his teachings. 

Bobby was a tremendous competitor. A good friend of mine for a lot of years. He fielded a car for me a couple of times. Matter of fact, when I retired, he had thought... well, I actually got fired from the Hamilton deal, although Hamilton was gonna let me run some big races in '84. Bobby had heard that I didn't have a regular ride. He called up in '84 and offered to put a car up for me to race, which I appreciated. I had a couple of calls like that. But, that's the wrong reason to do something, is to try to prove a point. You know... that's wrong. If you don't have the desire anymore, you shouldn't do it. 

I have lots of Bobby Allen stories! Bobby Allen is notorious for carrying on and joking and stuff. I remember us going out... we'd go out, running with the rigs to go to an All Star race out in Ohio or Indiana. There you are in the crew cab with nothing to do.  I remember going out the turnpike, Allen would say, "I'll bet you a dollar that its raining on the other side of this mountain." Of course, one of the new guys on the crew, and there was always somebody that would say, "I'll take that bet!" You got to the other side and the sun was shinning. They'd say, You owe me a dollar!" Allen would say, "I said on the other side of the mountain.", meaning it could have been California. So, the guy knew he had lost. So, he'd pay.

We're going out to a race and we had Troyer, the mechanic that helped. He had a pair of damn sneakers that he always wore. I mean they were shot and he wore them. It was like a hippie thing. So, Allen and I had a plan. We were going out the turnpike. We were on either side of him in the back of the crew cab. Anyhow, we grabbed a hold of him and took them sneakers off, threw them out the window. We told him not to worry, that we were gonna buy him a new pair of sneakers. 

We pulled into a shopping center and went into a shoe store. Bobby and I took him in like he was our little child... sat him down... made him get his sneakers tried on. "Which ones? Do you like them? Are they okay?" We did all this stuff. The deal was that Bobby and I were gonna share the expense. I'm left handed, I do everything wrong they tell me. So, I was gonna buy the left one... Bobby's gonna buy the right one. Now Bobby's quite a prankster, always pulling pranks on everybody. So, we went to pay at the counter and I walked up first. I said to the person at the counter, "Look. I want to know what the right one costs and the left one costs." The guy looked at me real funny and kinda jokingly said, "Oh! Well, the left ones are free, we only charge for the right one." <laughs> Now we had already established what the deal was. When I heard that, I said, "That's it Bob!" Well Bob, he hollered and screamed that he had to pay the bill. See? So, I got him! 

Also, there was one... Bob always use to experiment with his racecars... always. He always had something. Now he was fiddling around with real light wings, before anybody was. He knew that if you got a lighter wing and it still did the job... but some of this stuff he took to extremes. 

Now we weren't teammates at this time. At Hagerstown one night, I got upside down in the heat race and ruined my wing. So, Bob being an old teammate, I went over to him. Bob would help anybody, whether he was an opponent or what. I went over and I said, "Bob... I need a wing. You got an extra one?" He said, "No, uh... yeah! There's one up in front of the truck." I asked, "Can I borrow it?" "Yeah!", he said.

We went up and got this wing... light! You know? We stuck it on. Now, I had to run the consy. We went pretty good in the consy. Bob had qualified in his heat race. Back then, 6 cars qualified, the first 18 were the heat qualifiers, 18th through 24th came from the consy. So, I started 19th or further back. Bob and them started 12th of 14th. Well buddy, we had it together that night. I come from the back... passed Allen, all them guys in about 12 laps... motoring right through. 

I get up in the front and I don't know who was leading. I can't tell you. Same deal as that Port Royal deal I told before. I mean we're coming like Hogan's goat! Usually, the fast guys are the guys you gotta pass in the pack. The rabbit that's out front, he's usually easier. Boy, I mean I'm coming on this guy. I don't know if I was by him, or just getting ready to go by him, late in the race... 6, 7, 8 laps to go. there's no two ways about it who's gonna win this race. 

Next thing I know, I go in the corner, either ahead of the guy, or just getting ready to pass him, and this damn wing... the side of it buckles off! It just folds down. I mean the whole edge of the wing just buckles off. Well when it did that, it just showed the geometry in my deal. I backed up from first or second and finished 7th, with the wing screwed up. It just came apart <makes a ripping sound> like that... lost all my efficiency... just backed up to 7th. 

