I was looking through some old Autoweeks this evening, and came across this story, which I thought I would share with you. "There were, of course, the usual Southern California oddities entered, but none was so odd as Parkes' 512F Ferrari. The car was bought by one Ray Keller, the 26-year-old proprietor of "Carpetbags of America" the nation's largest manufacturer of fabric handbags for ladies. Keller had never been to a motor race in his life. He had decided, some time earlier, that since he already owned six Ferraris, a seventh would be nice, and if it were a race car, it would be an appropriate present for the Cunningham museum. He set out for Europe to find a car. He went to London, no car. To Paris, none to be had. No cars in Rome and none in Amsterdam. Finally someone mentioned Filipinetti in Belgium and off he went to discover his curious relic just sitting there waiting for him. He fell in love on the spot and bought it. From Belgium, Rome is not a long drive, and Keller decided to motor on down. On the way, he stopped in at a tobacconist and picked up a copy of the Paris Herald Tribune to discover to his delight that there was shortly to be a race at Riverside. Perfect! He had just bought a race car and someone was having a race. He would enter it. Somehow he finagled Mike Parkes into driving and there it was, bright red and painted with the number 13. Everyone was delighted except Keller who was evidently a little overdelighted. First, he got into a punchup with a member of another crew when Parkes was maligned as a driver, then he was so overwhelmed when his car finished 10th that he jumped in it about 5 minutes after the race ended and started charging around the track. Since this was the first race he had ever seen, perhaps he could have been excused by really civilized men. But race stewards are not notoriously civilized and the sight of a red coupe with numbers on it wailing and weaving around a race track swarming with spectators was less than appealing. They flagged him down. But Keller, totally inexperienced in such matters, hadn't a clue what the flags were for except perhaps to give him encouragement. He raced on. Then they stood out on the track and tried to wave him down. Keller took that for hearty approval and continued. Finally, they blocked off the track with some trucks and Keller HAD to stop. Since he had entered the car under Parkes' name and his appeared nowhere in the entry or anywhere else for that matter, the only thing the stewards could do was disqualify the car. Such is the fate of the carb carpetbagger."
I loved that story about the 512. For the record, Filipinetti was the Swiss importer and in Belgium it was Garage Francorchamps under Jacques Swaters. Roland F40LM
A good story. I had heard something like this, but did not know if it was true. I have it as a 512M"F"; the F is for Filipinetti and ít's sn 1048. Joop
Although his was an old post, I can confirm that Miltonian's "Funny Story - Riverside CanAm 1972", was substantially correct. I was on Bob Peckham's crew during the '72 & '73 Can-Am season. Bob drove his M8C McLaren to an 11th place finish, just behind the Ferrari 512F of Mike Parkes. When the owner jumped into the car and drove it around the track, the car was disqualified and Bob's car moved up to 10th place. It meant a few more $ to us, a totally unsponsored shoestring effort, but I'm sure it must have been a disappointment to Parkes, who worked so hard to place the 512 as high as he had. Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
I was at that race and remember the "victory lap" vividly. The 512 and the Zipper Alfa sounded great and contrasted so well with the big block V8s and the Porsche Whooshmobiles. I need to dig out my photos from that weekend. Cheers, Kurt O.
I was working that race also, I only remember a few people running down pit lane yelling. I was done with my assignment so I left when the checkered fell. Very interesting to hear what happened, but now disappointed I left before watching the action.
I appreciate this thread is old now but have to give it a bump. You see I just met this Ray Keller guy, in Ely, Nevada. Last Saturday, I had just collected my first Ferrari from San Francisco, and was having a adventure driving it home to Connecticut. On Saturday, the 3rd day driving, I deformed a front tire on Highway 6. The road is a dream, straight, deserted, but very hot. We limped into Ely with the front of the car bucking around and pulled into a tire place. While we had a couple of new tires fitted this guy drives in, in a pickup and asks what I paid for the car. Turns out to be Ray, and I listened to him talk about all the Ferraris he used to own. He had an amazing collection at one point. These days he runs a firewood business in Ely, a town on the edge of nowhere surrounded by the greatest roads I have ever seen FYI some details of my 3500 mile trip: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/mondial-currently-travelling-coast-to-coast.582515/ Best, Mark
from owning the largest woman's handbag manufacturer in America to selling firewood? read the racing story above again, unbelievable.
This is unbelievable. I just met Mr. Keller in a little town in the northwest corner of AZ, named Beaver Dam. There is a great dive bar (Dam Bar) that is amazing in the sense of the characters that show up there. Ray roles in at Ferrari speed, sits at the bar and just starts buying drinks and talking so fast he is driving me nuts! Now mind you he backs up a U-Haul to the front door guessing 24-28 box truck and its full of firewood. I'm not making this up. He is now talking to the bar owner who is a great man, by the name of Bill Evans, fanning the clutch on trying to bang the bartender at hell I don't know almost 80. Just wanting to party and have a good time and hooking up the firewood so cheap its essentially a gift. So here we go! I'm within ear shot so I'm listening to this out-of-control dude thinks he's 30 and telling the most insane stories of complete crazy and awesomeness, from woman to cars, done this and done that and now to the tune where ya ya ya like said earlier the characters that come through. I call it the Star Wars bar. You just never know the agenda and what is the catch, And so now this is really annoying me, why the eff would you put this much wood in a U-Haul and how its overweight and I could go on because at this point nothing is making sense. Yet! The grandstanding narcissism of the old man at the bar top with six seats is now on my last ounce of give a ****. So now at this point I've heard it all and this is over a good two hours coming from a dude who obviously has a lot of fast-moving parts upstairs. At this point I've heard all the stories. I've heard about all the cars, until this! Not sure the horsepower on the car but it is an ungodly amount to just go by at Ferrari! In my head, being the years it was, I'm done with the ******** at this point. So, my young 49yo ass says to him Duuuuude you are so full of **** just stop. Now is when at this point I overhear racing the car Riverside, reality sets in! He tells me yes, I say this again I am meaning him, no mention of a driver. raced it at Riverside. I can call ******** a mile away and at this point I got him! Because I Actually know RIR it's a huge part of my life, and here is why. My father is Walt Carter who was general manager of operations which I can tell by the posts many of you have not lost the passion of that track and racing, so I don't need to explain how busy the track was from filming TV movies to every great sanctioning body of racing that came through you get it. And for those of you there from I want to say 82-87 I might be off; I was the annoying kid with full access to do whatever I wanted. I literally lived there after school and of course every weekend as a kid I got to meet the most amazing racers and I mean that in all levels, practices, disciplines of every form of motorsport literally in the world. So much to the fact that the stories I don't speak much of. For its just not worth the effort as I feel its on deaf ears. So to say I've meet Paul Newman, Parneli Jones, did hot laps with my mom and Bobby Alison in a rental, get told to piss off by Dale Earnhardt and Walk over to Richards pit #43 and help wipe down the car, go find tie downs in the shop for the flat bed open trailers the cars pretty much would come in to the track. Storys to me was as a very young kid just another day but unbelievable to someone who's dad didn't run RIR during a great time in racing and toward the soon to be end of one of the most iconic racing facility's of all time that could enable the best racer in the world from dirt to pavement from 2 wheel to 4 wheel. It was a special place in racing. OK that being said I know a smidge about RIR. Oh then my dad of course saw the righting on the wall and went to work for an auto manufactures racing program in the US where he would again be a general manager for a motorsports program looking to make a name for its self in the US even as far as running red, white and blue, and the name is Nissan but that is another paragraph more memory and something I guess you could say I was completely full of ****. That reminds me back to Ray Keller! So, I say to Ray, "so now you're going sit there and tell me that you raced riverside". You this crazy dude in a U-Haul full firewood bought a unicorn Ferrari and raced riverside? So in my infamita wisdom I ask what is the turn number after the long strait? He thinks and pauses for about 15 seconds the quietest he had been all night which I'm thinking gotcha, He replies 9. Ok now I'm questioning if he had bought to many drinks in which I