We took the damn wing off and Allen came over. Now, Allen ran 3rd or 4th. He didn't win. He said, "You know? I was afraid to try that wing because it's so damn light. Now I know it's too light!" I said, "You son of a ..." He said, "Well I didn't know! It was experimental. I was gonna try in warm ups or something. You needed a wing!" Then he said, "You gotta buy me another wing... that one's bent!" I grabbed a hold of him and said, "There! It's just like it was when you gave it to me!" That's the wing story. <laughs> 

One other Allen story! I gotta tell another one. I use to buy my hoods from him when I was running with Ralph. Actually, we ran Allen cars. Ralph and I went down to bend them on his jigs because I liked, you know... we were use to what we did. But, we were running Allen's stuff. McClaren Plastics, I know they had the mold. I'd buy the stuff from Allen. Now, we're competitors, but I get all my stuff from Allen and he knows this. 

We had bungee cords, or something, holding this hood on. I had just bought this hood. I went up the backstretch at the Grove, or somewhere... I don't remember where the heck it was. The bungee broke and the hood comes off. They throw the yellow out to get the hood off. Now the hood's laying on the backstretch. Now for 3 laps, we go by my hood. I didn't stop... I'm gonna finish the race. I don't know, probably a heat race or something. Allen goes by that thing and about the third time he goes by, he realizes that if he runs over that thing, I gotta by a new hood. He runs over that hood! Just laughing the whole time, knowing that I gotta buy a hood from him. Now that's Bobby Allen, you know... Well, I went down there and he was just laughing his fool head off that he had run over that hood. <laughs> 

TVR: Your old friend Tommy Hinnershitz?
Lynn: He's the best goodwill ambassador racing could ever have. He made everybody... if he'd of never driven a racecar, the last 25 years I knew him, he'd be just a tremendous asset to life in general. He had a neat sense of fair play, made everybody feel special. Just made everybody a better person. If you lived by his rules, it would make you a better person. He was "infectious"... he made everybody around him a better person.

Buster Warke was quite an old racer. He's 87 years old now. He gave A.J. Foyt his first champ car ride over in Monza, Italy. They had a regular driver... Foyt wanted to get in the car and he put him in. So, Buster was real good friends with A.J. Foyt. 

In Foyt's younger years, he was brash, you know... a young lion. Well, Buster was working on a champ car. Foyt came up and was busting about what he was gonna do to the sprint car field the next time they ran 'em. Buster was very good friends with Tommy, hunted with him and everything. Buster said, "Well, the next time you meet up with the Dutchman, the Dutchman's gonna clean your clock!"  Foyt says, "I'll bet you $100... " Buster said, "Look. I don't make the kind of money you make. But, I'll bet you $10 that the next time you guys meet on a dirt track, the old man will clean your clock." Well, Buster didn't really pay attention to where the next race was gonna be. I think it was Terra Haute. 

It rained all week and the track was rough and heavy. That was Tommy's type of race track. Buster said the next week they were at another champ race somewhere and Foyt came up grumbling about something, stuck $10 in his pocket and walked on. He figured that A.J. must have lost the bet. He talked to a guy who said Tommy went out and lapped the field, all but Foyt!

When Tommy passed away, both Mario and A.J called him their idol. The best they'd ever seen. A man among men, you know... Foyt sent a beautiful flower arrangement to the funeral. It said "From the Champ, to the Champ." They thought an awful lot of that, the family did, as did I. 

TVR: Jan Opperman?
Lynn: Tremendously talented guy. Came in here from California. what amazed me about Jan was... Williams Grove's a tough place. I know a lot of people that raced a lot of years and could never win there. Well, to have him come in, first race he ran here... he come in to run Harold Hank's car. At the time, Hank's Edmunds cars, nobody wanted to drive them because they didn't handle that well. 

Well, here's this hippie from California and Hank's regular driver, Bob Shaw, had gotten hurt. So, he didn't have a driver. Jack Gunn talked Hank into hiring him. Now Hank's kind of a straight laced guy. I'll bet when he first saw him he thought he wasn't going to let this guy drive. The first time he drove the car, he went to Selinsgrove and he thought he'd won. Well Mitch had passed him and gone on and won. 

Then, the first time he raced at Williams Grove, he won the feature. Now that impressed me! I think he was a hypocrite sometimes, when he used his deal, but he was a heck of a racecar driver. 

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