partake. OK what is hard right hander after the S' longer pause as if time for me has stood still, 6 he says. Now I'm throwing out questions left and right and he is on point. So I give a pass on calling him a bull ****ter and carry on. Where he essentially goes on gives wood for nothing to some folks that needed it not that it gets to cold here but they literally don't have much. And you can see he genuinely wants to give. And then he is back to holding it wide open. Get home one last attempt to make sure I'm not letting all my racing injury concussions get the best of me. Put Ray Keller Ferrari in the ol' google machine. Now here I am writing this story and I hope it is heard. The old man was telling stories more unbelievable then my own, the only difference he tells his weather you believe him or not because he is Ray Keller the man that bought a Ferrari raced it at RIR fired it up for some hot laps got a DQ to help pad his drivers stats! and doesn't give a **** because he can and really likes to have fun and party! He will bring firewood give you his shirt party all night try and bang chicks because well, because he can if it surprised or thought it would be just the normal wrap up after the race nope wrong. He was before my time at RIR But as kid I could not wait for Tim Richmond to walk in that dirty old building that was the office at RIR! He would come in try and find me yell my name where is my favorite little pit gopher, as I'm trying to mess with him hiding his keys or putting cany wrappers in his helmet we just had fun and he kicked ass at racing he won the race last i saw him and that would have been the last time not knowing that he was sick and we all know the story. As a kid you can see the imperfections of ones character and that is a good thing because it has always drawn me to good honest people. All I saw was a great racer and would ask things kids ask like so where do you work? Somewhere no kids can be to bother me that's I come here to race and put up with you. I grew up fast of course as I got much older I could hear the stories and not good outcomes. Now in life more then ever as we feel we are unheard unappreciated or just flat out lost. Strapping on a helmet and risking it all for time that nothing matters in life and you are truly free so much its the best feeling. So one of the most imperfect friends, taught me how to perfectly live. I am a racer weather your behind the wheel or Ray's case a car owner. I know I would happy to here him coming through that door. We are just wired different I guess we racers and that OK its better then OK. It teaches you to get the best of whatever adventure in your life is put in front of you. You can have all the Ferraris and all the firewood in the world, one has no more value then the other. What started as some annoying guy at the bar top reminded me just how fast life can pass us up. But not if we race it. I enjoyed this wright and i hope someone reads it because just how random it is, as well as how meaningful to me. ps saw Ray just recently. He is still doing hot laps Christian Carter- "Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" Steve McQueen
Great tale, two similar stories come to mind, all involving people quite clueless about how racing works. I was practicing At a kart track near Paris (Mantes la Jolie) in the mid eighties the day before a race when a chap from the south of France arrived, very aggravated by his trip and delayed, literally 5 minutes before the track closed for the day. He absolutely wanted to get in a few laps to learn the track...but the curfew was very strict as there was a dire conflict with nearby residential buildings...He was quite a wild character and just would not stop when we waved him down. We could not let him risk giving the track its death knell as the opposition was sure to use this curfew breach to try to close the track for good so we ended up putting the trestles (which we used to work on our karts) on the front straight like a wall...but he still snuck by on the grass sending one flying. Eventually we got him stopped and calmed down once he understood what was at stake. At Le Mans in the 70's or 80's a Porsche entered by south or central Americans (perhaps a 934 entered by Ecuadoreans but can't recall) had not qualified. Well having come all the way to France they decided they would sneak onto the grid amd start anyway! The car actually took the start and it took a couple of laps for the race organizers to spot the intruder and black flag them; the only time it ever happened there.
